Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting when it rains it pours...

fixing my imrc linkage dident help, still ticks, I also noticed some oil leakage. This is new, and it pisses me off. ticking is not a pronunced as a rod bearing, and I have no cel's. almost sounds like somthing ratteling around in a closed area. my luck it was a part of the imrc bushing that broke off and fell into the tranny. sounds like lower engine, or maybee tranny. Starts at about 2500rpm, goes to redline, but tapers off near the top. under 25k, it purrs like it is suposed to. what the hell is this. if it is serious, I gotta dump her and get somtin else. I cant afford another engine or tranny.

Check oil is full or above,Check for loose shields around the catalytic converters, the bottom one came loose on me last week. Made a nice irritating rattle at 3000 rpm. The shield can be clamped in place with a couple of long hose clamps, temporary with wire.
My sister's Mystique has a slight knock I never identified, 100,000 miles later, it's still the same. Push in the clutch, does the noise change?

Checked heat shields doesnt look like them. Put her up on stands and let her idle, noise almost sounds like it is from the other side of the engine near the top pass. side. hard to tell. Oil leak is from around the filter, Does that mean its cloged? If it is would that contribute to my new noise? checked oil, it a little high, havent added any, havent needed to.

Oil around filter happens if it's a bit loose, or has old oil residue, or valve cover leak, minor. If it's not bottom knock, check the tensioner wheel and idler wheel, they can be noisy. Valvetrain noise is possible. It's good NOT to have bottom knock.

ok, ideled car and slowley opened the oil cap(somone told me to try this), sounds beautifull from in there. so would this elminate anything? Noise sounds like it is near serp blet side up top. Engine mount? how do I check? pully or somthing? Is the tenisoner that every one says craps out on the tranny side?

I think I have narrowed it to the valve train/fuel rail area? Why(other than I am retarted), sould the sound seem to move around. Every time I go listen to it it sounds like it is from a different area?

Her's some good engine pics:

The tensioner pulley and altenator idler pulley are in this image from the "new" contour site: Duratec belt sideThe tensioner is above the main crank pulley, the idler is to the left.

The waterpump pulley is trans side duratec The waterpump tensioner can rattle.

You can test the pulleys by listening through a mechanics stethoscope sold at sears for 10 bucks. The "moving" of the sound is wierd! Maybe you hear the fuel injectors.

the injectors on these cars are very noisy, and they do make a ticking sound too,

ok, so tensioner pulley or cam tensioner? I would like to rule out any potentialy dangerous sounds cause right now I am broke. dont think it is internal. if it was valves it would be loud as hell with the oil cap off, right? injector tick would be more consitant, in theory? when I start up it sounds good, than if I rev to 2500 i get teh tick, it sounds "slow" doesent corespond to rpm like it should. than after reved up it ticks at idle.

If it is a tick sound, it could be a leaky exhaust. If you can record it as a wav file and post, that would help in diagnosing it.