Ford Mustang Forum banner

2014 Mustang GT - "ticking" / "tapping" noise

10K views 26 replies 11 participants last post by  2013GTBBQ 
#1 ·
I bought a new 2014 Mustang GT with 300 miles on June 28, 2014 from a dealer in Iowa and noticed a "ticking" noise almost immediately upon arriving home in Wisconsin. Because it was inconsistent I quickly dismissed it. However, upon taking it to my local dealer on Mon, Oct 20 for it's second oil change I mentioned it and asked them to look into it. Boy, did they ever.

Summary of events:
Mon, Oct 20 I dropped her off at the dealership for an oil change and requested they look into the "ticking" or "tapping" noise. Link to video: https://app.box.com/s/5e1u8icke1ibmm8woi0t
Wed, Oct 22 I called because they still had my car and they told me that they had pinpointed the noise to the passenger side of the engine.
Thu, Oct 23 I stopped by and talked to the service manager who told me that all the compression checks are normal, power balance tests passed and there are no codes. However, the interesting news was that when they cancel cylinder #3, by disconnecting the injector, the noise goes away. Furthermore, it's at this point they went forward with the oil change and they found metallic glitter in the oil as well as a couple of small metal pieces in the oil filter. I was told they had to wait to hear from Ford before proceeding further.
Fri, Oct 24 They called me and asked me if I wanted the car for the weekend - "Heck Yeah" so I popped in and picked it up.
Mon, Oct 27 I returned the car to the dealer before leaving on a business trip.
Thu, Oct 30 I stopped by and took a photo of the top of the motor which was torn down.
The next day, Oct 31, the motor was out of the car (another photo).
Then on Mon, Nov 3 we got a good look at the piston damage plus scoring on both cylinder head cam caps as well as cylinders #3 & #4 (see photo). There was also shading on cylinder walls on most of the cylinders.
Wed, Nov 5 the Service Manager called me and told me he had completed cost cap analysis and Ford agreed to replace the engine.
Thu, Nov 13 I picked her back up with a brand new engine.

Moral of the story: Don't let your dealer tell you that "ticking" or "tapping" noise is nothing and try to dismiss it. Be persistent and insist that they diagnose the problem.

Good luck!
 

Attachments

See less See more
3
G
#2 ·
HOLY CRAP!!!......There is some MAJOR DAMAGE there brother!facepalm2.gif....I suspect some type of malfunction with the Oil Pump from the Get-Go!......Did you ever notice ANY Detonation or Preignition when the motor was under load?......Ya See! THIS IS WHY I SAY THAT REGARDLESS OF THE TUNE (EVEN OEM) THAT THESE BULLETS WITH THEIR 11.0:1 Compression, SHOULD NEVER BE RUN WITH FUEL THAT HAS A R+M~2 Of LESS THAN 91 OCTANE!!...... I mean 11.0:1 comp. with Cast Hypereutectic Slugs, then some 87 Octane Crap Gas, Put her under Heavy Load, and Voila! Sure recipe for either a Broken Top Ring Land. Or a Ventilated Blockdissapointed.gif........Heck I would have asked Ford if I could pay the extra $1,200 Bucks for an Aluminator Coyote just to get a Completely Forged Rotating assembly!.............But believe Me, Your case (With the Tick) is NOT the Norm.....
Something else definitely went amiss with that Bullet.....Is it A GREAT idea to do due diligence if you think something is amiss? Absolutely!.....But The Motor in those Pics. was headed for Catastrophic Failure very soon.......
Glad that everything is turning out for the Better in your case.:handshake

Sean.
 
#3 ·
I couldn't get the video to download but that could be on my end. Either way, glad your dealer took care of you quickly instead of telling you they couldn't find a problem and giving you the run a round.

Unfortunately things like this happen to a degree across all makes and models. Enjoy your car/new engine! I'm sure it's better than new now!

Did your noise sound like an exhaust leak (passenger side) as others have mentioned that have had their motors replaced? How many miles were on the motor that was replaced?
 
#6 ·
I couldn't get it to work on my iPad but was able to on my laptop. Are you on a PC or tablet? It wouldn't even download on my iPad, even with the Box app, but worked right away on the PC.
 
#5 ·
I just got the video to work on my PC. Man, OP, that sounded horrible. Like I said, glad it's fixed.
 
#8 ·
Hi David - very sorry to hear about this - I hope they do a good job of the reinstall.

You mentioned you brought it in for it's second oil change - so I'm assuming it had it's first oil change at the 300 mile or before mark ? Ie before you bought it.

Do you know when it had it's first change ??
 
#10 ·
When was your first oil change? I have also read that some people felt that changing out the factory fill too early possibly caused these problems. Not sure I buy into that but some say there is a break-in additive in the factory fill oil. No one has shown definitive proof of that though, but that could be the case.
 
