slvr08gt
forum member
Just a warning, kind of a long post. Cliff notes at the bottom.......
I purchased my GT500 from a dealer about 2 weeks ago. When I first checked the car over prior to buying, I noticed it had a horrible ticking sound coming from the driver side lower wheel well area while idling that increased with RPM. I am VERY familiar with injector tick from owning two 04' cobras years ago and I was pretty sure it had a bad/stuck lifter(Hydraulic Lash Adjuster) or possibly a bad valve guide.
Prior to signing the line I made sure the car had a clean oasis report and valid remaining warranty. Also made it clear to the Sales Manager that the car would be brought back in to them the next business day to be fully diagnosed so the ticking sound could be fixed. Told them that was my only requirement to sign the line. Other than the ticking sound, it was an extremely clean GT500.
Fast forward to me taking the car in to service. Dropped the car off for 5-6 hours. Got a call back from my SA telling me that the lead tech working on my car is saying the tick definitely isn't normal but he doesn't know what it is. They instructed me to drive it for a week and report back. Meanwhile they would request authorization through the Ford Tech Hotline to open up the engine to further diagnose. SA advised me that they have logged my concern in the vehicle history and if something got worse I wouldn't be held liable.
Fast forward another week. My SA calls to tell me that Ford denied the warranty request to further diagnose do to there being no "solid" symptom of something seriously wrong or out of place
. Pretty much told me I was SOL and live with the ticking sound.
Another week goes by and I couldn't take it anymore. The ticking sound seemed to be getting louder and it sounded horrible, embarrassed to drive it at this point. I decided to personally call the owner of the dealership to express how happy I was with his service department and sales team for keeping up to their end of the deal. He asked me to drive the car for another 3 weeks and to get back to him. He said that if the sound didn't go away he would personally ensure that the repair would get done even if his dealership covered it out of their own pocket. At this point I thought what the hell and agreed since it was better than nothing.
The day after my conversation with the owner(today), I was stopped at a traffic light and the ticking noise randomly just STOPPED. During my commute to where I was going I also didn't hear and ticking sound echoing off vehicles or guard rails that were to my left that I normally would easily hear. I also noticed throttle response was much snappier then it had been.
Got to my destination, and put my head near the bottom of the wheel well on my drivers side. Not a single loud ticking sound still, just a solid purring idle. I could hear the injectors pulsing/cycling from above but it was nothing compared to the tick sound I have been hearing for the past two weeks.
The only thing I can guess is that there was a small piece of debris in one of the lifters that was causing it to not function properly. I changed the oil the day after I took delivery and used Amosil 10W40 along with the normal MC 820S filter. I don't know if the oil viscosity changed in the last 300 miles or what but it seems odd that the tick just disappeared out of no where. Just to be clear, the ticking sound my made didn't matter if the engine was cold or hot, warm start or cold start, the tick sound was always there prior to today.
I would love to think to myself "Yay my car is fixed
" but I'm trying to not get too excited yet. Has anyone experienced a stuck/bad lifter that randomly unstuck itself and continued to operate properly? Or did the problem come back down the road??
I'm sure my situation is unique but would like to know if I should still pursue trying to get them to fix what seems to have fixed itself today. I plan to give it a week and go from there. The real test will be a cold start tomorrow morning. My fingers, toes, and other body parts are crossed, lol.
Opinions / Suggestion??
CLIFF NOTES:
- Bought car 2 weeks ago with abnormally loud ticking sound, car under warranty
- Dealer played screw around games for a week on diagnosing it
- Dealer was denied warranty request to fully diagnose a few days later
- One week later the tick randomly disappeared following week.
- (Worth mentioning) Day after I took delivery, oil was changed with Amsoil 10W40 and MC 820S filter
- Asking for opinions/suggestions if I should still pursue them to diagnosing it
-Nick
I purchased my GT500 from a dealer about 2 weeks ago. When I first checked the car over prior to buying, I noticed it had a horrible ticking sound coming from the driver side lower wheel well area while idling that increased with RPM. I am VERY familiar with injector tick from owning two 04' cobras years ago and I was pretty sure it had a bad/stuck lifter(Hydraulic Lash Adjuster) or possibly a bad valve guide.
Prior to signing the line I made sure the car had a clean oasis report and valid remaining warranty. Also made it clear to the Sales Manager that the car would be brought back in to them the next business day to be fully diagnosed so the ticking sound could be fixed. Told them that was my only requirement to sign the line. Other than the ticking sound, it was an extremely clean GT500.
Fast forward to me taking the car in to service. Dropped the car off for 5-6 hours. Got a call back from my SA telling me that the lead tech working on my car is saying the tick definitely isn't normal but he doesn't know what it is. They instructed me to drive it for a week and report back. Meanwhile they would request authorization through the Ford Tech Hotline to open up the engine to further diagnose. SA advised me that they have logged my concern in the vehicle history and if something got worse I wouldn't be held liable.
Fast forward another week. My SA calls to tell me that Ford denied the warranty request to further diagnose do to there being no "solid" symptom of something seriously wrong or out of place
. Pretty much told me I was SOL and live with the ticking sound.Another week goes by and I couldn't take it anymore. The ticking sound seemed to be getting louder and it sounded horrible, embarrassed to drive it at this point. I decided to personally call the owner of the dealership to express how happy I was with his service department and sales team for keeping up to their end of the deal. He asked me to drive the car for another 3 weeks and to get back to him. He said that if the sound didn't go away he would personally ensure that the repair would get done even if his dealership covered it out of their own pocket. At this point I thought what the hell and agreed since it was better than nothing.
The day after my conversation with the owner(today), I was stopped at a traffic light and the ticking noise randomly just STOPPED. During my commute to where I was going I also didn't hear and ticking sound echoing off vehicles or guard rails that were to my left that I normally would easily hear. I also noticed throttle response was much snappier then it had been.
Got to my destination, and put my head near the bottom of the wheel well on my drivers side. Not a single loud ticking sound still, just a solid purring idle. I could hear the injectors pulsing/cycling from above but it was nothing compared to the tick sound I have been hearing for the past two weeks.
The only thing I can guess is that there was a small piece of debris in one of the lifters that was causing it to not function properly. I changed the oil the day after I took delivery and used Amosil 10W40 along with the normal MC 820S filter. I don't know if the oil viscosity changed in the last 300 miles or what but it seems odd that the tick just disappeared out of no where. Just to be clear, the ticking sound my made didn't matter if the engine was cold or hot, warm start or cold start, the tick sound was always there prior to today.
I would love to think to myself "Yay my car is fixed
" but I'm trying to not get too excited yet. Has anyone experienced a stuck/bad lifter that randomly unstuck itself and continued to operate properly? Or did the problem come back down the road??I'm sure my situation is unique but would like to know if I should still pursue trying to get them to fix what seems to have fixed itself today. I plan to give it a week and go from there. The real test will be a cold start tomorrow morning. My fingers, toes, and other body parts are crossed, lol.
Opinions / Suggestion??
CLIFF NOTES:
- Bought car 2 weeks ago with abnormally loud ticking sound, car under warranty
- Dealer played screw around games for a week on diagnosing it
- Dealer was denied warranty request to fully diagnose a few days later
- One week later the tick randomly disappeared following week.
- (Worth mentioning) Day after I took delivery, oil was changed with Amsoil 10W40 and MC 820S filter
- Asking for opinions/suggestions if I should still pursue them to diagnosing it
-Nick
If you feel the sound is excessive then continue pursuing, but if not I wouldn't worry about it. Enjoy your GT500!
