Hunter Jones

Hey guys, New here and I wanted some extra input on my cars ticking or clacking issue it has.

Got the car about 4-5 Months ago and the past month its been doing the ticking noise, Started when I made my drive home from vacation and has gotten louder slowly since, Haven't been driving it hardly at all unless I have to.

I've had two family friends look at it who are or have been mechanics, First guy said it was a rod knock for sure and the second who has done a bit of work to these cars said the noise is definitely from the top end.

I thought it was the cam tensioner(s) before having them look at the car, and looking stuff up it seems it could be blockage, Bad oil pump, the tensioners, bad rod bearings, Where would be the best place to start? Getting the oil pressure checked?

Don't have a low oil pressure light I believe but the screen on my dash is of course on its way out, Car ran great no noise before literally the day I drove home from vacation, Has always seemed a bit sluggish and does have a cam sensor that's bad, Noise is always there but really, really quiet until hitting 2k rpms to 3k and then quiets back down above 3k but it's still decently audible.

Noise is also pretty prominent when holding the throttle to stay at speed and when slowing down the noise is near completely gone

Car is at 186k, Has been decently maintained and I just changed the oil on it last week, 5w 30

Other than that when I checked the passenger tensioner after cranking the engine by hand a few times I was able to push it down without that much force, unsure about the other or if this even matters

Sorry for giving such ludicrous detail and I know this isn't close to the first post like this but Im hoping it'll help narrow things down

Thanks in advance!

Pmulls870

Try a top end clean. replace the valve cover gaskets and run seafoam through the vacuum lines. This cleaned mine right up.

Hunter Jones

Seems odd that just a top end clean would do it but its worth a try. I just replaced the Cam tensioner, Gotta go back and fix an oil leak so shes not having any more work done until then but the cams seem to have normal wear and tear for its age. Tensioner definitely needed replaced, Idle is much more stable, Still wanders sometimes but not as much and the car revs smoother and has more power it seems and the throttle is more responsive

I am pretty concerned though, The uh mesh screen on the old original tensioner (Dont think it had ever been replaced), Had really small metal shavings caught in it. Sucks because theres no way to tell too much if the issue is from the noise ive had the past month or not because I didn't do an oil change right when I got the car.. Usually do but this time it was just stupid that I didnt.

Anyway I do need to replace the valve cover gaskets anyway too and how or more of where would I run Seafoam through the Vac. Lines? Theres a ton of them, I wouldn't even know where to start right now lol