Pug 306 1.4 1998/S valve clearances

Can anyone confirm if the Pug 306 1.4 1998/S engine has valve clearances
which can be adjusted, and what the syptoms of incorrect clearances
would be?

The engine does appear to idle a little lumpily at times (nothing
serious, but enough to notice if looking for it). Its done 88k miles.
There's also a strange knocking/rattling sound which comes more apparent
at certain revs (just under 2k rpm I think).

During the last MOT, the invoice did have "sounds like a hydrolic valve
lifter is playing up - might want to get it looked at" noted under
Customer Comments. Would this be what they were talking about?

I've looked at the Haynes manual and it seems that adjusting the valve
clearances seems an easy job as nothing major has to be removed to do it
(just the very top cover).

Any thoughts?

Thanks

David

 

yes these valve clearances are manually adjustable. if gap is too tight it
will struggle to idle, if to wide then it will sound "tappy"
steve.

 

its easy to take the top cover off, but hard to get a feel for if the
valve is set properly.

tight fit/sliding fit/snug fit of feeler gauge are difficult to
interpret. i felt confident after a mechanic showed me how he does it.

before you change any settings, spend a few minutes with the feeler
gauge and try to memorize exactly (with copious notes) how tight each
valve is currently so you will be able to change them back if it doesnt
turn out good.

also tough is how to tighten nuts without changing the gap. the first
time i tried this took me around half a day to get the settings right
to what i wanted them.