Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting ticking

Can't tell when I'm driving, but when the car is running, there's a steady "tick", "tick", "tick".

Kind of sounds like a belt or something.

Any thoughts/ideas?

May have to take it to the stealership to get it checked out along with the sticking accelerator.

TIA

I understand how you feel about the ticking noise!!! I have a 96 mystique zetec with 60k miles on it and bought it with 40k on it and ever since i've owned my zetec i've had that dang ticking noise!!! I can't solve our problem but if you do find out please let me know. One person told me it could be a O2 sensor but I don't believe that at all.

I have the same ticking when my '00 SVT is idling. It sounds like it's coming from near the injectors but I'm not sure what it is.

I also have a ticking sound that comes from the area around the serpentine belt (on the passenger side of the engine). After much research, I believe that it is one of the pulleys for the serpentine belt (either the idler pulley or the tensioner pulley).

I have come to this conclusion after watching the belt go around the pulleys and listening. If you look at your serpentine belt (while the engine is off), you will probably see some white writing on it. When you turn the engine on, you will see the writing go by at a high speed. Well, the ticking sound on my car is synchronized (almost exactly) with the writing as it goes by. This leads me to think that it is something with the serpentine belt.

When the weather gets warmer, I plan on proving (or disproving) this theory by removing the serpentine belt and then starting up the engine. If the sound is gone, then I know it has something to do with the belt. If it is still there, then its "back to the drawing board"...

Some people have said that the sound could come from valves or lifters, but I don' buy that, since valves and lifters are running at the same speed as the RPM gauge. This would mean that there should be a few hundred ticks per second at idle, which is not happening on my car. Plus, that many ticks per second would probably sound like a buzz rather than ticking.

If it's a very faint "clicking" type of tick than it is more than likely the fuel injectors as they do make a lot of racket at idle. If it is a loud tick, it is possible that it could be the belt, but I bet it is the injectors.

I hear some ticking at idle when I have the hood up and standing there looking at it. I can't hear it inside the car.

Seems to come from passenger side of engine. I hope it is not a problem.

I had this problem with my car last March and found it to just be dirty injectors. (I could here mine ticking with the windows down, hood closed at idle) Wasn't a very fast ticking but it was in time. Sounded like a metronome.

Just ran a bottle of Techron through it and put in some premium. Problem went away after about one tank of fuel.

Hope this helps.

my ticking is very predominant with the hood up, but you can actually still hear it with the hood closed standing at the front of the car. I cannot hear it inside the car though. It is syncronized with the rpm. I'm going to try the injector cleaner and see if it helps.

Could be injectors
Could be the noise of the timing chain rolling over under the valve cover (most likely)
Could be a bad pully/tensioner
Could just be the exhaust heating up - expanding.

Well my ticking in my 95 myst was a bad front wheel bearing