Villiska

Alright, so I've been through hell and back in this little car. It's my first car, it just hit over 200k about 2 weeks ago and it has to last me until around July of next year when I can get my new car. This may be a little long, but I want to be thorough with explaining what I've experienced. I'll try to provide a TL;DR at the bottom.

So, I woke up this morning and walked out to my car. I started it and as soon as I started it, it felt like the the car shook and it made a thud noise before I hear an insane ticking/slapping noise. Now, this has done this before in the past but it was because it was burning oil at the time (I fixed that issue awhile back by changing the oil to 10W30 Full Synthetic + Anti Drainback K&N Filter) and it was low on oil. I'd normally add a quart and it'd be fine for a long time after that. So, I check the oil and it reads low, but I noticed there was little splats of oil on the sides of the dipstick, so it didn't look like a correct reading or whatever. Either way, where it stopped being a full line of oil, it was low. I added a quart and re-started the car for it to continue doing this.

I re-checked the oil and it's about an inch and a half over the full line now, without splatters on the side. It's a full thick reading. Too much oil, I'll need to drain some. However, this means it wasn't low on oil and instead I think it's having an issue with getting oil up into the top of the motor when it starts. Bad oil pump?

I let the car idle while it was ticking and it began to slow down and the ticking was a very light lifter tick sort of sound, so I drove it to work. About 15 minutes into my commute, the ticking and all noises alike completely stopped but I'm worried this will become a permanent problem. I just changed the oil to this car 2 weeks ago along with the filter, fuel filter, spark plugs, and spark plug wires or whatever the hose things are. This work was done by my friend who knows his way around Fords and I trust with my car.

What worries me this time around is that it didn't happen due to a lack of oil in the vehicle, but more so the fact it couldn't get the oil to the motor when I started it. What could be causing this? I don't see any permanent damage and the ticking noises did stop, so I'm hoping nothing is damaged beyond repair, but there's definitely an issue and I'd really like to avoid the shop. The last time I went there I spent $500 and my issues I went there for weren't fixed. I can't afford to do that again for a car with 200k miles.

Selling the vehicle and buying a different one until next year just isn't an option right now. I'll be a lot better off financially next year which is why I need this car to get me through this Winter and Summer of 2015. If anyone can please throw some ideas at me as to what could cause this, so my friend and I can check it after work, I'd be very grateful.

I love this car to death and apart from this issue, this car has no problems whatsoever for a car with 200k+ under her belt.

Villiska

Anyone?

PNYXPRESS

Sounds like a lifter. These cars have hydraulic lifters and one may not be pumping up fast enough and is ticking. Not a huge problem but it could eventually turn into one.

Villiska

How do you go about fixing that or diagnosing it? How much would it cost? A guy next door who isn't a reputable mechanic at all, but a mechanic nonetheless came over and heard it since my friend is on a job right now, and he said I need a new engine but he doesn't speak much english. This is really scaring me because I don't have the money for a new car and I have no idea what I'm going to do if I can't fix this.

Villiska

I just found a video on Youtube with the same sound I have.


However, when I drove it for 10 minutes the noise went away as if the oil got into it and made the noise go away. I don't know.

BabyGT

Ooh prey its not a rod bearing, that's basically a new engine. Does it sound like its coming from the top or bottom half of the engine?

PNYXPRESS

Pull the head and remove the lifter. If you know exactly which one it is.

Villiska

Apparently it was valve slap coming from too thick of an oil. I was using 10W30 Mobil 1 and it was having a hard time getting the oil into the motor. I changed back to my usual Castrol Edge Full Synthetic 5W30 and it's not ticking anymore. However, some bad things have happened.

When I had to drive my car to work with way too much oil, by the end of the day when I went to drive to get my oil to do the change with my friend, my car had horrible oil pressure and it almost died on me when I started it. I changed the oil and the ticking noise is gone. I drove the car for about 5 minutes up the road and back and parked it for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes I started the car and it had bad oil pressure again. Not as bad, it only took one small rev to get it back to normal, but it's making me fear the morning tomorrow.

When I did the oil change, the oil was really dark, much darker than 3 week old oil should be which leaves me wondering if that Mobil 1 cleared out a lot of debris/sludge that was keeping my motor functioning properly and if I should expect a lot of problems in the coming future.

I'm really stressing over this because losing this car will really, really hurt me. I'm praying that I'll wake up to it starting normally with good oil pressure and no ticking and remain stable like that for the next 8 months. I feel so worried I could throw up.

BabyGT

Well cross your fingers, if the correct oil got rid of the tick, and the pressure did come up chances are you're going to be alright. I can't believe none of us caught the oil weight being to thick. That should have been the first thing we noticed, I was to focused on the tick.

A clean engine is a happy engine, as long as there were no metal pieces in the oil when you drained it I'm willing to bet you are fine.

PNYXPRESS

I saw the oil weight but it never occurred to me that 10w30 would be too thick for our cars, esp being synthetic. To me thick oil is 20w50. Glad it appears to have solved your issue and good to know about the oil weight.