Ryan97rut

I have a 1994 and it has started making this ticking sound, I want to say it’s the lifters, but I want someone else’s opinion before I buy replacements for them.
Below is a video of what it sounds like.

SpartanSV

It sounds like lifter clatter to me, but buying lifters based off that sound without troubleshooting properly would be ******* stupid. Put an oil pressure gauge on the bitch. That sound on my car was due to low oil pressure. Likely from a sticky oil pressure relief valve.

If you're not full of fail this gauge will get you the answer.

RangerJ

The 94' already has a true oil pressure gauge, so relax.
To the OP sounds like lifter tick due, change the oil ( I use Rotella 10w-40 like many others and it eliminates lifter tick till my motor burns the oil below the "low" level on the dipstick which equates to low pressure.) This question is incredibly common, so use the search button first next time.

SpartanSV

I'm aware that the 94's still have a "real" oil pressure gauge but from what I've read their accuracy varies wildly. Do you really let the lifters tell you when your oil level has dropped so low that pressure is dropping? Does your "real" gauge not work? Is your dipstick glued into the tube?

mitymazda

iTrader: (1)

What should that 94 real gauge read at when Hot, cold, and idle?

RangerJ

Yes in fact I do let the lifters tell me that the oil is low because it always goes low and starts ticking at 2500 miles from the last change. No, I don't care for the motor that much. My real guage works perfectly fine as far as I can tell, and doesn't wing about "wildly" like I imagine you think that it does. How does a distick get "glued" to the tube? But my answer to that third question is no as well.

Again, Just type that EXACT SENTENCE into gthe search bar and see what you get. It varies a lot, mainly dependent on oil weight and ( in my experience ) ambient temperature. Anything below 70 for me, regardless of my oil level will peg out at 60psi cold.
Hot idle and at speed is dependent on two factors above.
(Edit: Fixed calling mitymazda OP for nitpicks sake. )

SpartanSV

You don't know if it works fine because you haven't compared it to anything else. I don't think it wings about wildy. I think it's likely the readings it shows are wildly inaccurate. Showing 20 psi when at 10 actual as an example. There are many many threads about the oem gauge and how inaccurate it can be. This is why I recommended that the OP do an addition test to confirm there isn't a pressure issue.

The dipstick is the proper way to tell how much oil is in the engine. If you're just going by lifter sounds then my sarcastic conclusion was that you must have something preventing you from using the dipstick.

That isn't the OP bud.

mitymazda

iTrader: (1)

I didn't even bother to google it. I recall reading at some point Mazda put in the dummy gauge on account of owners thinking something was wrong due to the gauge being pegged or something to that effect. Would I rather have a ome real vs dummy? You bet, but I'm not going take it as much more then an indicator of oil moving.

ridethecliche

iTrader: (2)

RangerJ

Thank you for telling me about that insignificant mistake. I would've assumed that you would have some expectations that I check the dipstick often since the motor has 200k+. I agree that OP could do the additional test to confirm, but it probably isn't worth the time.
I trust my gauge since it always acts differently depending on engine and oil conditions. The below quote from Braineack in 2011 would be what to look for in a bad sender it seems. My OPG acts exactly as brain describes in the second line.

"my '93's sender went bad. Did pretty much what you are saying this did["stopped working right for a while, reading low and occasionally jumping up."]. A bad lifter wouldn't cuase the problem.

It should be reading less than 35psi at idle when warm. when you are simply low on oil, it will drop to 0 when pulling to stops and read much lower overall."

AFAIK 1995 is the model year in which they placed the dummy gauge.

SpartanSV

You're right. The OP should pull the cams and throw a couple hundred dollars worth of lifters at the problem without any sort of testing. It probably isn't worth a 15 minute test with a $25 dollar tool.


https://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.php?t=46340
That thread has measurements from an individual who compared his gauge to a proper gauge back in 2002. I would call 57% error wildly inaccurate.

RangerJ

Who said anything at all about pulling cams and replacing lifters? All I said was for the OP to change the oil. The following are the pressure results from that test, first from dash OPG and then from his test OPG.
7 8 = 87.5%
14 22 = 63.6% ( This is where the 56.3% error number is from. )
22 34 = 64.7% ( Almost perfect data point. )
32 42 = 76.1%
45 52 = 86.5%
60 65 = 92.3%
68 75 = 85.3%
78 85 = 91.7%
As you can see, even if the dash OPG is ( For this test ) at it's worst accuracy rate of 63.6% that's perfectly fine, because the dash OPG is ALWAYS UNDERESTIMATING ( In this test at least ).
So assuming the worst accuracy recorded in that post, even if the gauge read 22 psi and the real oil pressure was 34 than you are pretty much perfectly fine in relation to the 35psi warm reading quoted from Brain.
I agree with mitymazdas viewpoint but also don't really care that much about my pressures, as long as I have enough oil and pressure to run my 210k motor.

SpartanSV

The OP did. If you have lifter noise then the proper solution is actually to clean the OEM lifters. If you're to lazy for that you replace them with a quality aftermarket lifter. Changing the oil is a band aid solution. Not everyone has a 210k engine they don't care about. OP was interested in fixing the issue properly.

This is just one example illustrating that the factory gauge can be a pile of ****. If you choose to believe every gauge will overestimate then continue to be blissfully ignorant.