BBQ Tick After Oil Change...

[Kong76]

How many miles?

Just turned 24k.

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[CEHollier]

Just turned 24k.

Mine started right after an oil change at 27,000 miles. Always took it to the dealer and used motorcraft full synthetic. And mine sounded like the ticking video you posted. Sound most prevalent under car from drivers side. Not present at cold start. Begins ticking around 185 degrees. Worse with AC on. Hot temperatures worsen the sound.

 

[TheLion]

It'll be interesting to see how mine turns out. I'm at 20k. So far the only "BBQ like" ticking I get is at low engine load when starting from a stop. I started in 1st, 2nd and 3rd and it is still present. Strangely it does not occur if I load the engine more by leave the e-brake on and starting.

My ticking is far quieter than anything in those videos but it does sound just like it in terms of pitch, tone and being somewhat sporadic. Weather it's normal or not I couldn't say other than it's always done that since the car had just 5,600 miles on it when I first purchased it. I cannot hear it inside the cabin, I can't even hear it with the windows down and music off unless I'm next to another car or a wall, but once I am next to something like that it's easily audible.

I drive the car hard frequently, so we'll see how it holds up, I have a warranty to fall back on and I have a second vehicle anyway. If Ford screwed up it's on their dime.

I wonder if there was a bad batch of botched cranks or rods. This may not be a crank issue necesarily, it could also be rods that are out of spec on the big end. I don't think this is a rod bearing issue per say (as in a rash of spun bearings, but there are one or two with that issue for sure). As I said before however, 99% of these occur well within the infant mortality period, well under 36k miles. There's only one car that made it past that mileage before it started ticking, he was in the mid 40k range.

Ford has sold a little over 300,000 first gen S550's since 2014. If memory serves correctly about 60% of mustang sales are Ecoboost and V6. So that leaves around 120,000 GT's with the 5.0. Lets not forget the F-150. While the 5.0 in the F-150 isn't identical in it's configuration, it's very similar and shares the same crank. If you count the F-150 sales in that same time frame, that's 2.4 million F-series trucks and I believe the 5.0 market share has been slowly declining in favor of the Ecoboost and now the new 3.0L Turbo Diesel for 2018, but it was 25% for 2018, so let's assume 25% for 2015-2017.

That is 600,000 F-150's for 2015-2017 that use the exact same crank as the 5.0 Mustang GT's and I believe the same block. I'm not aware of any TSB's for the F-150 or issues with the F-150's and a BBQ tick. I know there were several that had cylinder distortion issues causing knock, but not a tick. So that's very interesting.

@CEHollier, you really lucked out getting a new bottom end with all those mods...I'm quite surprised they didn't make you pay for a new short block.

 

[Kong76]

My symptoms fall exactly under every condition you all have mentioned. Engine hot, low load, sporadic etc. I will note that this started after the first oil change at 2000 miles. It comes back after every change ( all done by dealer). Only thing I have noticed is that every time it comes back its louder. It does seem to subside after about 1500 miles after the change.

 

[scotty]

I'm another one who's symptoms fall under those same conditions... It also gets louder after an oil change for about 1000-1500km, then quiets down.

I was in the drive thru this morning and when I went to pull up to the window I heard the tick - only when I gave the car very light throttle, a little intermittent *tick*..... *tick tick*.... FWIW, I was at the Woodward Dream Cruise all last weekend beating on the car, WOT 7K pulls everywhere... light-to-light racing... burnouts.... It never skipped a beat.

After my oil change next week I'm going to dump this bottle of Ceratec in, forget about this issue and get back to enjoying the car.

 

[TheLion]

Yup, that's what I hear on my 2016 PP GT. It's only when next to something that echoes sound and only if the windows are down and music is low or off. Otherwise I can't hear it as it's not loud enough. I can't say how the car behaved since new. I have no idea if the previous owner changed the oil after the first 1,000 miles, 2,000 miles, 3,000 or any mileage in between, I only know the dealer change the oil and filter at 5,600 miles when it was traded in.

