2000 Sienna Valve Noise - trash or ignore?

[wdaltman]

Hello, I have a 2000 Sienna with 160k miles. I bought it used 7 years ago at 50k and have used Mobile 1 religiously. About a year ago, I noticed some valve noise. My mechanic friend said to ignore it, no big deal. It's just noise and won't cause any problems. I did have him attempt to fix it a few months ago. He replace a shim (maybe more) and tried some other things, but couldn't get the noise to go away.

I'd be OK to just live with it, but our family is taking a rather long camping trip in July. We'll be driving from NC to Yosemite and visiting lots of places in between on the way there and back. Probably about 10,000 miles. Plus we'll be pulling a small luggage trailer (around 600 pounds) and have five people in the van. With that being a few months away, I took it to a garage that specializes in Toyotas, has great online reviews, recommended by a friend, etc. The guy there said basically that my van is dying a slow death. That the valves are not meant to be adjusted and that eventually it's going to fail, I'll lose my camshaft (or something like that) and I'll be stuck on the road. He recommended that I not put any $ into it and that I definitely not take it on our trip.

So, whom do I believe? My buddy who says No Big Deal. Or the mechanic who says Get a New Car. Or are neither of them right? Is it a rather big deal, but one that can be corrected? Other than the sound, I have not detected any change in performance. I'd sure hate to get rid of a car that I can potentially put a lot more miles on without a car payment. Alternatively, I don't want to get stuck somewhere in SD on our 20th anniversary / Trip of a Lifetime. That would pretty much be a disaster. I'm not really willing to risk that unless I'm pretty confident that this problem isn't really a problem, other than the annoyance of the ticking.

Thanks!

PS - when my friend opened it up, he said there was no sludge problem at all. I've read that is a common problem for this engine.

[Black Sunshine]

My 2000 has 67,000 miles more than yours. I think that my motor has had a rougher sound than it used to for at least 40,000 miles. Is mine worse or yours? Mine wouldn't be perceptible if I tried to record it to put it on YouTube. Unfortunately, recording it is the only way that we could really tell what it sounds like.

Could it have been that the Toyota specialist shop was generally prejudice against high mileage vehicles?

Could you construct a contingency plan that would include you buying another vehicle on the fly if you needed to? I guess that plan would be hard to work out if you were going to be in a lot of northern states. You don't want a northern car. Plus you would be at the mercy of available inventories in SD.

[blumonster]

I am curious to see what kind of a sound that is, since we have a 2003 Sienna at almost same mileage with yours. I have nothing to compare ours with. Maybe the things I take it as normal are not normal after all. Or not.

[Black Sunshine]

blu your valve setup is slightly different because of VVTi.

[wiswind]

The statements made by the Toyota specialist shop are new to me.
I am not a mechanic, so I don't want to jump on what a mechanic, who had the vehicle right in front of them stated.
The point that I am making is that all the trolling on several forums that I have been doing has not gotten me anything on the 1MZFE motor having valve issues.
There are LOTS of these motors out there......as they used the 1MZFE motor in camry and also many Lexus vehicles.
There are LOTS of these motors that are both older and also with double the mileage on them that you have.

I have a 2003 Sienna, which has the VVT (Variable Valve Timing).
I did read the procedure for "adjusting" the valves......which is installing the shims as you mention has been done.
I would not attempt it myself, as it is involved.
There is a good amount of tollerance in valve adjustment.......before you will be left by the roadside.

A picture of the front valvetrain on my 2003......The rear camshaft has the VVT....the fat part on the gear on the top right......non-VVT will look pretty much the same, only with the fat gear in the picture looking like the bottom gear.


Being slightly out of adjustment is not going to make your cam shafts suddenly fail (you have 4....2 per bank of cylinders, 1 for each intake bank of valves, another for each exhaust bank of valves). If the valve adjustment would impact the cam shafts......I would expect there would be wear on the cam lobes....the part that contacts the valve shaft...parts.
Your mechanic would have noticed this.

Another sound that is very similar.....and also located very close to the same spot.....would be the fuel injectors.
Each fuel injector has a plunger that goes up and down with each time it squirts fuel.
Fuel injectors also make a tapping noise.
A mechanic should be able to determine if the sound is from a fuel injector or valves, but I would not know from just sticking my head under the hood.

I would make sure that the timing belt has been changed on the proper schedule (I think it is every 90K miles, as it is for my 2003).

One option, if you are not confident in your vehicle, is to rent a vehicle for the trip.
It costs, but it is much cheaper than dumping a pile of money to get a new vehicle because of a concern over a long trip.

One thing that I like to do before a long trip (I take mine on a youth mission work trip each year) is to take it to a trusted shop and have a "safety inspection" done.
This will cost around $100 or so as this is not just a quickie look......they spend some time with your vehicle.
I would be more concerned about routine wear items, like tie rod ends, brakes, tires, etc
Most of these things (like tie rod ends and ball joints) don't suddenly fail, they fade away.......and only suddenly fail if left go long after a mechanic would have caught it for you.

[aston4]

I stopped using mobile 1 oil 14 years ago after it trashed the valves on two of my engines. Exxon/Mobile actively suppresses this info on the net so it's hard to find but many hundreds of thousands of engines have died long before their time due to M1. No problems since switching to ANY oil except M1.

[blumonster]

Originally Posted by aston4

I stopped using mobile 1 oil 14 years ago after it trashed the valves on two of my engines. Exxon/Mobile actively suppresses this info on the net so it's hard to find but many hundreds of thousands of engines have died long before their time due to M1. No problems since switching to ANY oil except M1.

What in the oil caused this in your opinion? I had heard complaints that M1 UOAs show too much iron in the used oil. Can this be related to your claim?

[TierOneSupplier]

wdaltman - have you left for your July trip yet? What did you decide?