I own a 2001 sable gs and the valves rattle. Mostly when pulling a hill any time I am asking for a little extra power. I check all the fluids and everything appears to be full, so what gives? Help me out.

 

how many miles you got on it? My wife's 93 vic does that too. We're pretty sure it's just worn valve guides causing a slight bit of valve slap under heavier loads. But until it is really doing it all the time (for us at any rate) I don't plan to fix it. My wife's car has been doing that for 4 years now and still gets the same mileage as it did new. We've got nearly 200K miles on it too and only the transmission has been rebuilt.

also, are you sure it's the valves and not the engine itself pushing ever so slightly against the frame due to a motor mount giving out?

 

Sure it's just not pinging from low-octane? Try some higher grade fuel or run one or two bottles of octane boost through and see if it quiets down. If it were the valves rattling it would more than likely be noisey all the time not just under duress. A frozen or defective EGR will make it ping like a son of a gun.