i hope someone can give my friend a hand before we take his 01 (A4) over to the dealer. when he puts his car in park it idles fine but when we shift out of park to say D i hear a ticking sound from the engine. no power loss but just that noise, put it back in Park and it goes away.

i told him to get an M6-slacker didn't want to shift.

any insight before they gouge him would be helpful thanks!

 

constant tick tick tick or just a single tick?


if its a single tick its the driveshaft and its considered "normal"

 

its a constant tick, but then when you put it back in park it stops

it still runs fine just not sure what it is. thought it might be the belt going bad but he says he just had that replaced about 3k miles ago

 

you know what-we are not sure if we hear it when driving (but it is not loud so we just may not be able to hear it)

only seemed to notice it when we were pressing the brake and just sitting (as if you were at a stop light and idling with your foot on the brake)

 

when the car is in P or N, the torque converter spins with the engine.

when the car is in any normal gear the torque converter doesn't spin with the engine.

or am i completly off here?

if the above is true, maybe the torque converter is iffy?

 

alright then i'm confused.

when your in drive and your sitting at a stop light, what is taking up the force of the engine?

i had thought the torque converter was the slipping element so that the engine wouldn't stall. using this theory the ticking noise could be comming from the torque converter, but is this even correct on how the tranny / torque converter works?

 

Mine does something similiar and my former baby, 69' Camaro, suffered from the same tick tick tick. What Ive found, the exhaust welds arent the greatest and a very small pin hole will cause a persistant little tick. Get under it and run your hands cupped around the pipes.

 

When you are in park there is no load on the engine so it idles at 650 or whatever it's set to. When you put it in gear the idle should drop. I imagine this drop in rpm would cause the oil pressure to decrease slightly, maybe to point that the lifters start making noise.

 

does it make a ticking noise when you turn on the A/C?

theory being that the A/C puts a load on the engine while the tranny is in N