"yet another BBQ tick" thread - 2017 GT Base

[GT Pony]

I was told by the tech who did my engine swap up to a year ago Ford was doing long block replacements. Then they changed to short block replacements. That is now the fix. I guess if the engine self destructed you would get a long block.

That's because Ford knows it's something in the bottom end.

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[JGonvardi]

The tick on mine was isolated to a cylinder as well. The tech did an engine tear down but was unable to find any visual abnormality (she heard the noise and said it wasn’t normal). I really hope Ford doesn’t come back with that “normal engine characteristic” nonsense

 

[TheLion]

That sounds like a spun rod bearing to me, it gets more intense and frequent with RPM. It has a "BBQ Igniter Tick" sound to it, but that's not the "classic" BBQ tick that is not harmful. I'll bet my bottom dollar they find rod / rod bearing failure. You can look up videos of even the new 6th Gen Camaro SS's, 2014+ Corvettes, Hemi 5.7's and even 6.4's that failed a rod bearing, sounds exactly like that. Some stock, some modified. How many miles on the car? I'm betting your at very low mileage.

 

[JGonvardi]

Mileage is over 40k, never had any issues until now.

 

[TheLion]

The tick on mine was isolated to a cylinder as well. The tech did an engine tear down but was unable to find any visual abnormality (she heard the noise and said it wasn’t normal). I really hope Ford doesn’t come back with that “normal engine characteristic” nonsense

Some people who have the "BBQ Tick" do not have any mechanical or functional issues. The case above is a rod bearing. The noise is much more intense and worsens with RPM. The "classic BBQ Tick" where nobody can find anything wrong with it is very intermittent and doesn't seem to get any worse or better. It's just always there. And there are some older S197's that have had it that now have 50k~75k miles on then without any issues. Also the 6.2L Power Strokes have a nearly identical noise. Plenty of those with 100k~200k miles.

These seem to be the 3 big issues I've seen:

1. Spun rod bearing like the above - noise sounds like the BBQ Tick, however it's much louder (intensity) and increases in frequency rapidly with engine RPM as opposed to fading away and being drowned out as RPM increases, a spun rod bearing is a major mechanical problem and fairly rare.

2. Cylinder scoring - engine has a constant low RPM rattle that changes with RPM, but is loudest in certain range and never goes away, this is a major mechanical problem and fairly rare.

3. BBQ Igniter Tick - intermittent sharp defined tick or tap that can mostly be heard at idle or low engine loads when starting from a stop that no official diagnoses has ever been found (and there are cars with well over 50k that make this sound and have no issues other than that sound), somewhat common

 

[TheLion]

Mileage is over 40k, never had any issues until now.

You'd be the first case of a higher mileage S550 I've seen, period. Almost all of the 5.0's that have issues seem to occur very early on. Does yours sound as intense and loud as the video above? Or is it more of the classic "intermittent" tick that doesn't get worse with RPM and more or less gets drowned out by other engine noises as RPM increases? Also any mods and what oils?

 

[JGonvardi]

Certainly sounds like #3 is my issue. The weird thing is that it’s never happened before. Now it’s noticeable enough that I’ve had people comment at red lights. Some kid in a beater honda told me my engine didn’t sound so good lmao

 

[JGonvardi]

Definetely has the bbq tick. Car is stock aside from axlebacks. I’ve always used Amsoil Signature 5w-20 with Wix filters.

Here’s a clip

 

[TheLion]

You should post a video of revving it up and down slowly. Does the tick get more frequent / intense? I wonder how similar this is to the OP's issue. Sounds similar, but the frequency of the noise occurrence and intensity may be very different. Many issues can produce similar noises that are un-related.

 

[strike-eagle]

That sounds like a spun rod bearing to me, it gets more intense and frequent with RPM. It has a "BBQ Igniter Tick" sound to it, but that's not the "classic" BBQ tick that is not harmful. I'll bet my bottom dollar they find rod / rod bearing failure. You can look up videos of even the new 6th Gen Camaro SS's, 2014+ Corvettes, Hemi 5.7's and even 6.4's that failed a rod bearing, sounds exactly like that. Some stock, some modified. How many miles on the car? I'm betting your at very low mileage.

Yeah, I'm thinking something up with rods or bearings as well. I'm at 4500 miles, but the sound started at around 1000 miles. I didn't think anything of it after researching the tick, but like you said, it seemed like all the actual BBQ ticks were just random ticks that didn't increase with RPM like mine obviously does.

I was supposed to hear back from the dealership yesterday, but surprise surprise, I didn't get a call. I called them this morning and my service advisor is always magically with a customer or on the phone so I had to leave a message.

 

[TheLion]

You fit the low mileage bill then. Nearly all of the GT owners on this forum with an excessively loud "BBQ Tick" have very low mileage. @JGonvardi seems to be the anomaly. He's over 40k and said it just recently started. He uses a good quality oil and filter, but not the factory filter. I'm very curious if the Wix filters have an anti-drain-back valve on them. That's crucial to cold start lubrication as it keep oil i the feed tube of the oil pump and passageways.

