My truck is bone stock, never been BOMB'd to my knowledge. No engine codes. 75k miles. Routinely serviced. Driven mostly to work and back about 40 miles total round trip, except for summers when it's called upon to tow ~5000lb TT with another 1000-2000lb of gear in the bed. On the interstate at 75mph unloaded in OD, it gets around 17mpg (seems like maybe 1-2mpg low).

After listening to another guy's '06 CTD while fueling this past week, I noticed how much noisier my truck was as compared to his. At idle, his truck was very quiet and smooth while mine has a "tick, tick, tick" sound to it. When I romp on the pedal, the "tick, tick, tick" seems to go away - or at least gets lost in all of the other sounds. At constant throttle/speed on the interstate, I *think* I can still hear it but hard to say over the regular road noise.

With the hood up, sounds to me like it's coming from either the front cylinder or maybe the 2nd. I figured it might be a bad or dirty injector??? When I swapped injectors on my old 1999 CTD, there was very noticeable build-up of black, carbon deposits on the old ones. Maybe the same is true of these injectors. Would it be worth pulling them all and cleaning them all? If so, are there some really good "How To" instructions out there for removing injectors from a 2003? What about throwing copious amount of diesel injector cleaning solution into the next few tanks? Has anyone else here ever had and fixed the above described ticking sound on your CTDs?

Any input/advice/feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

First thing to do is go out and work the dog out of it. Those commuter miles will cause carbon buildup. Howes's Meaner Cleaner seems to be about the best at cleaning the carbon but working the truck hard is free and works better. When cold my truck sometimes gets the ticking sound.

 

put your hand on each injector line and see if it goes away.

 

My truck is the same as yours, and at one time it made the same ticking noise. It used to annoy me. But for some reason it went away without doing anything to it. Well, I did tow our 11,000 lb 5ver on a long trip, maybe that took care of it.

 

If the above two suggestions don't work, check the valve lash.

 

03 and 06 are differant beasts also.There is a differance in injection events,programing etc.

 

This is not intended to create panic but this is what my early 04 was doing...
I had an audible tick that would come and go. I was only able to compare the sound to two 2006 trucks. One night it was more apparent when we all stopped for fuel. While idling after the fuel stop, this tick went away. We continued out on the highway. Truck ran fine and quiet for about an hour and then one of the exhaust valves let go on #5 cylinder. It did a lot of damage.

This is probably a lot more severe then what you are experiencing but when we got this into a dealer I was told that it was not an uncommon problem and they had seen 2 others over the year do the same thing. I was just outside the warranty limit in that truck and also 800 miles from home.

I would take the time to get it checked...just in case...I would assume valve lash may present the problem...or at least lead you in the proper direction to troubleshoot.

Thought I should post here as I shrugged off the tick I had. When the valve went...there was no tick.

Scotty

 

Check the valve adjustment. I did mine at 34k miles. It had a tick at idle when cold and sometimes hot at random times. Gone after the adjustment. Set all of them to what the sticker said.

I encourage everyone that has a tick, well anyone willing to care about thier truck to adjust much ealier than the recommended 100k or 110k. I was a non believer.

 

Mine has done that since it was new 130k miles later, no change. It doesn't come and go, however. If it did that would worry me.

Andy

 

I was convenced for a long time it was something with cyl. # 1 because you can feel the hard hit from the injector line there and know where else. But since heard lots of people say thiers is the same way, i went to dodge one day and looked at 4-5 trucks and feeling the #1 cyl line felt the same on every truck? Just a pulse thing for some reason but still strange that you really dont feel it on the other cylinders inj. line. Even the back one comes straight off the back of the rail like the #1 and it doesnt hit hard like the first one? Any one ever fiqure this out? Ive sort of always had a little tick to nearly since new, my additives i add help a lot, but its ussualy still there if you listen for it. Other times you cant help but notice when its louder than normal,.....?

 

At first I did take mine to the dealer, their "diesel" mechanic said they all make that noise and to not worry about it.

 

Also the '03's with the NV5600 where known to have a noisy clutch. They tend to rattle and knock at idle. Easy test is to push in the clutch pedal to see if the noise goes away (like mine).

MikeyB

 

Probobly sounds stupid but how do you do this?

Also, I know my 03' sounds louder and has more tics all around compared to 3 06's and one 07. Run some additive at a higher concentration and see if that helps. Just my 2 cents.

 

Diff. noise all together, but ya your right on that clutch disk, even my 04.5 disk rattled pretty good in neutral, like you said push in the clutch and it would go away. Now my South Bend FE disk is 3 times louder oh well, i love the sound of a diesel engine but only the combustion sounds that are suppose to be there, i miss the sound of my 99 24 valve.

 

With the engine cold, it's also a good safety practice to remove the negative battery cables.

Remove the cylinder head cover. If you don't have a barring tool, you can likely turn the engine backwards via the alternator pulley.

Turn the motor until the timing mark on the damper is at 12:00.

If both rockers on #1 are loose, then adjust Intake on 1, 2 and 4 and exhaust on 1, 3 and 5.

If both rockers on #1 are not loose, then adjust Intake on 3, 5, 6 and exhaust on 2, 4, 6.

Once you've done that, rotate the motor 360 and do whatever set you didn't do. 18 ft/lbs on the lock nuts, and double check gap once tightened.

Feeler gauge goes between the cross bar and rocker arm.