Per Ford (officially) the 2011-2019 F150/Mustang 5.0 “Typewriter Tick” is a normal characteristic

[GT Pony]

Has Ford (or anyone) definitively identified where the tick specifically comes from?

Nope, but ther are 2 or 3 good theories. Lot's of discussion about the possible cause in the last 3+ years in this forum.

My theory is that it's parts clearance related, and the friction level between the parts can set off the ticking. That's why it can start instantly after an oil change, or go away instantly if an anti-friction additive is added to the oil.

And Ford has never said what actually causes it, they just say it's "normal".

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[Colossus1974]

Nope, but ther are 2 or 3 good theories. Lot's of discussion about the possible cause in the last 3+ years in this forum.

My theory is that it's parts clearance related, and the friction level between the parts can set off the ticking. That's why it can start instantly after an oil change, or go away instantly if an anti-friction additive is added to the oil.

And Ford has never said what actually causes it, they just say it's "normal".

Ford is saying its "normal" and they know this affects so many cars with everyone questioning it, why do they not just come out and say what it is? If it is normal then it should be an easy explanation to put everyone at ease. It would seem to me that there must be something they are hiding.

 

[nrm101]

Figured I share my experience, 19 GT 9k miles on it. Background, never heard the tick before that i could recall, do have a standard box 93 tune from sct. Took the car in for second oil change at the dealer... (5w-20) few days later GF was driving car and i was out side when she pulled in, and heard the tick for the first time, of-course she was horrified that she did something, but thanks to the forums i new it could happen. I took note of the oil level as it has been mentioned here on the forums also, and it was middle of the hashes, bottom hole had oil, top hole did not. So i recorded the car at temp, idle it was clear as day, but i also wanted some more scientific data, so i ran the recoding thru a free spectrum analyzer online, and here is the visual of what you hear as the bbq tick, you can see the straight line running thru all the frequency ranges pretty clear.

Next i took the certec approach, 1 bottle, drove the car for about 200 miles or so, and did a second recording at running temps and this is what it looked like, no Tick. I plan to do another rpm test today and recording and see if anything comes back

I am no expert in sound, i'm just more visual, it seems to me in general the certec as an effect on the sound the motor makes in the two pics, the motor is at idle 740 rpm or so (be cause of the tune) from 8.9 - 13.1 khz and above it appears to be much more quiet. I guess it still leaves the question of volume, did adding the certec, hence putting more fluid in the system have an effect also. Points to ponder after next oil change and see if it comes back...


This has been my experience, i'll share more if something new comes to light

 

[GT Pony]

Figured I share my experience, 19 GT 9k miles on it. Background, never heard the tick before that i could recall, do have a standard box 93 tune from sct. Took the car in for second oil change at the dealer... (5w-20) few days later GF was driving car and i was out side when she pulled in, and heard the tick for the first time, of-course she was horrified that she did something, but thanks to the forums i new it could happen. I took note of the oil level as it has been mentioned here on the forums also, and it was middle of the hashes, bottom hole had oil, top hole did not. So i recorded the car at temp, idle it was clear as day, but i also wanted some more scientific data, so i ran the recoding thru a free spectrum analyzer online, and here is the visual of what you hear as the bbq tick, you can see the straight line running thru all the frequency ranges pretty clear.

Next i took the certec approach, 1 bottle, drove the car for about 200 miles or so, and did a second recording at running temps and this is what it looked like, no Tick. I plan to do another rpm test today and recording and see if anything comes back

I am no expert in sound, i'm just more visual, it seems to me in general the certec as an effect on the sound the motor makes in the two pics, the motor is at idle 740 rpm or so (be cause of the tune) from 8.9 - 13.1 khz and above it appears to be much more quiet. I guess it still leaves the question of volume, did adding the certec, hence putting more fluid in the system have an effect also. Points to ponder after next oil change and see if it comes back...