Rod bearings are Hydrodynamic. They use the rotational energy to create their own hydraulic pressure. It's a NO contact bearing, so the crank literally rides on fluid pressure which keeps metal from touching metal. During cold start there is a short time (a few turns) during cranking and initial firing where the oil film is the only source of lubrication. However the pump starts flowing fresh oil nearly immediately unless the filter does not have an anti-drain back valve. In that case you have a longer "no pressure" time as the pump needs to start filling the tubes and passageways back up before oil starts flowing to the bearings.

I'm starting to wonder if this could be a defect in the rod bearings. I believe Clevite is the supplier. So it could be a supplier issue. I'm guessing your still on the factory MotorCraft 5W-20 oil and factory FL500-S filter?

As far as I know, there's no mass 5.0 rod bearing failure issue. Out of literally hundreds of thousands built, a couple thousand failures total is to be expected. According to what I've found, the failure rate of the 5.0 is under 0.5%. But as we all know, people who do have problems collect on the forums. They are a good resource to share information, ideas and help diagnose problems. So naturally it seems like every car, once you go on a forum for a specific car, is an unreliable piece of garbage. The Mustang is no exception. Heck Ford sold nearly a 100k Mustangs in one year this past year....

But yah, your tick or tap is extreme and I am fairly confident it's a spun rod bearing. It's only going to get worse and worse quickly, but your WELL within warranty, so it's more or less the hassle of having it taken care of. Car troubles suck, no matter what the problem or how minor or major it is. Keep us posed on the repair process and hopefully they will tell you the cause of the noise to confirm it's a rod bearing issue or if it's something else.

 

[TJusmc]

so i have something similar. i have a 2017 GT cat delete CAI and tune and i just got this back from the dealer and it started doing this but it only does this if the ac is on or under a small load

 

[strike-eagle]

You fit the low mileage bill then. Nearly all of the GT owners on this forum with an excessively loud "BBQ Tick" have very low mileage. @JGonvardi seems to be the anomaly. He's over 40k and said it just recently started. He uses a good quality oil and filter, but not the factory filter. I'm very curious if the Wix filters have an anti-drain-back valve on them. That's crucial to cold start lubrication as it keep oil i the feed tube of the oil pump and passageways.

Rod bearings are Hydrodynamic. They use the rotational energy to create their own hydraulic pressure. It's a NO contact bearing, so the crank literally rides on fluid pressure which keeps metal from touching metal. During cold start there is a short time (a few turns) during cranking and initial firing where the oil film is the only source of lubrication. However the pump starts flowing fresh oil nearly immediately unless the filter does not have an anti-drain back valve. In that case you have a longer "no pressure" time as the pump needs to start filling the tubes and passageways back up before oil starts flowing to the bearings.

I'm starting to wonder if this could be a defect in the rod bearings. I believe Clevite is the supplier. So it could be a supplier issue. I'm guessing your still on the factory MotorCraft 5W-20 oil and factory FL500-S filter?

As far as I know, there's no mass 5.0 rod bearing failure issue. Out of literally hundreds of thousands built, a couple thousand failures total is to be expected. According to what I've found, the failure rate of the 5.0 is under 0.5%. But as we all know, people who do have problems collect on the forums. They are a good resource to share information, ideas and help diagnose problems. So naturally it seems like every car, once you go on a forum for a specific car, is an unreliable piece of garbage. The Mustang is no exception. Heck Ford sold nearly a 100k Mustangs in one year this past year....

But yah, your tick or tap is extreme and I am fairly confident it's a spun rod bearing. It's only going to get worse and worse quickly, but your WELL within warranty, so it's more or less the hassle of having it taken care of. Car troubles suck, no matter what the problem or how minor or major it is. Keep us posed on the repair process and hopefully they will tell you the cause of the noise to confirm it's a rod bearing issue or if it's something else.

I changed oil at 3K to Mobil 1 5W-20, but used a factory filter. Issue did start when I was on factory oil though.

However, good news. Dealership called me back and said an order for a long block was put in yesterday!!! Hopefully Ford doesn't give them too much crap for it since the advisor noted that they'll have to do a "calls cap" to justify it. As for the issue, he could only tell me there was something out of whack with cylinders 2 and 3. He didn't have any info on exactly what, but said I'll get the full tech report once all is said and done.

 

[GT Pony]

The tick on mine was isolated to a cylinder as well. The tech did an engine tear down but was unable to find any visual abnormality (she heard the noise and said it wasn’t normal). I really hope Ford doesn’t come back with that “normal engine characteristic” nonsense

Did the Tech do any clearance measurements on anything? An engine can still have excess clearance that might cause ticking, but not show any damage from the excessive clearance.

 

[GT Pony]

so i have something similar. i have a 2017 GT cat delete CAI and tune and i just got this back from the dealer and it started doing this but it only does this if the ac is on or under a small load

That sounds pretty normal ... I don't hear any real BBQ Tick there. If you listen to guys posting videos of the BBQ Tick you'd see the difference between their videos and yours.

Edit - after listening some more, sounds like there is some ticking in the 2nd video. I can't really hear anything abnormal in the first video.

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