Valve lifters--how long if left unfixed?

We bought a 2003 911, stock except for the red seat belts. I've had a lot of stuff fixed, including the IMS (which wasn't broken, but at 90,000 miles seemed overdue). It's all cost a fortune. Now a valve lifter on the passenger side is ticking away. My mechanic wants $3500 to replace this set of twelve starboard lifters. I have searched the forums but have not found this question, though I've found people understandably irritated at the creation of a new thread on valve lifters. The question is: What happens if I DON'T fix this? I am getting old, I am inexpert, and I don't have $3500 at the ready. Suggestions? And apologies if this thread reinvents a wheel somewhere out of sight! Alarik

odds are its gonna get worse. i wont tell you to change the oil either. an 03 with 90k on it is gonna require a large repair budget [as you are finding out] sadly...bite the bullet or sell it. loose valve train and high rpm is a bad combo

One has to be sure of the diagnosis. Ticking can be from a lifter but it can be from something else too, like a loose plug, or an exhaust leak. extender has it right if the noise is from a lifter. It will only get worse.

The oil passages to the lifters are very small and it doesn't take much to block them. You should try and run some additive and see if it will clear the lifters. Just do a search on noisy lifters and you will find lots of suggestions. I have had luck doing this in the past with other engines, after they quite down I change the oil and it stayed quite. Sometime the lifters check valve are bad and they will only get worse. It is worth a shot before replacing them.

Thank you! This noise began quietly enough. Then it steadily increased. In the interim I had changed the oil, filter. The noise is now steady-state. I think it has to be a valve lifter. From what I've read, if I don't fix it, the failure will destroy the engine--sooner or later. I'll only be able to do the lifters on one side. I hope that's okay. I know it's another question . . . but is $3500 a reasonable price? I'm not sure where else to ask. Thank you! Alarik

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Don't have an answer for you but here's my 2 cents: How many other Porsche shops (dealer or indy) are near you? Not sure if you have called around already but if that is what your mechanic charges (and nobody else is nearby)....then your choices are VERY, VERY limited if you cannot DIY

Get a quote from the nearest Porsche dealer.

I'm not sure how much work is involved just getting to the lifters, but have you considered just replacing the one or two that are noisy? This would involve identifying the noisy one(s) which might be a problem. In a standard American V6 or V8 it is pretty easy to identify which lifter is making noise on an engine.

Are you hearing it all the time? I have a noisy one on the passenger side when starting up after the car sits for a few days but it disappears once the engine is warmed up. My guy told me not to worry about it.

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Have you had any luck with additives on a 996? I've been told more then once here that all the stuff the additives clean can end up in the lifters and can actually make it worse.

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I have used it on Porsche engine with similar lifter with good results. I was the owner of the car so I knew that the engines had regular oil changes and the inside was not layered with sludge buildup. I changed the oil a week after I added it. I am not a supporter of using additives in the oil all the time. Porsche states to replace all the lifters in a head at the same time. That can get expensive if you purchase OEM Porsche lifters. Changing to a thinner oil or trying something like sea foam for a week or two would be high on my list before replacing a bank of lifters.

Pictures speak louder than words.. Here's a couple we've experienced in the past few months. NOTHING GOOD will come from continuing to operate it.. It will only get more expensive mile per mile. We repaired all of these. Steve has a hole in his engine Andy's lifter failure Bruce has a hole in his engine Oil additives and cleaners will just make it worse, if it is a lifter.. Why? Because all the gunk thats broken loose inside the engine will go straight to the lifters, which have one hole to allow oil (with debris suspended in it) in and no holes to allow the oil (or debris) back out. What checks in will not check back out. That said, the lifter "noise" is exacting that of a cylinder that is failing. Are you in a cold climate and have you operated the engine in extreme cold prior to this sound becoming apparent? Don't allow someone to just jump in assuming this noise is the lifters, specialized, extensive diagnosis is required before any intervention is applied. Jump in and you'll waste time and money. Too many cylinder failures are being misdiagnosed by those who "Don't know what they don't know", because the noise is exactly the same in tone rhythm as a lifter. We are seeing these from other shops all the time and 2003-2044 996s are horrible about this failure when driven in cold climates.

