Hi all,

I know this subject has been talked about in the past but I believe my situation is a bit different...

Ever since I got the vehicle I've been noticing a "tick tick tick tick" sound coming from the engine bay. Most of the people on the forum notice it when the engine is stone cold and it gradually goes away. In my case, however, you can hardly hear it when you start the car, but gets progressively worse as the car heats up. When I finally get to work in the morning and park the car, I can hear a very loud ticking noise.

In addition (although this may be a different issue), when I push the throttle about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way when the engine is in the low rpm band (for example, driving in 5th gear doing about 50, about 1500 rpm), I seem to also notice a weird chugging sound that goes faster and faster as the rpms get higher. Sounds similar to the tick, but with less frequency.

I am coming from a 4 banger and have never owned a V6, or a supercharged one at that. So I'm unsure if this is just how our engines sound or not. It is annoying though, since the car should have a nice beefy smooth idle and acceleration, free of ticking. This is an SRT6.

I checked the oil level, and it looks like its at the high mark. 5w-40 Quaker state oil is in the car at the moment. It sounds like ticking lifters, but when doing research on the topic I could have swore I saw someone mention that our car doesn't have them and that's not the problem???

Please help.


EDIT: Mods, I really don't think this is SRT6 specific and I cant seem to move it to the general Xfire forum to reach a wider audience. Please do so for me!

 

I'll say this again and again. Unless you record and post audio of these sounds, we can't diagnose your problem.

It sounds like it might be a bad lifter, or a bad cam follower roller, or any number of things.

Probably not a bad big-end rod bearing unless it's been run on low/no oil.

I can, however, suggest that it's not normal for a Crossfire to make that noise. Also, you should be using 0W-40, not 5W-40. You might actually be having an issue with oil pressure (insufficient, or too much.) as 5W-40 varies in viscosity 20% more than 0W-40 over the entire temperature range.

 

Thanks sonoronos, I'll try recording the sound. The car has about 5,000 miles on this oil change and I just bought a case of mobil 1 0w-40 synthetic, so I'll change my oil and see if this solves the problem. I really hope this is the cause!

 

mercedes motors have loud injectors, just fyi.
tons of people confuse lifter tick for injector tick

 

are you using 87 octane gas?

 

Photoman, I am using 91 octane. I would be using a higher rating if the Peoples Republic of Ch.... california allowed it. So I don't think the engine is knocking, since I would really be feeling/hearing it during normal operation.

Infinite, this sound seems abnormally loud to be injectors... but I'll post a sound clip when i get a chance if my oil change doesn't improve the situation.

 

I have moved it into the Engine & Exhaust forum

 

Sorry valk, thanks for moving it for me.

So yesterday I did a complete oil change with bosch fleece filter and 8 quarts of mobil 1 0w-40... it's still ticking I was hoping that the tick was caused by the change in weight and perhaps if they overfilled it last time.

To be honest, I really can't tell if this is normal or not. It's not super loud and you can faintly hear it inside the car. Again, I'm coming from a 4 cyl stratus and this is a new "sounding" engine to me.

There are a few mercedes here at work that have the same engine, I might have to ask one of them to start it up and let me listen to it to determine if im crazy or not.

Would it also be possible to take the car to a mercedes dealership and have somebody come listen to it? Or will they not like the fact that it's technically a chrysler...

 

Have you tried taking a length of hose and using it like a stethoscope to isolate where the ticking is coming from. I have an SRT-6, and there is certainly no ticking noise coming from the engine bay. Good luck with finding a solution. Bob

 

I take my crossfire to mercedes, the chrysler dealers are totally worthless when it comes to this car

 

I'll have to try that when I get home. The only thing I know for a fact is that I hear no ticking when I start it up and let it sit for a min, but when i drive it and warm it up I can hear it. So it's fine when cold and gets worse as it heats up. I don't suppose this is a telltale sign of a bad part?

 

Unfortunately, the noise you are describing is a collapsed lifter.
If you can isolate it to one cylinder bank, you can pop off the valve cover, and see if you can locate it.
If you are mechanically inclined, you can even replace it yourself, as it isn't an overly difficult procedure, if you are used to working on cams and valves.

As for the advice you got to switch oils, the oil you had was perfectly fine.
5W-40 engine oil is recommended for the engine, as long as it meets the MB 229.3 or 229.5 standards.

There is NO difference in the protection that 5W-40 oil provides at operating temp in comparison to 0W-40, 10W-40, or even 15W-40. The difference between these grades of oil is only when the oil is COLD, when it is thick.

Unless you live in Minnesota, and its well below 0 degrees when you are getting ready to start your Crossfire up to drive to work, you won't see any difference between 0W-40 and 5W-40 from a protection standpoint.

BC.

 

Well, that sucks.

I will take it to the local MB dealer and pay them to do an inspection and tell them about the problem. What is the MB "official" name for this? Or is it just "hey, my car ticks, listen to it please".

 

A ticking that occurs after the engine has warmed up COULD imply that it's related to the changing viscosity of the oil as the engine heats.

It could also be clicking due to increasing clearances as the engine heats up.

As said before, it could be a collapsed lifter. But it could also be an intake manifold gasket leak or an exhaust manifold gasket leak.

Have you ever tried removing either of those parts, or have had those parts ever been replaced?

 

I bought the car used, apparently it has never had servicing, no parts replaced. Or so he says.

I called my local MB dealership and they said they dont have he "capacity" to diagnose problems with my car. The guy was really nice about it, but he said he couldn't order the right parts because he doesn't have a way to do so... Probably just don't want to deal with it...

I am going out to the car right now to record a sound clip and post it. Again, im not sure if it sounds normal or not, I'll leave it up to you guys to decide.

Back in a bit.

 

Crap, of course .mp3 isn't a valid extension. We'll have to do a workaround.

Ok, here are the two files I attached. They are both about 15 seconds in length, one is with the engine cold and one is with the engine warm. Aptly named warm.txt, and cold.txt.

Download the attachment and rename the files warm.txt and cold.txt to warm.mp3 and cold.mp3. Or, just force your media player to play them. Then you should be able to listen. It sounds like a sewing machine, and you should be able to hear it clearly over the normal noise of the engine. I took this sound clip from my iphone on the drivers side of the engine bay.

Tapping the gas when it's in park seems to speed up the ticking as you get higher in the rpm band. It seems to go away after about 3k rpm, only because I think i cant hear it anymore over the normal noise of the engine.

Please be so kind as to tell me if this is normal or not...

Thanks to those of you who have offered suggestions without being able to hear it. Please provide your feedback again in light of this new info.

 

Ewwww..... Definitely does not sound normal. I will leave it to others with more experience to chime in, but sounds like a bad lifter to me.

 

Everything's fine.

 

For those of you who are curious... I had a specialist listen to my car and he said there was absolutely nothing wrong with it. He told me that the ticking noise I am hearing is the fuel injectors, definitely not caused by a collapsed lifter.

So I guess I was just being too picky with the sound. I guess we just have loud injectors.

 

Do you drive this car on a daily basis? I have a 1994 mazda miata as well as a crossfire. the miata is only driven in the summer time and sits in the garage during winter. I would usually start the miata once every couple of days during winter and let it run a while. the miata ticks as well and eventually goes away. i thought it was a lifter at first but did some searches and found out that this is completely normal and nothing is wrong with the car. so when there wasnt any snow on the ground i started driving the miata and noticed that the tick went away. so if u don't drive your crossfire daily the best advice i can give you is to just drive the car everyday for a few mintutes at least and maybe this will help with that annoying tick. so i know how u feel and i hope to never run into this with my crossfire.