2006 Silverado 5.3L lifter click

Solotime · May 24, 2012

OK so my truck has 180,000 hiway miles. Uses NO oil and runs like a top. However, for about the last few months if I start the truck and head to work and at about the same area/time after start up the engine will start a rather loud clicking noise coming from the engine that you can hear inside the cab. It sounds to me to be exactly like a lifter. Now here is the weird part. As I am going down the road and the clicking starts I can slip it into neutral, shut off the engine for a couple of seconds then restart. Slip it into drive and accelerate and the noise is gone and will not come back the rest of the day. Only does it in the mornings OR possibly if the truck has sat for a long period of time. But it does it pretty much every day. No change in oil pressure is noted. I have had it happen while sitting still at idle. Nice and quiet and then I start to hear the click click click starting. Then I just shut the engine off and restart and it goes away. If I let the truck warm up longer in the morning and shut it off then restart before leaving the driveway it will not start the clicking issue. Have gone thru numerous oil changes and done the "high mileage" engine oil treatment from the Dealer with no help. Hoping someone has heard of this issue.

Thanks

00Silverado4x4 · May 24, 2012

Take a look at some youtube videos for GM piston slap and see if that sounds like your truck. I personally have no suggestions other than double check your oil level (if haven't already done so.)

Solotime · May 25, 2012

Just changed the oil and filter 3 days ago and it still does it so I know it is not oil or oil level related. It seems to me that it is more likely something blocking an oil channel or something. The noise is certainly not ALL the lifters clicking but just one. If it does it at idle then the clicking noise is about a half second apart. If it were all the lifters then obviously it would be clicking much faster.

So if it were something getting drawn into a channel or blocking the oil flow, it seems reasonable that when you shut the engine off it falls down and when the engine is restarted then oil flow is restored? And for some reason if the oil is thinner from being hot that what ever it is, is not being sucked up when the oil is thinner. Just throwing things out here as I am stumped.

Duronimal · May 25, 2012

Have you looked for an exhaust leak? I've seen hairline cracks in exhaust manifolds that were loud at cold start, but quiet down as the manifold warms. Also check the bolts at the collector, etc.

Mckenzie · May 30, 2012

That's pretty common for the vortec engines to do that. Both mine and my dads do that in the morning and they stop after a while

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spankrz · May 31, 2012

it is a chevy. love it or hate it, it will probably tick.

Garrett Street · May 31, 2012

Mine does this sometimes. If I treat my oil with Lucas oil additive it doesn't do it. It doesn't really bother me anymore.

Solotime · June 1, 2012

My only fear is that is is obviously not helping my valve train wear and if the wife is driving or someone who does not know about shutting the engine off then they may be doing damage to the engine. Oh well, I will keep looking for a solution and will pass it on if I do.

grayghost7 · June 3, 2012

It's piston slap. Mine does it too and it stops on it's own. Mine's been doing it since around 170k...now have over 204k. Not a life or death issue I am told.

ChevMech · August 31, 2012

Mine just started doing the same. I remedied it by putting better gas in the tank, and adding about 16 oz. of marvel mystery oil. Also, I talked to an old mechanic and he said the lifters could be dirty, and to put automatic transmission fluid in the crankcase. It's an old trick but it works. As soon as the ATF kicked in, the ticking was gone. The marvel can do nothing more than clean carbon from the valves. The point of this story is put ATF in the crank case about 500 miles before your next oil change and it should clean everything up and make that vortec quiet again.

tpalibra · October 7, 2012

I think this is whats wrong with mine, I have a 2007 silverado classic with 5.3 and 133,000 miles. It does not do it in idle when I accelerate. It will only do it if I give the truck a hard acceleration but if I slowly accelerate it does not do it.

how much atf do you suggest putting in.

ujtruck · October 9, 2012

Remove Valve cover and see whats going on,

Mposey9293 · November 12, 2016

I found out the tapping/clattering noise is caused by a bad O-ring on the pick up tube connecting to the oil pump. Changed whole pickup tube with the new o- ring and no more problems. Now Oil pressure initially on cold start jumps to 60 and as the motor warms up it drops to a little above 40 at idle and increases with Rpms and speed to about 60 at 70 mph. Before changing the pickup tube oil pressure was around 35 at startup and barely above 40 when driving. After driving a while and a lot of engine clattering it would build pressure to between 40 and 50 and eventually the tapping would stop until I idled again for a while. Glad to have this problem solved,

anumber1 · November 12, 2016

Glad you figured it out!

That o ring is a pretty common problem as these trucks age.

Coby7 · November 12, 2016

I had a lifter click, it went away when I switched to full synthetic. Only problem I find is oil consumption seems to have gone up a bit. Maybe it's just in my head though, this truck has always taken a liter of oil every 2000 miles, don't know if it's normal for these or not. Was used to ecotec engines that go 3000 miles on half a liter. At least that click-click is gone.