Just recently my car began making this weird sound. It sounds like a ticking or maybe a knocking (can't really tell the difference). I can hear it at all temperatures, load/no load, and it doesn't trigger an SES light. I can hear it sitting in the car with the hood closed. It seems to be coming from the DS valve cover but I am not totally sure.

If it was real knock, would it necessarily trigger a code? Could you guys give me some idea on what this could be? Some sound clips would be awesome.

 

Rockers need adjustment I bet. My car with 120k needs the stock rockers adjusted and it makes the same sounds. A knock would come from the bottom end and sound much like a ballpeen hammer hitting solid metal.

 

just pull the valve cover off, and take a socket and see which nut on one of the rockers is a little loose....
OR u have an exhaust manifold/gasket leak,,those get worse under a load.

 

lmao wow maksik, seriously our similarity in problems are getting scary. I was just about to post a thread about this, cause I too just noticed this as well. All of a sudden all kinds of **** is going wrong. Gotta expect it with a 10 year old car though, but its only got 78k on it. Oh well, things happen. Either way, I also have this tick tick tick sound from the passenger side. Along with the hole that just burst in my A.I.R tube, which I know it isn't coming from there cause it has a different sound, like an exhaust leak.

 

I really believe that the tapping noise from these cars is the clicking of the injectors. My car only had 53000 on it when i got it and has always this noise. It just dosen't sound like a valve tap to me................loose rockers is more of a clacking sound. Ayway, just my .02 cents

 

Just have to make something else louder so it drowns out the ticking noise.

I think injectors. I have seen some new cars that scared me because they were so loud.

 

It's definetely not the injectors. I heard the injectors clicking before and they were loud but I could not hear the clicking from inside the car. It just started 2 days ago.

I will pull the valve cover and check for loose rockers. What exactly am I looking for, a loose nut? Also what do I do if I find it?

 

Ttt

 

Pull the cover and look for the obvious. Have someone start the car while you are under the hood and maybe you will be able to detect for certain if it is a rocker problem. If you can isolate the right rocker, pull it off and pull the push rod to see if it is ok. Replace the push rod, rotate the engine by hand until the rocker next to it is in the correct position and do the lash on the troubled valve.

If it is an intake valve: rotate the engine until the exhaust valve is just begining to open and adjust the intake valve.

If it is an exhaust valve, rotate the engine until the intake valve has opened fully and is about halfway closed.

Slap the valve cover back on and take a listen. If you still hear the same noise, repeat the process to see if it is the same valve. If it is, you my have a bad lifter. If it isn't get some old clothes on and fool with the adjustments on each valve with the engine running to see if you can get rid of the noise.

OR...you can just do the engine running adjustment thing to begin with to see if the valve or valves are too loose, in which case you may want to do all of them, either witht the engine running or with it off.

Also, if you are running really thin oil , like 5w synthetic, you might want to up the anti with some 10W dino oil to see if the thing quites down.

Just food for thought.

 

Yeah, I seem to hear a little tick myself but you have to have the hood open and be pretty close to hear it (have your head under the hood). Is this the injectors?