Very quiet ticking noise from engine compartment. Any Ideas?

LARRY70GS wrote:

I'd take off the valve cover and have a look. Could be very simple. Damaged rocker or push rod.

Those you would definately hear with the hood open wouldn't you? I would still put my money on the lifters. Altough you should hear the lifters as well with the hood open, unless its very, very minor tick.

Hometown Hero wrote:

LARRY70GS wrote:

I'd take off the valve cover and have a look. Could be very simple. Damaged rocker or push rod.

Those you would definately hear with the hood open wouldn't you? I would still put my money on the lifters. Altough you should hear the lifters as well with the hood open, unless its very, very minor tick.

You would be very surprised. Valve lash any where along the valve train will sound similar. Before I added anything to the crank case, I would have a look.

AA wrote:

You can't even hear it when you pop the hood? If it were me, I'd try to locate the source before resulting to trial & error testing.

Nope. The reason I tried the lucas upper cylinder lube and injector cleaner first is because the only thing you can hear (besides the whine of the pulley that needs to be replaced) is the injectors working, which is a slightly different almost clicking sound versus the ticking I'm getting, and it seems if I drive it hard with hard acceleration the ticking seems to stop. It seems it's more pronounced when the car is at operating temp and driven in town more than anything.

LARRY70GS wrote:

Hometown Hero wrote:

LARRY70GS wrote:

I'd take off the valve cover and have a look. Could be very simple. Damaged rocker or push rod.

Those you would definately hear with the hood open wouldn't you? I would still put my money on the lifters. Altough you should hear the lifters as well with the hood open, unless its very, very minor tick.

You would be very surprised. Valve lash any where along the valve train will sound similar. Before I added anything to the crank case, I would have a look.

It is a very minor tick. I'm just anal. I'll admit that now. I'm thinking it's coming from the rear area of the engine compartment by the firewall; just due to the fact that it can only be heard inside. I really wish it was warmer out so I could try some more diagnostics.

I'm bringing it monday to have a viper 5301 remote start installed. After that I'll probably get it to my mechanic and have him do the pulley work and try to find the noise. I just dont want this to turn into something more serious down the road. I plan on driving this car for at least another 5 years.

I got home today from work and heard the noise. I also had ice buildup on the wonderful hideaway wipers so I popped the hood and chipped the ice away. There's a definite ticking coming from under the plastic engine cover, but the ticking inside sounds slower and louder than the one from under the cover. It could be due to the firewall deflecting the sound, but I'm not sure. The ticking from the cover sounds more like injectors. It seems louder than it should be, but like I said, it doesn't sound like the same ticking I hear inside. IDK, I'm stumped.

The noise seems to be coming from near the air intake and the EGR (i think it's the round looking thing in the rear of the engine near the brake reservoir). Excuse my lack of EGR valve location understanding.

GMFreak8 wrote:

The noise seems to be coming from near the air intake and the EGR (i think it's the round looking thing in the rear of the engine near the brake reservoir).

Well, I did say that it could be a noisy EGR valve or IAC, which are both next to the master cylinder...

The other thing that made me doubt a lifter was that it shouldn't have any lag time behind the throttle, as you mentioned in an earlier post.

First step is to take off that engine cover - the noise may become louder and diagnosis easier.

Will hopefully be doing that soon. I appreciate you guys being patient, letting me vent and helping me work through things. Thanks everyone.

don't mention it buddy! i was silently supporting you all the while

So today the weather was around 0 for a high. The noise sounds worse today. Hopefully it's just the weather.

To clarify after listening more the noise seems to GO WITH the engine RPM and seems to be around constantly, until the engine noise overcomes it.

Just for peace of mind, how much roughly would new lifters and whatnot run?

I think new lifters means head removal ($$$$). If it is a lifter, I'd just put up with it until it's warm enough to DIY.

I think lifters only require removing the blower & the LIM, and the rockers & pushrods.

Eldo wrote:

I think lifters only require removing the blower & the LIM, and the rockers & pushrods.

I hope you're right. I'll let you guys know what I find out when i tackle it.

Update: It's been warmer the past couple of days. I notice the tick either is very quiet or disappears completely. Right at cold startup it is slightly noticeable but after driving it and getting it warmed up the tick completely disappears. Seems to be something that only happens when it's colder out...

