Weird front End clicking/ticking

[eeston]

I have an 06 Mustang GT. It's had this funny ticking noise. I rebuild these engines so I know what the lifter tick is and what a rod knock would sound like. It's not fuel injectors either. I have to be driving the car for atleast 20ish minutes. (Warm) it never happens when I'm 2k rpm and above. It only happens when I'm pressing the gas from a stoped position. It's not super loud but it's almost like a rattle. It's coming from the front of the vehicle. It also does not make this noise in park or neutral. It does go along with the rpms. I put thicker oil 10w-30 in with recommended 5w-20 and it seemed to quiet it a small amount. Any ideas??

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

Failed timing chain tensioner?
Broken timing chain guide?

 

[JC SSP]

Can you post an audio clip?

 

[Midlife Crises]

It also does not make this noise in park or neutral

So the car must be in gear or moving to make the noise?

 

[eeston]

So the car must be in gear or moving to make the noise?

Yes the car must be in gear to make noise, I don't believe it's a bad timing tensioner or chain. I just replaced all the parts with OEM stuff. Here is a video. You will have to listen closely. It makes more of the sound in the beginning. (This is with the foot on the break and gas). It only makes this sound between 1100 rpm and 1600. It now is happening to both of my 2006 GT's

 

[eeston]

I'll actually post a video onto YouTube. So you can view it better. Here is the link

 

[eeston]

Failed timing chain tensioner?
Broken timing chain guide?

Any ideas on this?

 

[Dino Dino Bambino]

Any ideas on this?

It's difficult to diagnose just from the video. The only thing I can suggest is to raise the car on a two-post lift and have a mechanic listen underneath while you're in the driver's seat revving the engine up in 1st gear. Hopefully he might detect the source of the noise.

 

[Miker]

Confusing as you say it happens at 1100 to 1600 rpm but your video to show the noise barely hits 1000.

 

[eeston]

It's difficult to diagnose just from the video. The only thing I can suggest is to raise the car on a two-post lift and have a mechanic listen underneath while you're in the driver's seat revving the engine up in 1st gear. Hopefully he might detect the source of the noise.

It's crazy just how it's now happening to both of the cars and there is literally nothing online about it. If it were any timing components it would be making the noise the whole time, I just don't get why it would make that noise in Drive and not any other gear. The sound comes from the top of the motor?? I've unplugged/cleaned everything. I'll keep you posted about the situation. If it can happen to both of my mustangs I'm sure it will happen to someone else's

 

[Midlife Crises]

I can’t think of anything that would come and go like that. Broken or loose motor mount? Transmission mount?

 

[eeston]

It's difficult to diagnose just from the video. The only thing I can suggest is to raise the car on a two-post lift and have a mechanic listen underneath while you're in the driver's seat revving the engine up in 1st gear. Hopefully he might detect the source of the noise.

So I've had a couple different mechanics take a look, and they cannot locate the noise. They said it does sound internal. It makes the noise in reverse, drive, all 3 gears. (Automatic). Does not make the noise in park or neutral. Would someone help me, pinpoint this issue. I don't even know where to start. I can check along the roller followers again and the camshaft but after that I wouldn't know. It just doesn't seem like it would be internal because it only makes the noise in gear. Would the driveshaft or transmission effect something on the motor? Motor mounts are secure and so is the transmission mount

 

[golkhl]

Early S197 mustangs had an issue with the transmission flex plate making noise……could this be your issue?

 

[eeston]

Early S197 mustangs had an issue with the transmission flex plate making noise……could this be your issue?

To answer this question, there is not bottom end noise it's all from the top. coming from bank 1 and bank 2. I've also wiggled the flexplate and re-torqued the bolts down...

Alright so I've been doing a ton of research, bare with me this will be a good long explanation of what ive done and how the car has been acting, ill try to make it somewhat quick... so i got some really good mechanics and here is what I've come up with so far... we still cannot locate the noise. But we have done a lot of testing. I'll kind of go in order. The sound started out in Bank 1, it only made the noise with a load and the engine being hot. So I would take it for a 15-minute drive, and then we would Rev it up in Drive and reverse. The Sound would start at 1100 rpms and only fluctuate to 1300 rpms. at first we were just going through the process of elimination, we started with the cam phaser on the right side (where the noise was) we took the valve cover off and examined it. The sprocket wasn't rotated off of its normal marks, it was fully seated exactly 18mm from the back of the phaser to the first cam cap. So we assumed that the doul pin was not sheered off. We would rotate the motor and the chain would get loose and tight but on these engines it's very normal. All guides, tensioners, chains were bought brand new from Ford and nothing we could see had failed. We examined the rockers and lash adjusters. 1 cam lobe was marked up a little worse then the others so we took the Rocker out and inspected it. It was in perfect condition, we pulled the lash adjuster up as far as we could to inspect it but the cam being in the way doesn't allow for it to fully come out. It was not seized and it felt normal as we pressed on the head. Now something a bit crazy. We put everything back together and we reved it up to its 1100 zone and just kept it there until it finally killed the car, it sounded awful and was very noticeable. It gave us a P0345 code which was a Cam Sensor for bank 1. We swapped the sensors and started it up again and it actually moved the noise to the opposite side of the engine. So we assumed it was the sensor, we replaced it with a Motorcraft sensor and it didn't do anything. We then checked out the VCT/VVT solenoids... we unplugged them as it was making the noise and it would take the noise away immediately. If the noise was on bank 2 and we unplugged bank 2 solenoid it would stop the noise if the noise was on bank 2 and we unplugged bank 1 it was still there but not as noticeable. So we decided to swap out both solenoids... again same results... it would make the noise with them plugged in but not when they were unplugged. And keep in mind... it wasn't throwing any codes at all until we made it kill itself it also threw a P0010 code which just is another thing to do with the cam sensors and positioning. The timing isn't off, it doesn't throw any codes for a misfire. It's been running perfectly fine up until a couple weeks ago. What's also weird is that if you unplug the cam position sensors it also will take the noise away just like if you unplugged the VCT's... does anyone have some information or another idea of how to go about this problem? I've never seen this happen.