2002 Ford Explorer Questions.

[todd1961]

I have a 2002 Ford Explorer v8 120,000 miles of highway use. Recently, there is a metallic clicking sound coming from the right hand side of the vehicle. I suspect that this might be a broken timing chain tensioner - how difficult is this for a diy person?

The other question relates to oil pressure - I started the explorer the other morning and the oil pressure low light is on - no unusual clicking in the engine other than what I already mentioned. Any advice or help would be great.

Todd

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread to the stock 02-05 section. The ticking noise, and low oil pressure might be related. Test your pressure with a gauge to see the PSI rating while it's idling. It's possible that it's too low, and it could cause engine damage if you continue to run it this way.

 

[shadowless127]

Is the Oil pressure gauge halfway or at 0? The gauge is a dumbie gauge where it's either OK or not (ok being half way up the scale). The light will come on if you are the least bit low on oil.

The metallic clicking maybe a tensioner. Does it click at idle or just under load? if not at idle and just under load i would suggest taking a look at the torque converter.

 

[todd1961]

Clicking sound from Engine and Oil Pressure

Yesterday I started the Explorer back up and the Oil Pressure read fine. Meanwhile I had purchased the oil sender unit and will attempt to install it today - although I do not know where it is located on a 2002 Ford Explorer V-8.

The metallic sound remains audible during idle and somewhat disappears during normal driving rpms. Sometimes it is really bad other times not so bad. Several weeks ago I had listened to the engine using a hose and pinpointed the noise to the right side of the engine, in the front. Based on what I have read in this excellent forum I assume that this is the timing chain tensionor. I was hoping that I could do the least invasive install of the new tensioning unit, which only involves removing the intake, rather than pulling the harmonic balancer and timing chain covers - hopefully this will rid my explorer of the noise.

Thoughts?

 

[todd1961]

Thanks

Thanks for the suggestions. The noise has been occurring for several months and only recently did the oil pressure drop. Like I said, yesterday it was fine. The day that I started the explorer and got the 0 reading there was also a warning, on the dash panel that read "Low Oil Pressure: as well as the needle instrument positioned at 0. Yesterday like magic. I started the beast and everything was normal, although the noise was still resent.

Thanks again for your sage suggestions - todd