I was wondering if somebody could help me out. I have a 04 ford f-150 with a 4.6L with around 180,000 miles on it. I the morning and to some degree in the afternoon after work on start up I get a noise from the front of the Motor. It quits after a few seconds, but I am concerned about it. I replaced all my belt pulleys and tensioners and I guess It's either the water pump, PS pump, Alternator or A/C Compressor....How do you seperate all those sounds??

Craig

 

Does is sound like a rattling sound?

 

Yes, kind of....any ideas?

 

Common issue, mine does the same thing. I forgot what the exact issue is but I believe the rattling sound you hear is the timing chain.

 

I hear a similar random rattling noise coming from the front of the truck almost every morning when I start the truck up for the first time that day, or if the truck has been sitting for more than a few hours. The only other time I hear it is when I'm driving very slow around 10-15 mph, same random rattling coming from underneath the front of the truck.

Is it confirmed that it's the timing chain? Is that a hard fix?

 

Not sure it's an easy fix or not but I believe it's the timing chain tensioner. And as far as i know, the only symptom is a rattle upon start up. I've never heard mine at any other time.

 

I just did mine, very labor intensive job, if you have the time you can do it. My chain was eating away the timing cover and even the oil pump, I noticed when I changed the oil and saw a lot of "metal dust" in it. My truck sounds a lot better now but I have a problem at idle, I believe that is vaccum related, Im still looking for a solution.

 

If you don't mind me asking, how much did the parts cost?

 

I bought the Cloyes timing kit from RockAuto, the kit comes with the guides, chains, and tensioners, I payed $155 for the kit. You also need the crank seal, I bought the timing gasket kit (Felpro $50) that brings the seal, the gaskets for the timing cover and also brings the gaskets for the VCT housing. Most people also replace the Cam phasers and VCT solenoids when they tackel this job, but my phasers looked really good when I opened it up.

 

Could be chain tensioners or it can be lash adjusters and/ or followers. Buy an automotive stethoscope and hold it to valve covers, if you here noise in there like ticking or rattling it's the lash adjusters. When the oil drains back usually after sitting for hours it will have a start up rattle that lasts around 2 seconds.