However I DO know it's not possible for previous owner to have over used the oil and caused an issue. Since the car had only 5,600 miles on it when I traded in my Ecoboost for it and the oil life sensor indicator stated the oil had 16% life remaining on it. The dealer neglected to reset the oil life sensor and when I was going through the menus I did so myself.

So Ford must have set the ECU oil life calculations calibrated to 1/2 the normal service interval for the first oil change? Ever since then it's only gotten to abut 50% by the time I have 5,000 miles after a change, so that's par for the course with a 10k service interval. At any rate, I have no idea if the car did this since new (the mild tick under low load at low RPM), but I believe the factory fill was in there for 5,600 miles, then it was changed with a Motorcraft FL500-S filter and Motorcraft 5W-20 Semi-syn oil and sat inside their showroom floor (wasn't even outside) for a few months (was traded at the end of summer of 2017, I bought it in December of 2018). So that much I do know and obviously I know what I've done with it since then.

I've changed the oil every 5,000 miles since despite the oil life indicator saying I have 50% service life remaining on the oil based on my driving. I may go to 7,000 intervals at some point but since I'm hard on the car and tuned (Ford Performnace Power Pack 2, registered for warranty), it's cheap insurance. I can get Mobil 1 Advanced Synthetic for $23 a 5 quart jug and MC FL500-S filter for $7. So an oil change runs a little under $55 doing it myself and about 30 minutes time.

Mobil 1 meets or exceeds both Ford's and GM's latest specifications for 5W-20 (GM's are slightly more stringent than Ford's), so there's absolutely no reason for any oil related issue to occur, especially since the oil I'm using exceeds OE specs and is changed at 1/2 the normal service interval. The car uses about 1/2 quart every 5,000 miles on MC, slightly less on full synthetics (MC does have higher NOACK). That's pretty normal, especially with how hard I drive the car and how often I drive it hard.

Just like @scotty's, it never skips a beat. Power delivery is smooth as butter, no stuttering (well unless I accidentally engage NLS), with a catch can there's also no power fade even if I keep at it and do some back country road racing for 10, 15 or 20 mintues at a time. That's constant accelerate, brake, hold in the 4k~5k rpm range, then do it again. Oil temps typically get in the upper 2/3 to 3/4 of the green on the "idiot gauge" oil temp, but never higher than that. No nannies kick in to protect anything from over heating (including the Torsen diff). It just runs and runs without any issues.

If there's any ticking, it's not loud enough for me to detect even with the windows down and passing next to a barrier when I'm actually driving the car. I don't believe it occurs however when loaded under normal driving. I've tried lugging the engine in the 1500-2000 RPM range several times in 4th, 5th and 6th when driving over a bridge (cement barricade on both sides) and never heard any ticking at all. I've tried 25%, 50% and 75% and 100% throttle in each of those gears and have not induced any abnormal sounds. Smooth as butter and rythmic. I've even tried starting the car from a stop with the e-brake on just to add extra engine load, guess what? No tick.

It ONLY seems to occur when starting from a stop under light load, mostly in the 1500 to 2500 RPM range. Once I get above that it either goes away or I can't detect it over other noises. And I cannot hear it period if the windows are up or the music is on unless it's way down low even when next to a wall. So it's fairly quite, but definitely audible in certain situations. At this point I believe all 5.0's make that sound and that is normal. However I believe the BBQ tick, when idling, may indicate a cylinder out of round issue, but I could be wrong on that as well. There may be multiple causes, some benign others alignment. Seems to me at this point that the most likely cause of the BBQ tick when it's malignant is a cylinder out of round issue.

The 6.2L power strokes tick like crazy, there's tons of them out there with 100k, 200k miles without any issues. My parents old 1998 Mountaineer with the Triton 5.4L ticked as well, sounded a lot like the BBQ tick, but rythmic instead of sporadic, ran for 224k miles before the transfer case failed and they decided it wasn't worth the cost to replaced (dealer wanted 3k for the job, car wasn't even worth that with so many miles). So some ticking can be normal, even sporadic ticking (the HPFP on my ecoboost sounded very erratic). It's not always a "if you have this type of noise" it's a major issue. But in cases where it's excessively loud and frequent I'd absolutely say it's abnormal.

