eeston
Junior Member
Hey I've been having a very specific problem with my Mustangs. No mechanic has been able to diagnose them. I've even had ford specialists help me out. I'll give you guys a pretty detailed explanation of the history of the car, the problems, and what I've done to fix them.
So let's start off with the actual problem. It is a rattling/ticking noise coming from the center of bank 1. Before you let loose on me about it being bad rockers or lash adjusters or fuel injectors, just hear me out.
When I first purchased the car the timing went out, guides, chains, tensioners... they were all busted. I tore the motor down to its block. There was slight damage to one of the cylinder heads. So I replaced the valve and valve guide incase it had bent. No other markings on the pistons, they looked in really good shape. Cleaned it all, put new timing components in from Ford.
First issue I dealt with, when installing the phasers 2 of them broke. I was not man handling them, I was doing exactly what I was supposed to and I installed them correctly. Both of them for bank 1. Placed a 3rd one in and It didn't break. 2nd problem I noticed... when installing the timing components there was slack in the chain when you rotated the motor, it would get tight and then loose on opposite sides. Not a lot but a good amount. I've read that this is normal but it definitely didn't seem normal. I replaced the tensioners and again same amount of slack. I proceeded to just put everything back together. Everything was torqued to spec.
Now after about 1000 miles of driving the car. It started making this loud rattle noise. Here is the quirk though. The car has to be hot, the car also has to be in gear. Park or neutral does not make the noise. Which means the car has to have a load on it. It only makes the noise between 1100 rpm and 1300 rpm.
We started out with process of elimination. We took the valve covers off and checked the phasers, guides, camshaft, rockers and lash adjusters. Found one cam lobe scored up a bit more then others, we removed the Rocker and it worked and looked perfect. We tested the lash adjuster and it wasn't seized, it didn't have gunk on it either.
Then we decided to put it all back together and try out the VVT solenoids, once the sound was being made we would unplug the bank 1 VVT and it would immediately take the noise away. So I took the vvt out and tested it, it worked perfectly fine. I went and swapped in a new one. EXACT same noise when plugging it all back in.
We decided to see if we could kill the car by making the noise. And yes we got it killed after we tortured it in the 1100 rpm zone. It threw 2 codes. P0345 and P0010. I decided to swap the cam piston sensors and it moved the noise from bank 1 to bank 2. So I thought it was the sensors I replaced bank 2 sensor because it was previously in bank 1 and I believed it to be faulty. It didn't make a difference.
We then decided to remove the plug for the VVT on bank 2 and it would completely take the noise away again. We would plug it back in and It would almost make the car die. We did the same thing but removed bank 1 VVT sensor and it dampened the noise but didn't take it away.
Then i decided to see if unplugging the cam sensors would take it away and it did... but again we replaced them brand new. We checked both sides of the valve train, everything looked perfectly fine. Zero damage. I did a mix of oil 50% 5w-20 (what ford recommends) and 50% 10w-30. Oil that's much thicker. To help out with the lash adjusters. That slightly quieted the noise.
Has anyone experienced this problem??? I would appreciate if anyone has some knowledge. It's now happening to both of my mustangs and no one has seen this problem. Thanks in advance!
So let's start off with the actual problem. It is a rattling/ticking noise coming from the center of bank 1. Before you let loose on me about it being bad rockers or lash adjusters or fuel injectors, just hear me out.
When I first purchased the car the timing went out, guides, chains, tensioners... they were all busted. I tore the motor down to its block. There was slight damage to one of the cylinder heads. So I replaced the valve and valve guide incase it had bent. No other markings on the pistons, they looked in really good shape. Cleaned it all, put new timing components in from Ford.
First issue I dealt with, when installing the phasers 2 of them broke. I was not man handling them, I was doing exactly what I was supposed to and I installed them correctly. Both of them for bank 1. Placed a 3rd one in and It didn't break. 2nd problem I noticed... when installing the timing components there was slack in the chain when you rotated the motor, it would get tight and then loose on opposite sides. Not a lot but a good amount. I've read that this is normal but it definitely didn't seem normal. I replaced the tensioners and again same amount of slack. I proceeded to just put everything back together. Everything was torqued to spec.
Now after about 1000 miles of driving the car. It started making this loud rattle noise. Here is the quirk though. The car has to be hot, the car also has to be in gear. Park or neutral does not make the noise. Which means the car has to have a load on it. It only makes the noise between 1100 rpm and 1300 rpm.
We started out with process of elimination. We took the valve covers off and checked the phasers, guides, camshaft, rockers and lash adjusters. Found one cam lobe scored up a bit more then others, we removed the Rocker and it worked and looked perfect. We tested the lash adjuster and it wasn't seized, it didn't have gunk on it either.
Then we decided to put it all back together and try out the VVT solenoids, once the sound was being made we would unplug the bank 1 VVT and it would immediately take the noise away. So I took the vvt out and tested it, it worked perfectly fine. I went and swapped in a new one. EXACT same noise when plugging it all back in.
We decided to see if we could kill the car by making the noise. And yes we got it killed after we tortured it in the 1100 rpm zone. It threw 2 codes. P0345 and P0010. I decided to swap the cam piston sensors and it moved the noise from bank 1 to bank 2. So I thought it was the sensors I replaced bank 2 sensor because it was previously in bank 1 and I believed it to be faulty. It didn't make a difference.
We then decided to remove the plug for the VVT on bank 2 and it would completely take the noise away again. We would plug it back in and It would almost make the car die. We did the same thing but removed bank 1 VVT sensor and it dampened the noise but didn't take it away.
Then i decided to see if unplugging the cam sensors would take it away and it did... but again we replaced them brand new. We checked both sides of the valve train, everything looked perfectly fine. Zero damage. I did a mix of oil 50% 5w-20 (what ford recommends) and 50% 10w-30. Oil that's much thicker. To help out with the lash adjusters. That slightly quieted the noise.
Has anyone experienced this problem??? I would appreciate if anyone has some knowledge. It's now happening to both of my mustangs and no one has seen this problem. Thanks in advance!