GMFreak8 wrote:

Update: It's been warmer the past couple of days. I notice the tick either is very quiet or disappears completely. Right at cold startup it is slightly noticeable but after driving it and getting it warmed up the tick completely disappears. Seems to be something that only happens when it's colder out...

Just as an experiment I would switch to a conventional oil just to see if it makes a difference, somehow.
If you are using the 5W-30 you might want to consider a 10W-30, just to see if it solves the problem.

Bert

Bert is right about not running sythetics in your car. However it is not a good idea to switch back n forth from conventional oil to synthetic and then back to conventional. There is a very high possibilty that you will have leaky seal issues. Depending on the type of synthetic you use, Castrol syntec in particular is notorious for causing these type of issues when switching.

This is why I suggested running a Rislone, or Lucas oil stabilizer, it allows you to run the same oil your running. In the meantime your only changing 1 variable at a time in the equation which is the best way to figure stuff out. To many changes and you don't know what the solution was in the end.

From what your describing and what your mechanic suggested makes me pretty much 100% sure it is your lifters without even having to hear it. A mechanic knows what lifter noise sounds like and if he thought he could make a buck off you he would by suggesting you need engine work, not say something like "throw in some lucas and try it." He obviously either doesn't think its serious or he would be trying to book you in.

This car has always had mobil one synthetic. And it was doing it with 10W-30 oil also. My mechanic seemed to think it was the fuel injectors not the lifters, but he really didn't take too much time listening to it. It's very quiet didn't appear at all when temps were above 35.

Dig out the stethoscope, cross your fingers n think happy thoughts.

Hometown Hero wrote:

Dig out the stethoscope, cross your fingers n think happy thoughts.

Tell me about it. It doesn't seem to be getting worse. I'll put new lifters in it if I have to. I drive my cars literally into the ground before I give up on them. No sense in buying another car when you have one that just needs a little TLC every so often.

As you know, a very quiet ticking noise is more of an annoyance than a necessary fix.
Especially if it doesn't get any worse over time.
Other than the cold temp's, you haven't indicated that it got any worse and your mechanic said it sounded no louder than a fuel injector.
That is a very minor ticking noise. I'm anal about noises as well and wish i could eliminate the fuel injector's from ticking, but that's not going to happen either.
So I've become used to certain noises and actually have become more tolerable of other noises. Even if they are the pending noise of something that will get worse over time.
I'll wait a little longer to replace a part if it's not going to hurt the engine or another part too seriously.
An example is the SC coupler. Has started making noise this past year and I know it can wait without causing any damage so it is going to wait until either the weather gets warmer or just can't stand it anymore and borrow some shop space from a friend.
Will probably wait for spring and just install a GenV. That ought to take care of the noise.

Rickw wrote:

As you know, a very quiet ticking noise is more of an annoyance than a necessary fix.
Especially if it doesn't get any worse over time.
Other than the cold temp's, you haven't indicated that it got any worse and your mechanic said it sounded no louder than a fuel injector.
That is a very minor ticking noise. I'm anal about noises as well and wish i could eliminate the fuel injector's from ticking, but that's not going to happen either.
So I've become used to certain noises and actually have become more tolerable of other noises. Even if they are the pending noise of something that will get worse over time.
I'll wait a little longer to replace a part if it's not going to hurt the engine or another part too seriously.
An example is the SC coupler. Has started making noise this past year and I know it can wait without causing any damage so it is going to wait until either the weather gets warmer or just can't stand it anymore and borrow some shop space from a friend.
Will probably wait for spring and just install a GenV. That ought to take care of the noise.

Yeah, I'm already becoming used to a few different noises. i just don't like the idea of a tick coming from any engine. I'll eventually get it in and have my mechanic at least find the issue so I at least know what it is and I'll go from there.

I'd like to install an oil pressure gauge shortly so I know what the oil pressure is. Ever since my last car lost oil pressure I'm paranoid about stuff like that. Why they included a temp gauge and a tach (especially on an automatic) and no oil or voltage meter is beyond me. Every car IMHO should include a temp, oil, and voltage gauge as a standard cluster