My 95 Olds Ciera SW, 3.5L V6 has a very severe noise problem. The car’s oil system got very low over time and I am afraid there is permanent damage. The noise is like a pipe hitting a metal railing. Is there any aftermarket additive that might help, I am desperate to sell this car asap. My mechanic says the lifters are making the racket.
Change the oil and filter and add a half a can of SeaFoam Motor Treatment to the engine oil. And hope the lifters are just sticking from oil sludge from running the engine low on oil. If that don’t work, then something much more serious going on inside the engine.
Tester
Two points.
One is that Tester is correct of course.
Two is that it’s pretty low to try and shut this thing up after abusing it so you can palm it off on an unsuspecting buyer. And yet car dealers usually get the rap for something like this.
Tester and ok4450 are right on target. The OP can possibly silence this bit of damaged goods in the short term, but to try to scam somebody into buying that hulk is the height of arrogance and immorality.
JamesCar–If you sell this to someone without making full disclosure about its condition, bad karma will follow you all the days of your life. As you sow, so shall you reap. If you cheat someone by unloading this junk on them, you can expect all manner of bad things to take place in your own life.
That’s a big 10-4! Any act in life is usually returned ten fold!
Tester
Guys, a sound like a pipe hitting a metal rail doesn’t sound like lifters to me. It sounds like a rod knock. Lifters typically sound like marbles in a tin can. There is no fix to a rod knock but a lower-end rebuild. This engine is toast, and I hope no one gets fooled into buying this wreck.
Agreed.
I should have mentioned earlier that I also doubt that this noise is coming from the lifters. This thing is probably going to throw a connecting rod through the side of the block, but I just hope that it happens before the immoral OP tries to hoodwink some poor sap into buying this rolling wreck.
However, perhaps there is some justice here, since the OP seems to have found a mechanic whose skills equal his own sense of morality, i.e.–low.
You have such a way with the written word. I can’t think that far ahead. My third essay is with my professor lets see if move up from a “C” this time.
While I agree with the attempted scam job suggested, if the engine IS making that much noise, no amount of ANY additive is going to quieten it down.
The inquisitive buyer would have to be stone deaf not to hear the racket.