Spoke to a tech today. He couldn't give me an estimate of the cost of the work you asked about. Fro one thing, he says he'd have to look up the parts/supplies prices. (Said Porsche has already provided 3 updates to parts this year, with I'm sure a price increase each time.) But the tech did say $3500 is ball-parky. Regardless of how much you pay to get this work done, you have to be sure that new lifters is what will fix the engine. The noise as I touched upon in an earlier post can come from more benign sources or causes. But the noise might come from something much more serious and lifter replacement would be a big waste of money, if (big if) the engine is beyond salvage/resurrection. (I'm thinking of worse worse case here.)

Alarik, what part of the country are you ? Perhaps a fellow RL can point you to a trusted PCar expert in your area for a second opinion.

Alarik, I had a similar situation to yours on my M96 engine.You may find the following of interest and hopefully others will chime in to add to the information. I am doing a diy M96 engine rebuild/refresh due to some bearing material in sump/filter. Engine progressed from an occasional 'ticking' (lifter?),to continuous ticking, to light knocking that 'sounded like' one crankshaft bearing deteriorating. Maybe not - read on! During the teardown to get to the crankshaft I inspected the Lifters. 22 of the 24 had their tappet jammed in the lifter bucket -not collapsed, jammed solid.That would knock! Pulled the tappets from the buckets and found clean oil inside,no debris,no significant wear on the lifters,tappets or lifter cradle. Once the lower half of the tappet was pulled, the spring and other half fell out easily.So what happened to cause most of the tappets to get jammed? Design defect in the lower half of the tappet? Immediately prior to the ticking progressing to knocking I took a sharply curved freeway on ramp at speed.Oil starvation? The baffle in the sump is stock & looks O.K. when I examined it . But maybe it doesn't work well enough and that incident caused a drop in oil pressure = lifters starved momentarily and the cams hammered the tappets into the top of the lifter? Oil level was at max,clean ,honey colored oil. Once oil pressure returned to normal , it was insufficient to free the tappet .BTW the oil pump and it's drive seem perfect. The point of this description is to hint at the reason that Porsche(INA) upgraded the lifters from 996.105.041.50 to 996....72 ? I mention this because there has been discussion in this 996 section of replacing 'bad' lifters with the old part number .My concern is that there may be a significant improvement in the new "70" part number that prevents the jamming problem ? If mine are anything to go by, wear, dirty oil,blockage isn't the cause of my 'collapsed(?)' lifters - is it a sump/baffle issue combined with the design of the tappet/lifter that allows it to be hammered & jammed when oil pressure drops -even briefly ?? If this is the case(& I am not qualified to judge) ,replacing all the 24 lifters with the old part number is foolish ? It would be just as risky(but way more expensive!) as un-jamming the original unworn tappets and reusing them. Anyone know exactly what modifications were made in the ..50 to ..72 revision? The hunt for revised lifters is of interest because there are lots of 'bad lifter' posts here and they are expensive- a full set of 24 run $500-$1000.The Interchange specs show this part number is compatible with 1999-2014 Boxster S and others -check the yoyoparts link below. So I hunted for an Interchange spec for Porsche # 996.105.041.72 http://www.yoyoparts.com/oem/39231/b...ml#interchange Eventually I found an interchange part number BGA HL6330 on the Yoyoparts link above. Part of the problem hunting for these 'lifters' is semantics.They are aka :cam followers, tappets, valve lifter, etc. Searched for BGA HL6330 on Rock Auto -BINGO -the price drops to less than $10 ! BGA is just a parts distributor in Europe -not an Asian manufacturer. https://www.rockauto.com/dbphp/x,car...ve_Lifter.html Slight problem -shipping is $40 for either one or a full set of 24 from U.K ! Why aren't they available here in USA so I could buy one and check it forst before committing to 24?? A prior post here mentioned the use of BMW lifters #11321748884 (from an X5). This number does interchange (according to yoyoparts) to the Porsche # 996.105.041.72 So here's my question -has any Rennlister used these HL6330 lifters? Can anyone tell me with qualified authority if this is a good/stupid idea ? The main manufacturer of lifters in Germany seems to be INA ,and according to the interchange data ,the same part is used in many vehicles with different part numbers. The difference is a set that of 24 in pretty Porsche packaging lifters is almost $1000, but the BGA HL 6330 is less than $300 ! The $700+ difference would sure help with the rest of the rebuild cost for many Rennlisters in the future ! It has got me thinking about hunting for an interchange reference for other expensive rebuild parts like piston,piston rings, cylinder head bolts etc.Grateful for any guidance from any Rennlisters with knowledge of this subject.