ticking from front passenger side of engine

[silky]

hey guys,

for the last year or so i have had a ticking noise. I thought it was an small header leak or something but i was never able to find an exhaust leak. Now that I have some time I figured I would fix a few of the problems the truck has.

The noise is a ticking/rattling noise. It never goes away (ie even when it's warm it's there) but it's not very loud. You can hear it best when you are in a drive through or in an echo rich environment. I changed the accesory belts a couple of months back and I noticed that the accesory belt tensioner seemed to have some play in it. Would this be or is this a common noise on explorers with bad tensioners? Or does this sound more like the dreaded cam-chain tensioner problem?

oh....98 explorer sport 4.0 sohc.

thanks

 

[mudbug0426]

im hearing the same noise on my 96, although i did just remove all of my carpet so its a little nosier inside. im pretty sure its an exhaust leak, if were talkin about the same sound. passenger side front floor board? if its not coming from your exhaust manifolds, it could be coming from where the end of your y pipe connects the the front of your cat converter. im not sure how yours is set up with the sohc, i have a ohv, not sure if the exhaust setup is any different or not, but thats another spot on the exhaust that likes to leak.

 

[aldive]

Pull the belt and run the motor and see if the sound persists.

 

[silky]

Pull the belt and run the motor and see if the sound persists.

I don't know why I didn't think of that. Probably because I have big hands and hate changing that damn belt. Well my knuckles dislike it anyways!