Ticking Noice,, That Goes Away..

[uncle_ct]

I have heard of alot of Ford Explorers having a problem with the engine ticking. Its seems to be an accepted thing.

I have not had this problem untill recently. The ticking is right when i start up, for about 1 minute and once it is warmed up it goes away and does not come back while driving. It comes back again once the vehicle cools off.

I have heard of Explorer and Rangers driving for a long time ignoring this. They have mentioned that it is something they have gotten used to..

What is the fix here? Replace the push rods? What is my next step.. ?

 

[Xpl0rer]

does the ticking totally subside...or is it just a lil bit fainter as your truck warms? i had a similar prob in my pickup happened to be a lifter. be sure to get back with us before you start throwing hundreds of dollars away

 

[uncle_ct]

It does it only when it starts up, once it is warmed up the engine sounds as if it were new, nice quite and strong running..

 

[carlover]

Mine does the same thing. I suspect more than likely its a lifter tick that goes away when the engine fully warms up. My truck has 155,000 miles on it and has been doing it for awhile and it doesnt seem to affect anything.

 

[uncle_ct]

Mine does the same thing. I suspect more than likely its a lifter tick that goes away when the engine fully warms up. My truck has 155,000 miles on it and has been doing it for awhile and it doesnt seem to affect anything.

I have heard the same thing, but the truck only has 65k original on it.. Although it has many many many hours of idling.

Should i replace the lifters? Is it that simple? or do i have to replace all of the top end?

 

[carlover]

What oil do you run?? When i flushed my motor and switched to full synthetic it got alot quieter. Maybe you should try that first.

 

[///Manuel]

Exactly, synthetic all the way! Plus maybe a quick seafoam treatment.

 

[uncle_ct]

Exactly, synthetic all the way! Plus maybe a quick seafoam treatment.

Im going to try a compression test first, and see what the results of that it is.

Ill switch to synthetic,

Seafoam really that great? i have heard many swear by it,. and others say dont bother.

 

[carlover]

Seafoam works very well. Ive used it for awile now and it always seems to improve the idle quality and gas mileage.

 

[73Elsinore]

Your truck has the roller lifters. They are not cheap. Plus it is not a good idea to replace a lifter without replacing the cam because they wear together as a unit.

Use a mechanic's stethoscope (cheep from Harbor Freight) to localize the ticking. That way you rule out an idler pulley bearing, or some such.

If the noise is caused by a lifter sticking, the sticking is caused by the lifter dragging in its bore due to varnish build-up between the OD of the lifter and the ID of the lifter bore in the crankcase. You can take the heads off, remove the lifters and manually clean off the varnish using solvent. That's what I did when I had my heads off to replace both cracked heads &^%$!. There was some varnish on a couple of the lifters.

Best thing to try first is change to synthetic oil and see if that helps.

 

[NightRock]

I got the same problem but even after using Fully Synthetic Oil ticking still existing I tried adding some STP additives into the engine Oil.. it reduces I'm thinking of adding another can of STP...

 

[uncle_ct]

Your truck has the roller lifters. They are not cheap. Plus it is not a good idea to replace a lifter without replacing the cam because they wear together as a unit.

Use a mechanic's stethoscope (cheep from Harbor Freight) to localize the ticking. That way you rule out an idler pulley bearing, or some such.

If the noise is caused by a lifter sticking, the sticking is caused by the lifter dragging in its bore due to varnish build-up between the OD of the lifter and the ID of the lifter bore in the crankcase. You can take the heads off, remove the lifters and manually clean off the varnish using solvent. That's what I did when I had my heads off to replace both cracked heads &^%$!. There was some varnish on a couple of the lifters.

Best thing to try first is change to synthetic oil and see if that helps.

Excellent post,, very informative.. ill be trying all these things and ill return back to let ya know the results.

 

[Positive Vibes]

Mine ticked until I had the tranny modulator changed. The vacuum modulator sends tranny fluid into the engine. Mine hasn't ticked since.

 

[snoborder42]

Mine is doing the same thing. Well it used to anyway. It would tick on startup (almost every time) and would go away after a minute or two. I tried several things, high mileage oil, Lucas oil stuff, synthetic blend oil, different weight oils. Nothing worked until now.

I just changed my oil about 2k ago with Castrol GTX High Mileage 10w 30 and a Fram High Mileage filter. From that day on the ticking has completely stopped. It has ticked one or two times since then.

 

[uncle_ct]

Mine ticked until I had the tranny modulator changed. The vacuum modulator sends tranny fluid into the engine. Mine hasn't ticked since.

I just put in a rebuilt tranny,, i will see if that changes anything,, But i am going to still try the sea foam and the synthetic oil also..

Its a 93 sport 4x4 with 60k original miles. So its worth working on.. Salt here in Chicago is killing me.. the panels under the door are beggining to rust thru.. Summer= body work. LOL

 

[Curtis]

I took my 96 4.0 to the dealer for ticking, it would come and go. I hated going through a drive-thru because I would hear the sound bouncing off the building.

After an $80 diagnosis, they said it was the belt tensioner. I said bull and asked if they took it off to run the engine without it and of course they didn't as it wasn't included in the diag fee.

So before I left the parking lot I took off the serp belt and started the truck........Silent... ... Put it back on and it was back again....

Here in FL, I have the windows rolled up with the AC on all the time so I don't hear it.. Iv gotten used to it...

 

[aldive]

bump

 

[Curtis]

my dads 91 4.0 had this noise. He bought it in 94, and it was silent. wasnt long after he bought it the oil pressure switch broke and all the oil came out. We were literally 500 ft from the house when it happend so we continued home.
replaced it and it ticked full time after that. we lived with it for a while, considered another engine too. then had the top of the motor done. valves, rockers, pushrods etc. it would tick when cold then but stop when warm. after a while it came back all the time. we sold it to a friend in 2000, still ticking. 265,000 km's later, the motor finally died.