#11 ·
I bought the car in Iowa and upon arriving home in Wisconsin I took it to my local dealer and bought a 10-pack service package. At that time they told me to bring it in before 5k miles for it's first oil change. I took it in on Aug 7 with 3,883 and they put in 5/20 fully synthetic oil. I asked about subsequent changes and was told between 5,000-7,500 miles. So after 4,000 of mostly highway miles I took it back in on Oct 20 with 8,727 miles for the second change and that's when they investigated the ticking noise and ultimately replaced the motor.

Link to Youtube video of ticking sound prior to engine replacement: 2014 Mustang Ticking - YouTube

Cheers!
 
#13 ·
So it had the noise well before your first oil change, from what I read in your original post, right?
 
#19 ·
Hi David,

Just curious, Did you notice the ticking to calm down or pick up with increased engine heat? Mine is not Constant as you mentioned above but when the engine is first started it sounds very similar to yours around the 1k RPM mark. After 5 minutes the tick normally dissipates. Was having an extremely hard time getting the dealer to do anything because it goes away after a little while.

(Listen to 8 seconds and 24 seconds while my phone is inside the car. Constant "Tap Tap Tap" with engine speed) Sorry, was hard to keep the RPMs at a constant speed while holding my phone under the car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG3TdZMQH8Q&index=2&list=UUhJU0Z_04hxcTFE827b6RnQ
 
#15 ·
Good idea for troubleshooting at dealership to isolate by turning off injectors one at a time off/on before tearing it all down. Sorry to hear of the issue, but at least you got it back in tip-top shape. Pay attention to rear end whine that may crop up over time. That was my warranty repair. Pinion bearing noise/whine. You gotta listen to those off-beat non-normal noises. They tell you something, like a storybook.
 
#16 ·
mine does the same thing right at 800-1,200 rpms.

Glad you got it sorted out and Ford came through.
 
#20 ·
Update

Update as of today:

I took the car back to the dealer and called ford. Made some very nice demands for Ford to provide a rental car til the issue was fixed since this is my DD. After about a week, the dealership was first, going to remove the oil pan to inspect the bearings after hearing the noise. Not sure if they ever did, but I was told a new short block was shipped by Ford and they are going to replace it based on my above video.

-Michael
 
#21 ·
That's awesome they got you taken care of. My tick is exactly the same as yours. Any chance you'd be willing to share the diagnosis and maybe your VIN in a PM? Folks like me could hopefully use it as ammunition at our dealerships "look up this recent service on this car, same issue!".

Thanks again for posting a follow-up!
 
#22 ·
Hi Xarius,

I will get back to you with the information as soon as i can.
I am not sure what my "diagnosis" was according to the dealership, but i'll make sure to get all that information for you.
I just got word today of the new short block, so I'll start gathering more information once they start taking the old block out and I am DEFINITELY moving forward.
 
#23 ·
Thanks! I'd really appreciate that. I haven't been able to get any traction at all on my tick.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Peachdown, what did you do to show the video, phone and headphones type thing? I tried to bring it to Walnut Creek Ford for this kind of thing and they didn't really care to hear the video, they couldn't reproduce the noise and told me to bring it back when I could. Was your car making the noise when your brought it to the dealer?
 
#25 ·
Hey Bro,

As i said in my PM just so everyone else knows. I actually went out of my way to duplicate the noise and my service guy was very helpful. He did listen to the video, and it did not make it the first time i brought the car in. Needless to say they sent it back to me after. Then, I stopped at the dealer at 5:30am 2 weeks after my oil change, went back to sleep until my service appointment at 7:30am-ish. After 2 hours of cooling off, the car makes the noise violently loud and the service guy heard it. They still sent it back a week later.

Then, I went to Ford.com, and contacted FORD via Email. In the email I said this is the dealer, its not there yet. I can drop it off tomorrow morning, but i want assurance of a rental car until the issue is resolved or diagnosed. The service guy heard the noise last time so he knows I'm not lying. Can you please have the service guy call me when he knows FORD will pay for the rental car, and not the dealer. Ford company called me two days later, said my service guy would be calling me within the next business day to let you know we are providing a rental car and support.

I got the call and dropped it off the day after. Still driving my rental car 2 weeks later and they are swapping the engine as I post. I asked for pictures of the pistons and such but no guarantees I can get them.

Regards.

**Edit: "makes the noise violently loud" --- For clarification purposes, I can actually slightly feel the tick in the accelerator peddle under light load. In my video above, the sound quality of iPhone4 is ****, so that is all i could get sound wise. But as a reference sound, that is a Roush-Exhaust axle-back.
 
#26 ·
Update again: I saw pictures from the dealer and nothing special to see honestly. I didn't get to see the bearings since they didn't tear the bottom end apart, but I saw the piston heads and they looked good. Since the block looked fine, I didn't want to make a big fuss about getting copies.

On the bright side, the ticking is 100% gone, and my god does it sound/drive great.
 
#27 ·
You got it back already? Awesome.

I took mine to the dealer and got them to admit finally that it sounded exactly the same as the instance which they dealt with before.

I meant to ask, did your dealer volunteer that the only thing that got rid of the tick was to change the engine, or did Ford say that?

Thanks. Glad it all went well.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top