Injector tick?

[murkinstock]

Hey guys, writing about a problem I've had the whole time I've owned this truck. (3+ years)

I have a very steady, fairly quiet, ticking.
It doesn't matter if the truck has been running for 5 seconds or 5 hours
It doesn't matter if it's 5 degrees outside, or 120 degrees.
It's steady!

I'm not really worried about it since it's been the same since I've owned it, but it's getting annoying. I prodded around everywhere with a stethoscope, and could not find any ticking noise unless I was on an injector, but I couldn't notice one being any louder than the other.

Plus I have a very, very slight miss, you can barely tell unless you're paying attention to it, so I think it's related.

No codes, drives fantastic!

Also a Ford dealership shop reported a "Slight miss" in 2009
at 124k miles.

"Engine seems to have miss
Found throttle body badly carboned up
Cleaned throttle body and IAC valve
Added BG K06 kit to fuel for injection system cleaning"

Who knows if that really fixed it at the time though, or for how long.

(I have all service records since it had like 40k miles, now 143k)

Anybody have any experience with this?
Does anybody agree that this is an injector?
Other ideas?

Thanks guys! I gave all information I could!

 

[natenkiki2004]

This is actually similar to what I'm experiencing. Intermittent miss, moreso when idling when warm. No drivability problems, no codes, nothing serious.

The injectors do tick, you can hear them with the engine running. I don't think it's a problem, although maybe they get louder with age?

I'm very curious to swap in rebuilt injectors in mine. One of these days I'll get around to it... It'll be interesting to see if they're a source of issues that more people need to think about or if it makes no difference. It seems like there's a variety of Explorers with a wide range of MPG and odd running issues. After 20+ years, maybe the fuel injectors have just had enough. Or maybe with such a wide range of fuels and driving habits and price fluctuations the injectors are gummed up differently.

 

[2stroke]

I've had injectors fail in a few ways, but I'm not certain an intermittent miss is one. I'm not saying it isn't possible. There is no way around the injectors ticking. I have had this problem, and many others on here have as well. I have not come across any solution yet.

 

[FR-425]

Intermittent (slight) misses are generally not a fuel issue, injector or otherwise.

Most likely culprit is the coil pack.

Other possibility is a weak PIP from the crank position sensor or the ICM itself.

Note: a bad ICM can cause loud injectors (trigger voltage is too high) also if the the ICM has failed into "limp mode" the injectors will fire at full pulse width at idle and cause them to be audible.

A failed ICM will post NO fault code and the engine will run fine, pass emissions, but with small symptoms such as poor fuel econ and performance loss.

If the ICM was bad from the day you bought it, you are in for a nice surprise when you replace it. TIRE SMOKE'n 4.0!

 

[murkinstock]

Thanks guys! At least I don't feel alone on this issue anymore.

I'll be going to the junkyard hopefully soon to get rear window regulators and motors, from a second gen. (one of mine is toast and I don't like the idea of cables)
I'll see if I can also get an ICM to see if there is any difference.
I will also check the CPS.

I have swapped the coil and there was no difference what so ever. Though I'm still not ruling out the possibility of it being mucked either.

I would love to be able to smoke some tires!

 

[2stroke]

There is a simple resistance test you can do to the coil to see if its bad. I'm not sure if you can do it to the ICM. As far as I know, its one of those parts where you have to rule everything else out first. They can be close to $200, so they are kind of expensive.

 

[murkinstock]

So I finally decided to go after this problem again.

I got a junkyard ICM, no change. Not ruling that out yet, but I was hoping for something a little different. $15 for that and a new mirror switch, it was worth a shot.

I checked the resistance between terminals on the coil.
Coil 1: 14.3k ohms
Coil 2: 14.5k ohms
Coil 3: 14.4k ohms
I might have 2 and 3 mixed up. oh well.

I even checked the resistance of the wiring from the ICM to the coil to check for any possible corrosion. All were .04 ohm.