i have a 2002 V6 and i am starting to notice a ticking/pinging sound coming from the passenger side of the engine. any ideas on what this may be? i'm thinking an exhaust leak, are there any tips on how to check? oh i have 77,000 miles on it.

 

It is. I had the same issue with my 6er. Ford has a TSB out on it. I forget if it's the manifolds or the gaskets that are the problem, though....

 

mine is doing the same thing and its an exhuast leak, so now i just gotta hurry up and buy my force mufflers so i can have my full exhuast installed including longtubes

 

probably an exhaust leak. mine was where the header collector welds onto the front cat. it was a bad weld and the damn weld actually broke completely off when i was messin w/ it.

 

I've heard the headers tend to crack at a weld causing the ticking noise. being steel though you can re-weld it or buy shorty headers.

 

thanks for the replies i'm going to take a look at it over the weekend. i can deal with an exhaust leak i just didn't want anything major broken.

 

is there any good way to check for an exhaust leak, i have searched my car which u can hear very loudly ( the leak) when i rev and let off

 

+1 on the cracked manifold. Visual inspection (obvious) or stethiscope (careful though... it gets really hot!!)

 

I know Ford has a TSB on this, will they usually fix something like this for free or with a discount. Or am I pretty much stuck doing it myself? If I do need to replace the headers is there a brand people recommend. I've looked at BBK are they any good?

 

I just found out whats wrong with my car. It seems that yeah the problem on our cars are the manifold thingy. I dont know for certain but I read a little guide on how to repair a head gasket and it pretty much sounded like mine, it's where the manifold meets the heads "head gasket" I suppose, well the gasket being shyty as it is it like allows some seepage or oil/coolent into/out of the ingine, so this would explain the sweet sorta smell I would encounter when driving for a long while and why there was oil in my radiator.

Anybody have an idea how much this would cost me to repair.