This has been my experience, i'll share more if something new comes to light

IMO, the BBQ tick is caused by two parts hitting each other (like the rod big ends sliding side to side and hitting the end of the crankshaft journal), and an oil change or adding a friction modifier to the oil like Ceratec are two instances that can change the friction level between parts almost instantly. Also, as oil is used and the soot level increases from blow-by, that can also change the friction level between parts, and that could also be why some guys say the tick shows up right after an oil change but slowly goes away as miles pile up on the oil.

 

[GT Pony]

Ford is saying its "normal" and they know this affects so many cars with everyone questioning it, why do they not just come out and say what it is? If it is normal then it should be an easy explanation to put everyone at ease. It would seem to me that there must be something they are hiding.

I'm sure they know what it is, but they don't want to actually say. If it was simply "oil cavitation" they would say so - why wouldn't they if that was the case?

But if it was related to parts being slightly out of spec, then I doubt they would say anything.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Ford is saying its "normal" and they know this affects so many cars with everyone questioning it, why do they not just come out and say what it is? If it is normal then it should be an easy explanation to put everyone at ease. It would seem to me that there must be something they are hiding.

They actually said its not harmful as opposed to normal. I'm sure they know exactly what causes it; Saying what it is wouldn't necessarily put everyone at ease and can open a can of worms. For instance, start a debate as to whether that really is harmless. And I don't believe for a second that even most people experiencing the tick would be happy if they just knew why. The tick is definitely an us vs. them mind set. So, they probably see more harm than good for them to divulge anything. Maybe if it was proven to significantly cost sales, they would open up.

 

[Elp_jc]

it only starts to tick about 5 minutes after initial engine start, then once it hits full operating temp, the tick is completely gone.

I wasn't aware of that detail . I thought it was when hot, so most of the time, but only heard at idle. If it's only when cold, it's much less of an issue than I thought. But it still sucks having to deal with such nasty noise.

It would seem to me that there must be something they are hiding.

Of course they are hiding it. It's something not good, even if not detrimental to the engine. My guess is an excessive clearance/gap on the connecting rods. It sounds just like engine bearing issues, but reportedly it's not damaging to the engine. But whatever it is, it's FAR from normal. No engine should make that noise. Hope my car doesn't start making it when I change the oil for the first time soon, but I'm learning as much as possible in case it does .

As a final thought, why the hell hasn't Ford done anything about whatever it is? It's apparently been going on since 2011; geez. That's what piss people off the most. If you have such a serious issue, freaking fix it.

 

[okfoz]

I do not know if this has been asked before... What oil did they use when after the oil change the tick starts? Are you using full synthetic, or the semi-synthetic?

 

[NastyPumpkin]

 

[Dfeeds]

As a final thought, why the hell hasn't Ford done anything about whatever it is? It'd been reported since they switched to plasma coating in 2018. That's what piss people off the most. If you have such a serious issue, freaking fix it.

Sigh... cool your jets, captain. It's been a thing since 2011. It has nothing to do with the liners.

I do not know if this has been asked before... What oil did they use when after the oil change the tick starts? Are you using full synthetic, or the semi-synthetic?

It hasn't made a difference from what people have commented. There are many factors that could lead to the tick after a fresh change, anyways. Oil viscosity shears as oil ages so the oil going in will be more viscous than the oil going out. Another thing could be how much oil is in the sump, and I'll elaborate on this below.

My first change was with 5w30 full synthetic (pennzoil platinum). I had the bbq/typewriter tick but paid it no mind. For the winter I moved to 5w20 and, to my surprise, the bbq tick was gone. This initially led me to believe it's viscosity related but I also didn't change the filter and added the same amount of oil as if I had a new filter (I prefill the filter). This put the oil level to the top dot, instead of in the middle of the hash marks.

I just did an oil change a few weeks ago with 5w20 (still pennzoil platinum) and used a new filter. This put the oil level in the middle of the hash marks. Bbq tick came back in full force. This lasted for about two weeks until I poured half a quart of 5w20 in. Bbq is now gone. I don't know why but unless someone can enlighten me on how half a quart, in a 10 quart sump on an engine that previously used 8, can somehow improve oil circulation to prevent some kind of rod clearance knock, then it's not that.

