Ticking Noise At Idle?

[jryan]

Hello Group,

 

Can any one shed some light on an annoying little "ticking" sould that i can here when the car idles???

 

It does not seem to increase in rate when i increase revs and occationally dissapears???

 

Anyone any thoughts???

[Rich_Eason]

If it is very intermitant e.g. single click every other min then it could be the air con clutch kicking in although this isnt particulary noisy and I would need to be stood on the outside of the car to hear it.

 

If it is a continual ticking relating to engine speed then it could be the injectors as (i assume) these are actually quite noisy on mine.

 

Not sure if the C4 has hydraulic tappets but this also could be another source of noise.

 

The Air Con on my old Focus made a hell of a racket with the noise of the fan drowning out the engine noise, and the Air Con clutch being heard from the inside.

 

I wouldnt worry to much about it...

[Stuey]

it is more than likely the tappets...Welsh is having his adjusted at the moment...

[kfk]

presume the ticking noise you can hear at idle sounds like it might be coming from somewhere near the drivers door hinge pillar area......particularly annoying when sitting at traffic lights without the radio on.......if its a petrol model then its likely to be the cannister valve doing its stuff.

 

As for a cure.......well they all do it, so its a pretty standard characteristic.

 

Get your dealer to have a listen, see if they agree that thats the noise

[syrup]

If it's as kfk says, ie you can hear on tickover inside the car with no radio or air con on his diagnosis is spot on. I had it when I first had mine, they traced it to the cannister valve. They removed it and replaced it and said they would find out if it was a common problem, on the way home it disappeared never to return. It's not a fault, just annoying.

[WLT]

Would you get this problem with the diesel also, because waiting in traffic i noticed a similar thing for the first time yesterday, especially when idle (once in gear the car sounded fine). Got home, had a look to see if anything was obviosly wrong, then stopped and restarted the engine, the ticking noise then disapered. Wasn't there on the way to work this morning either.

[jryan]

Thanks you all for your comments. I think is must be the canister thingy as it sound like its coming from the drivers door.

 

Hope i am not being to daft but what does that part do exactly????

[kfk]

basically.....as simple as possible.......

 

fuel tanks nowadays are sealed and not allowed to vent to atmosphere.....hydrocarbons being bad for the atmosphere etc..........so how do they allow the tank to vent and get rid of the hydrocarbons (vapour)?

 

They fit a charcoal canister under the wing and a pipe runs from the fuel tank to the canister......the canister then has a pipe that connects to the inlet manifold.

 

At a predetermined time the canister valve will open and close....the speed of its opening and closing is determined by many factors. when it opens it vents the hydrocarbons into the inlet manifold where they can be burnt.....the clickng noise you here is the valve opening and closing, it sounds like a single tappet loose.

[bill03]

Thanks kfk :D . Too embarrassed to ask myself. :)

[kfk]

Its funny, 1st time i drove one when they were released i heard the noise and spoke to the other senior tech.......he'd heard it too........we both said we were suprised and that it was going to cause us problems (customers dont like noises).

 

Weve probably had half a dozen comments on it, replaced it with no effect, wrapped one foamjust made a different noise :D .

 

Doesnt cause a problem, isnt a fault TADT

[syrup]

Obviously I was lucky!