My 07 has a noisy tappet when it's cold and when I put a load on her. I understand the valve adjustments is a royal PITA. Anyone with expeience with this?
When it's cold - do you mean the engine or the outside temperature? How many miles are on the car? My '05 with 196K miles had what might have been a noisy valve or three . I just started using Pennzoil Ultra 5W30 and noticed that the valve noise I was hearing disappeared. You might want to try it or Pennzoil Platinum if you can't find Ultra which is more difficult to find now that Walmart discontinued it.
Maybe run some MMO through it for a couple k's at around twenty per cent? Ask The Marvel Mechanics Forum
Are you absolutely sure it is a noisy valve? A noise could be any number of things. Anyway, just measuring the valve lash is not such a hard job. Adjusting them by replacing lifters IS a royal PITA as the camshafts have to be removed. It is doable though. I did it myself on my own Prius.
Removing the valve cover is not a quick and easy job. I wouldn't recommend doing it to anyone who would only want to measure the valve clearance and not adjust it. It's not the piece of cake you make it out to be.
