when my sportage sits idles for at least five minutes it starts to tick and will lose power... ill drive it for a while and it will go away, back to normal. any ideas? i think my oil pump isnt working well enough at idle and the top of the engine gets dryish

Could be your oil pump isn't pumping enough at idle and your lifters are bleeding down, which would cause less lift and a loss of power. If the ticking stops after a few revs you might be on the right track. Put an oil pressure gauge in watch it. I know when my engine is warmed up and I'm running 10-30 oil, my pressure drops below 15 psi at idle. I run 20-50 now and it doesn't drop below 20 psi now, anytime. Just my experience. Haven't thought about replacing the pump since the oil took care of the low oil pressure. Maybe I'll take the one out of my spare motor and look at it to see if it can be tricked out <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />
If you end up with a bad oil pump, keep us informed with progress and results.
Everet <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

What year is your Kia? In some 95 the plunger in the oil pump is to short and the presure can get low at idle. If your pump is getting weak it could do the same thing. Kia fixed mine under warranty but that was years ago. You can check with Kia and see if they have a service bulletin on it.

Dennis

The Sportage over time does start to have valve train tick. This is a known problem and you have to adjust the valves to get it to stop completely.

Using heavier weight oil or an oil filter with a silicon anti drain back valve helps.

One thing I've started using is Lucas Oil Stabilizer which works really well.

Logansportage <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

The DOHC has hydraulic lifters which are self adjusting, in fact there is no way to adjust the valves short of rebuilding the top end! The hydraulic adjuster may be gummed up, try some seafoam or other quality cleaner in the oil, GM makes a good top end cleaner I just can't remember the name right now!

It may not even be the lifters, I had the same sound, and it took the dealership a month to figure out what was causing it, turned out to be a intake valve that was not completely closing on it's own and then on the compression stroke it would snap closed causing the tick! If it hadn't been a warenty job it would have cost me well over $3K as they had completly rebuild the top end, new valves and re-grind the seats etc!.

Another possible cause could be a pin-hole or crack in the exhaust manifold down pipe, an exhaust leak is commonly mis diganosed as valve chatter.

I used the Seafoam and it got worse. It would only tick for a little while until things got warmed up and now it ticks a lot longer.

Hope it's not the valve train. New heads sound a lot less expensive than a rebuild.

Logansportage <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

eeek! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Does it go away once warmed up or is it constant?

Also what type of oil filter are you using? Do you have one with the built in anti drain back valve?

It's there until your RPMs go above 3K. Then it comes back and goes away at will when you are idling after you have warmed up.

For the first 60K miles I was using the FRAM filter and it doesn't have the anti drain back valve. Then I found out about the anti drain back valve and I searched on the net to find filters that have it. K&N does so I tried it for 20K miles and then I found the WIX filter which is actually the OEM filter, but at 1/2 the price of the FRAM and 1/4 the price of the K&N. It too has the anti drain back valve. I've noticed no difference in noise, but I have noticed at my 3K - 5K oil changes the oil is a lot cleaner and not as dark of brown.

I used the Seafoam two oil changes ago and that's when the noise got worse. I'm not saying it's a bad product, but it made my problem worse when it should have made it better.

At this next oil change I'm going to use the Lucas Oil Stabilizer to see if it makes a difference.

I've used it before in my V8s and in my diesel rigs and it made a heap of a difference. Lucas Oil produces are some of the best I've used. A little on the expensive side, but worth the extra money!

Logansportage <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

Hi, I think I have the same problem with my 2000 sportage,I noticed a ticking sound when it idle at 750-1000rpm and it stop ticking when engine reach 2500+rpm

Im using 0-40 synthetic oil (could it be the cause?) and my oil filter doesn't have anti drain back valve.

My exhaust manifold is cracked and I have 0422 CEL code on(CAT), can it be the problem?

What should I start to look at first?

Get the correct oil filter and have the exhaust header repaired first before thinking it's the valve train. With some luck the ticking sound is actually the hole in the exhaust. Once you've repaired those and the noise continues then start to think valve train!

And on a related note a Long Block for a sportage runs about $1500 usd a valve job on the same engine runs about $2000