Death Rattle

[blacklab]

I've got a new to me 99 sport with 230,000 km's on it.
When I have the passenger door open I can hear a rattle, sounds like a can half full of gravel, being gently shaken.
My wife says it has an intermittent rattle when we're driving.
Is this the death rattle everybody talks about?

 

[koda2000]

it sounds like you have the beginning of the timing chain death rattle. very common to the early 4.0L SOHC V6 engine. it's caused mainly by the disintegration of the plastic timing chain components. the first thing to try is called the 00M12 kit, but if the chain cassettes are broken you're looking at a large repair bill. the later SOHC engines used metal timing chain cassettes parts which can be retro fitted in the older engines, but to have the job done right requires the engine to be pulled. Ford gets over $2,000 for this job and a lot of cheaper mechanics don't want to tackle it. unless you're a pretty good mechanic it's not the type of job your typical weekend DIY'er should tackle. sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it happened to my daughter when she bought a 2001 Explorer with the SOHC engine. it ran for about 40k before it finally died and we scrapped it. that was my introduction to these trucks and i've since purchased 4 more (mostly V8's) but i recently bought a '97 SOHC that had a rebuilt engine in it. love the trucks, hate the early SOHC engines.

 

[drdoom]

Just getting broke in ;-)

 

[2000StreetRod]

Timing chain rattle resolution process - SOHC V6

Timing chain rattle resolution process - SOHC V6