A friend of mine has just (3 weeks ago) picked up an immaculate 05 Verada with 90k on the clock.

Upon arriving home with the vehicle, which he purchased from a mate in Cairns and drove back to Brisbane we have noticed it has noisy tappets which did not exist previously. The vehicle is known to both of us and can honestly vouch for no noise previously.

A week prior to sale the seller went out of his way to get the car fully serviced for the 1600km trip back to Brissy, timing belt, plug change oil and filters, auto trans etc.

The tappets are now noisy, only one or two at that.

When we sussed out the sevice sheet we found that Cairns Mitsubishi services the cars with 5W30 oil. Why in christs name you would run that in far north Queensland I do not know but anyway that's what in it.

Once lifters get noisy are they damaged or changing to a thicker oil fixes things?

We are reluctant to touch it because it is under warranty and are hoping for a claim but Mitsubishi are starting to play hardball claiming the oil will sort it but we are thinking they are damaged and the problem may arise just out of warranty.

Your thoughts?