Something also to note is that, by the end of my OCI (5K), I burned a smidge of oil to drop the oil level just a hair below the hash marks. Still no tick at this level, which could let one infer that it doesn't take much oil to quiet things up.

 

[GT 550]

As a final thought, why the hell hasn't Ford done anything about whatever it is? It'd been reported since they switched to plasma coating in 2018. That's what piss people off the most. If you have such a serious issue, freaking fix it.

Primarily because Ford is saying it's not a serious issue and too few people are pissed off enough to the extent that it sufficiently hurts profits eg through loss of sales due to reputational damage, or legal intervention.

Big companies generally do what they can get away with. The fine Ford received over the Focus(?) transmission is an example, they blamed drivers until enough of them got together and went to court with sufficient evidence to prove it was a design problem. Toyota initially said bad fuel was to blame for diesel particulate burning issues and then changed software. GM (Holden) dodged and weaved over obvious LS1 piston slap and said it was an oil problem but ended up doing a recall for all 8 pistons to be replaced, and then blamed bad fuel for LS3 injector failures before flipping overnight to start replacing all 8 no questions asked even out of warranty. VW and emissions etc. The difference between the tick and these other issues is that they're relatively significant whereas the Coyote is proving to be bullet-proof so bringing pressure to bear over a tick could be hard even if owners argue it wasn't there when they bought the car.

Ford won't change behaviour unless there's a reason to and sadly they don't have to share the cause of the tick with us or admit they don't know (same as the aircon evap issue), unfortunately their reluctance to do so makes people assume they're hiding something and also it can be frustrating for car people who just want to know. I daresay this goes for the 'rattle' too.

 

[Elp_jc]

Hey gang, have a question, since several forum members suspect piston slap is the common issue, and not rod knock. I personally don't think you can have hot piston slap without a much aggressive cold piston slap. At least on regular engines, with iron cylinder liners. Since the Coyote uses plasma coating instead, and I don't know what kind of pistons, I can't say that with certainty in this case. I remember my '97 F-150 4x4 with the 5.4 had a horrible cold piston slap, but it had to be in the 40Fs or less. And it didn't have any hot piston slap. So in order to have hot piston slap it'd have to slap like both my ex-Vettes with LS1s and LS2s had, which sounded absolutely horrible. It scared the crap out of me the first time inside the garage. Those cars did have a little hot piston slap, but they cold slapped even at 80 degrees for a second or so.And yes, both Ford and GM said it was 'normal', and not detrimental to the engine. Yeah, right! So this milder 'tick' of course is going to be normal. Ha ha.

At any rate, after searching google for an hour, I could only find the following article, but not sure if that's what Ford uses on Gen3 Coyotes, or they're only selling them for engine rebuilds. IF that's what Ford use, I'd absolutely eliminate piston slap from being the culprit of the tick. Those pistons look great, have very tight tolerances, have pretty deep skirts (to have piston slap), and have that special coating that was designed specifically to avoid it, filling the tolerance differences. All comments on that welcome . Hopefully we can eliminate piston slap for good, but let's see what the experts say. But keep in mind this is ONLY FOR GEN3 COYOTES. Here is the article: https://www.jepistons.com/blog/introducing-jes-2018-ford-coyote-5.0l-pistons

 

[TTown]

The tick on my 2019 started before 1,000 miles; i.e., before the first oil change. So the "first oil" change distinction that some might make is meaningless.

 

[CEHollier]

The tick on my 2019 started before 1,000 miles; i.e., before the first oil change. So the "first oil" change distinction that some might make is meaningless.

I find Ceratec by Liqui Moly quietens the engine significantly. If your motor is broken in give it a try. https://products.liqui-moly.com/cera-tec-2.html

 

[accel]

The tick on my 2019 started before 1,000 miles; i.e., before the first oil change. So the "first oil" change distinction that some might make is meaningless.

u r not alone.

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