98 dodge caravan knocks in morning

gbeach1

my caravan knocks for about 3 minutes after sitting overnight, then goes away. i have tried lucas oil, and everything else, any ideas

eneth

Oil filter up to Mopar specs, with an anti-drainback valve if needed (it probably is)?

larryn2

THREE MINUTES SEEMS TO LONG, OIL PRESURE SHOULD BUILD IN A COUPLE OF SECONDS. I WOULD TAKE IT TO THE DEALER AND TELL THEM. LARRY

tboner1965

Perhaps the knocking is not in the engine at all, but an exhaust heat shield rattling until it gets warmer and expands. Your catalytic converter probably has a heat shield around it.

If it knocks for three minutes, I'd imagine it would knock forever if it were engine related.

HTH, and I hope that is all your problem is!

Cheers,

TB

lngtonge18

Is this a loud valve tapping noise? If it is, than one of your hydraulic lifters is too loose or not holding oil pressure properly. One lifter is real sensitive on my Stanza. If the engine is too low in oil or too high, it will tap obnoxiously loud. Even after the proper oil level is achieved, it will continue to tap for a few minutes and than stay quiet until it gets too low again. Adding Lucas oil stabilizer has helped a little, but it helped more with my oil burning problem. I took off the valve cover and discovered that one of the lifters is literally loose and not fitting snug up against the valve like the others. My guess is, that the only way to solve the tapping would be to replace the bad hydraulic lifter, which is probably a semi-expensive repair. So, if you can deal with the noise and you aren't burning a lot of oil, I say you should just live with it.