My 1990 LE has started making this odd ticking noise. It seems to be coming from the side of the engine with the drive belt, so I assume it is coming from one of these accessories, but I don't know which one. where do I look first?

Well a ticking can be tons of different things. Does the sound increase in frequency as per RPM'*? Or does it go away? It could be a noisy lifter, a rattling timing chain, or just your fuel injectors ticking. That is often mistaken for a more serious problem, when its really nothing. Get back to us!

I have even seen the belt make a ticking noise. Had a belt on a truck I had, have a piece go missing on the belt and it made a ticking noise. I never thought it would have been the belt, the sound was very deceiving.

A leak in the exhaust manifold could also cause a ticking noise.

How would I positively identify an exhaust leak in the manifold as the ticking noise? I'm pretty sure the belt is OK, as I just had it off to put a new waterpump and crank position sensor on, and it was fine then. My first thought hearing it was a noisy lifter, but every noisy lifter I've ever heard was much louder than this.

did you line up the crank sensor right and everything? was the waterpump good? how frequently does it happen? mine had a tick too. just dissmissed it as a valve. couldve been exaust now that i think about it. only happened once every 2 revolutions up to about 3k rpm. you could hear it outside the car, but never in, or under the hood either. kinda funky really.

Yes, using instructions from someone here on the forums and my haynes manual I did get the crank sensor lined up fine. The old waterpump was pissing a little water, but had never failed, and the new water pump hasn't leaked a drop that I can find. The tick happens about 4 times a second at idle. The tick seems to stay the same volume as I accelerate the engine, but the speed of the tick does change with the RPM.

4 eh?

would 5 or 6 work for you?

if you were to take the belt off of the engine, would the noise go away? here is how i see it:

lets say idle is at 800 rpm, kinda normal for this engine.

if it was a lifter, exaust leak, leaky spark plug, etc, having to do with the top end of the engine, the noise would happen 400 times in a minute, or 6.67 times per second, much like this cute little box here:



if it were in the bottom end of the engine, like a piston issue, crankshaft, etc, it would happen 800 times a minute, or about 13.3 times a second, kinda like this box here.



<yes i am bored>

from what i recall, all of the accessories on the drive belt have pullies that are equal to or smaller than the harmonic balancer pulley right? so i think that that knocks that out of the question. and the timing chain is almost twice as long as the circumfrence <sp> as the cam shaft gear <well just use the number 1.8 times as big>, so that would happen almost 4 times a second <3.7> if there was 1 bad <or at least funky> link in the chain.

sorry if i bored you with numbers, but thats what i figure. dont dismiss any idea. i once thought there was computer issues with the tempo, only to find out it was a ground to a solonoid. that was fun.

i just recently had the same problem

mine was the harmonic balancer... my loud ticking vibrating goes away when rpm'* go up

see if you can grab onto power steering pulley ( with engine off of course) now you shouldn't be able to move the pulley ,, mine moved along with the whole belt and the outside portion of the harmonic balancer did too .. if it does fix it a.*.a.p.


hope this helps anyone