I've been noticing latelly that my car has an intermittent ticking noise (sounding like a lifter ticking), but you can only hear it if the hood is open or the car has been idling for a while. It only does it when it gets up to operating temperature. The vehicle has 274,000 miles and runs great other then this noise. Could it be a bad lifter or rocker arm? I hope its not the rocker arm. :( The noise isn't noticable unless you have the hood open, and even then it "fades" in and out. I think its comming from the rear of the engine on the passenger side. The vehicle has excellent compression, and oil pressure stays between the 40 and 80 mark when your on the highway, and at 40 when its idling. I even changed the oil from 10w 30 (Castrol GTX) to 10w 40 and STILL it makes that noise. Could it have something to do with the temperature outside because latelly its been anywhere from 92-104 degrees.

well sounds to me like a lifter...but that oil..is it synthetic? because mine always had a slight lifter tick and I now i use 10-30 synthetic, lifter tick...OUTA THERE!

You said pressure is good while cruising, but what is your idle pressure?

With those kinda miles there is always some sort of possiblilty for something to go wrong, so i would not rule out a bad lifter or something like that. If it is only noticable with the hood open I really would not worry about it because some engines just tick! Like 3100s for example...unless you hear something REALLY going wrong, I would just keep an eye on it.

Good luck!

Oh also, make sure you are not hearing a pulley ticking! I have a bad idler pulley and the thing ticks like NUTS! make sure its an INTERNAL sound.

Well the oil pressure stays in the middle when it is idling, and going down the highway it stays between the middle and the REALLY high part LOL. It doesn't tick at all when its cold, or durring highway trips, on the road or anything. The only time it does it is when I'm doing in town driving and you can only hear it when its idling or the hood is open and your outside the vehicle. My oil is just regular Castrol GTX 10w 40. I've never used synthetic in my car, I'm affraid with that many miles it might mess something up. I heard that when you use synthetic you can never go back to regular oil after that. :?

It could also be a fuel injector ticking...

Jessie.. .middle would be about 40psi and not normal for being up to operating temp.

You might want to get a mechanical gauge on it to know for sure.

On my oil pressure guage it has 0-40-120 my needle stays in the middle of 40 & 120 psi I guess that would be about 70 or 80 psi? on the highway, and when its idling it stays directly in the middle at the 40 mark. I thought that was normal. :?: anywho, I was also thinking it could be an injector ticking, if that is the case would I have to replace the injector, and how could I go about checking to see if that is the problem?