That's why I'm a big advocate of either waiting to tune your car or using Ford Performance. Both keep your warranty in tact during the critical Infant Mortality period. Most major defects will manifest within the first 36k miles. Every now and then you get a very rare case where the car goes 50k, 75k, 100k and then something major lets go, but those cases are much more rare, at least from all the failures / issues I've witness and studied.

BTW, anyone else with a 2016 have a peeling steering wheel? My 2016 Ecoboost did the same thing, steering wheel fake leather outer layer just started peeling off. They replaced it under warranty and the new one was definitely a different material. Felt more "plastic" like or like imitation leather rather than rubbery imitation leather, but it didn't peel off. A minor gripe, but one none the less.

 

[accel]

Some more observation on my tick.

It is pronounced on cold engine starts and until the engine completely warms up. By that I mean oil and coolant temperature gauges stop growing. At that point it's either non existent or too quiet to hear.

And if after that I stop the engine for some period of time - i.e. go get groceries or something that lets engine cool down a little.... I do not mean get completely cold, - fluid temperatures are still within ranges - oil within green area but closer to the beginning, coolant is just not vertical anymore, but you can drive the car without babying it as it will get hot while you are maneuvering through parking lot. So the tick is back until the engine is completely hot again.

So I think the tick goes away when engine metal parts are hot and expanded due to high temperature.

Tells me that we are dealing with something being just a tad not within tolerances.

 

[accel]

So ceratec might be helping as it is coating metal parts with ceramic compound. As a positive side effect this might make the part in question to become a little thicker and to be back within tolerance.

 

[JuRuKi]

Im happy to report that my ticking after each oil change is gone after switching to 5-30 Mobil 1.
Background info on my ticking: Started after the second oil change at 6k miles (car now has 25k miles). Would tick at low rpms in 1st and 2nd gear. My ticking starts right after the oil change and goes away after 1k~1.5k miles. It would come back after every single oil change.

 

[Kong76]

Currently at dealership, made sure to talk with engine tech prior to leaving. Showed him videos and confirmed at the car. Said he has heard this before and just replaced a shortblock because of it. He said he is going to check intake runners and cylinders to see where its coming from. Eliminate other known areas that could cause it. He looked looked like " shit not another one" facial expression.

Shuttle home to wait.....

 

[ultrahax]

Mine is still at the shop. I've been dealing with a cylinder 8 misfire and associated CEL in addition to the ticking. Performance shop was dealing with Ford Performance ( I have the PP2 installed ) for the misfire, Ford dealership was dealing with the ticking. They're across the road from each other so it's handy for sending back and forth. Perf shop now think a bad IMRC is causing both the ticking and the misfire code, so it's back at the dealership for them to take my intake off and have a look.

 

[Kong76]

Just got a call, service tech said he thinks mine is coming from the top of the engine. Like post above, leaning towards runner control valves or possibly valves themselves. They want it back next week to tear it apart. Said he is really busy this week.

 

[TheLion]

Well that's not a bottom end issue. And IMRC valve issues are common on all manifolds that have them. In fact my old 2007 Focus ST (duratec 2.3L, my college car) had to have a whole new intake manifold, the IMRC valve bushings wore out by around 110k miles, it just got worse from there and started causing hesitation and nearly stalling the car.

I replaced the intake manifold myself for $250 with a brand new one. It actually caused a knocking sound in the engine I thought was something more serious in the bottom end due to the valves flapping around randomly, the hollow nature of the intake manifold amplified the sound. It was an issue that was often misdiagnosed for bottom end issues on those engines when people started to first see them with higher miles. Please do follow up guys once you find out.

 

[Kong76]

Yea hopefully dodged a bullet. I will say the car is an absolute dog especially while running the AC. Not sure if a bad imrc or manifold itself can cause that but its like I am pulling a parachute. Very noticeable loss of power. Mpg in city has been 13.

 

[ultrahax]

Update: new intake manifold installed, my misfire is gone, but it's still ticking loud as ever! They're now blaming it on my after-market exhaust, despite it being a cat-back, heh. Going to stick a stock one on there and go back to the dealership when I get some time.

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