Ticking Sound From The Engine

[gogoboygareth]

Hi guys,

I have had a VX Series II for close to a year now (it's a 2002 model - so it's approaching its second birthday soon). It's done 41,000km's (mostly country km's - I live on the south coast).

I noticed sometime after I bought it the engine would tick quietly after start up, but go away when it was warm...

... but more recently, over the past few months, the engine ticks loudly once the engine has warmed up! With the bonnet up the sound doesn't seem loud at all, but with the bonnet down, if you stick your head near the wheel arches, the loud high-pitched metallic constant "tick tick tick" can be heard over the sound of the idling engine.

I took it to the local Holden dealer (Glendon Motors Holden, Nowra), who said that the sound seemed to be coming from either an injector or a belt, but they couldn't tell. They said it would also be okay the way it was... they didn't fix it.

The sound is rather unsettling... the car drives perfectly and is in otherwise great condition. But the sound from the engine makes the car sound like it's 15 years old and in need of an engine transplant.

Anyone have any ideas, or have had this problem before? Was the local Holden dealer just "fobbing me off" when they should have repaired it?

Regards,

- Gareth

 

[MaNiac_VP]

Injectors will make a constant ticking sound, basically it sounds like tick-tick-tick-tick.
It doesn't sound disturbing thow, you haven't mentioned if its a 6 or 8

 

[holdenlover]

Is the ticking fast or slow? half a second or a second or more between each tick?
The fact that you can now hear it over the engine idling is a bit disturbing.

I am by no means an expert but will through out some of my thoughts......

If it was a problem with an injector, I assume you would be noticing it in the cars performance????? but you said it's running fine.

Could it be a pulley maybe?
Had a noisy one in one of my VR's

What do the rest of you guys think?

*Edit*

Sorry.....when I say guys, I mean the girls too.

 

[gogoboygareth]

Hi again guys (and girls, oops! I meant girls too)...

It's a V6 ecotech model.

The ticking sound isn't as noticeable with the bonnet up - i.e. the sound of the engine mostly drowns it out. With the bonnet closed, however, the tick sound seems to come straight out the wheel arches - it's really noticeable then.

The tick tick period is about a half second.... when you accelerate, the ticking gets quicker though.

You can't hear it from inside the car while driving (unless you stick your head out the window)... but the ticking can't be heard when the car is actually being driven (i.e. 60km/h) - normal engine sounds drown it out. It's really only noticable at idle and at low rpm (i.e. cruising around the car park etc, the ecotech is very quiet at low rpm).

I honestly can't comment about the performance - this is my first commodore. The local holden dealer said it drove like a semi-new car should.... they didn't see any problems with it.

- Gareth

 

[Troy]

My experience with holden is that there basically all arseholes who don't give a **** about you and don't want to fix anything cause they couldn't give a ****.
Sorry about the language but i've really had a bad run with them every time i go there, and there's been a few.

Want to get things done but they don't want to do anything, try this-

Talk to the service manager, get his name, tell him that if they don't want to fix the car you'll go to Ford, get them to find out what's wrong with it, get them to fix it, and tell him that you'll be sending that paperwork off to GMH in Melbourne in a letter with his name in it, asking for an explanation as to why you had to go to Ford to get the car fixed and why the boy's up here at Holden couldn't help you out.
They **** the gear when i did this, i swear it was running into his shoe's

As for the ticking noise, my VS did it, and my VX does it(82500km), I'll probably get told i'm wrong but here's my 2 cents worth. Look in the area of the lifters, there hydraulic so they need oil, i know there supposed to be sealed but anything that moves will leak sometime or another, have a listen to other commodores and i bet you'll find that they do it as well. Next time you go shopping look at other cars and have a listen. The tapping noise will go up and down with the rev's as it's valve-train related and it should be tapping at half the engine speed as the top end runs at half revs of the engine. Not a lot you can do about it unless you want to replace all your lifters, not to cheap from memory, and you'll be replacing them with the exact same part that started to rattle as before.

It's anoying yes, but what can you do?

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[gogoboygareth]

My local Holden dealer thankfully isn't *too* shabby... a couple of times I've dropped the car in for a fluid check (not a service, just popped in during my lunch break) and they've topped the fluid for free.

I didn't even buy my car from these guys... but I think they're just trying to keep me a happy customer so I'd return it for proper servicing.

Which I have...

I've only had one other warranty issue so far - my engine stopped once while I was taking a corner. They hooked it up to their computer, and said it was a PCM error 008 (speed sensor I believe it was). Never happened again thankfully... but they said it would be replaced if it started to play up.

The noise is annoying as all hell... but I've never really driven other commodores - so I didn't know it was normal. As long as it's not actually doing any damage, I don't mind that much.

However... I'm moving to Canberra soon. So I'll go harass one of the dealers there next month and see what they can do.

- Gareth

 

[Grantis1976]

Power steer, or a/c !

My HZ had the same thing with the power steer pump. I know theres afew yrs diff. between the 2, but at the end of the day, they are the same thing !

A/C was a tick in the VN calais. My only other thought is possibly a fuel pump.

Good Luck !!!

 

[Boeing777]

I had the same problem in my last car (JR Vectra) the sound started just after the 30,000 service and got louder until around the 45,000 mark I had all sorts of problems, wouldn't accelerate, had to change gears manually, hardly any power etc etc and the ticking noise was accompanied by a squealing noise. Turned out that a bearing on one of the pulleys in the timing kit was seized...the car was out of warranty but Holden still paid for the new kit anyway saying that the technician should have investigated the sound at its 30,000 service... its the great service I got from Holden that led me buy a VY Commodore!

 

[Garth]

my mate bought a vx s2 from the dealer also, it was one of those holden certified used car's, cost him 27k, it had 30,000 on the clock to the dot. he had the clicking sound, would just sit there at idle and tick, accelerate and it would increase with rev's, holden at springwood got a hold of it, and he didnt get the car back for 4 day's, completly new engine required, he was having oil flow problems, and starving the bottom end of his engine. pushrods were causing problems. jump on this one quickly, and get it looked at. check the grade of the oil


cheers
garth

 

[gogoboygareth]

I've been trying, but the local dealer simply says there's nothing wrong with it, and they all do that in some way or another. Some are just louder than others.

I'm moving to Canberra in a few weeks time, so I'll take it to a dealer and get them to check it out.

I might actually sell it when I get to Canberra - depending on what I can get for it.

- Gareth