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Have you tried getting under the hood while the vehicle is running on a day while it’s running good and just do a wiggle test? I mean just grabbing the engine harness in various locations and wiggling it also at the connectors. I know the PCM I believe is located on the firewall. It could be a bad solder joint or wiring connection causing it to be intermittent. It may stumble while your doing this when you get close to the bad area.
If your lucky you’ll have access to a drive up lift, one where the wheels are on a flat surface like an alignment rack, if not you may have to either lay down while a partner moves the vehicle up and down to see if you can isolate the area the noise is coming from. Sometimes on low profile cars if a lift isn’t available you can use flat 4x4s and lay a 2×6 across them to give you extra clearance. Just put them under your wheels so the vehicle body weight is at it’s natural position, under all 4 wheels. Just a thought HTHs.
If your lucky you’ll have access to a drive up lift, one where the wheels are on a flat surface like an alignment rack, if not you may have to either lay down while a partner moves the vehicle up and down to see if you can isolate the area the noise is coming from. Sometimes on low profile cars if a lift isn’t available you can use flat 4x4s and lay a 2×6 across them to give you extra clearance. Just put them under your wheels so the vehicle body weight is at it’s natural position, under all 4 wheels. Just a thought HTHs.
Guess it depends. If your talking about from a professional technician position like working flag/flat rate I’ve always tried to stay organized. What I mean by that is keeping the work area laid out, having my parts ready to install when I get the old part out, having my tools where their supposed to be and organized so I’m not spending 5 minutes looking for some wrench or something through a pile of tools, keeping the area I’m standing or moving around in free from clutter like old parts or packaging, when you fill a drain pan move it or empty it, that kind of thing. I know it sounds like small stuff but it’s always helped me and I’ve been working as a mechanic for over 35 years. Then it doesn’t hurt to have competent parts people and a busy shop either or of course the right tools and good repair information available 🙂
Guess it depends. If your talking about from a professional technician position like working flag/flat rate I’ve always tried to stay organized. What I mean by that is keeping the work area laid out, having my parts ready to install when I get the old part out, having my tools where their supposed to be and organized so I’m not spending 5 minutes looking for some wrench or something through a pile of tools, keeping the area I’m standing or moving around in free from clutter like old parts or packaging, when you fill a drain pan move it or empty it, that kind of thing. I know it sounds like small stuff but it’s always helped me and I’ve been working as a mechanic for over 35 years. Then it doesn’t hurt to have competent parts people and a busy shop either or of course the right tools and good repair information available 🙂
I can’t really ad much to what these guys have said but I’ve been doing this for over thirty years and trust me, you never, ever, will complete your tool collection. New car models come out, new designs, new tools and gadgets are needed. When I first got out of the military and started doing this in the civilian sector I went down to Sears got a credit card, bought a box a good starter set of automotive tools and went to work the next day at my first job. I had a hand carry box with some tools but I bought a small roll away and expanded my collection I already had. Little did I know the company I was going to work for got a discount with Snap-on. But whatever you do always buy the best you can afford. I replaced most of my Sears stuff eventually with Snap-On, Matco, Mac etc. But on occasion I’ll still use Sears if they have some in particular I can use or need because they’re cheaper in price. Probably one of the things I hated about buying off the tool trucks is on the rare occasion something breaks your left waiting till the tool man shows up and then if he doesn’t have a replacement your left waiting till he gets one for you. But anyhow, you’ll be buying tools forever, not as much later on as you will at first, but it never will end completely. Good luck to you.
Could be carbon buildup causing the valves to stick. I’ve seen that on these engines before. The sea foam additive might help. It’s a pretty good product just follow the instructions. If, however, the noise persist the only cure will be to either tear the engine down to inspect or, as was suggested, live with it as long as the truck is performing good and no other problems. Good luck.
Nope..I’m not hearing anything alarming either. Is it a new sound from your vehicle that wasn’t there before? Just curious.
Hey Blink,
The guys are right, go to a good autoparts store and see if they have a tool rental program. Then rent a coolant system pressure tester. Also if you don’t have a radiator cap on your radiator and can only add fluid thru the reservoir tank there are adapters that can be used with the coolant pressure tester, hopefully the place you’d rent it from would have one to fit your car also. They’re fairly simple to use and will cut down your troubleshooting time. Once the system is pressurized if you find no external leaks but the pressure gauge is still dropping you may have a small head gasket leak. You can then perform some back up checks to confirm this like using the dye/block test and a cylinder compression test. Another thing that is sometimes overlooked is if your car is automatic and the transmission cooler is an integral part of the radiator it doesn’t hurt to check the transmission fluid for any traces of moisture. It’ll show up much like it would in engine oil with a milkshake appearance. Hope that helps.