Hey everyone...here's my first post...just joined the site!

I did a little searching through the forums but was not able to find anything on this issue. Hopefully I am not duplicating a prior post somewhere. Anyhow...I test drove an EcoBoost 150 a couple of weeks ago and noticed that at idle, I can hear a ticking sound from the engine about every second or so. I only hear it when I was outside the cab. It's pretty pronounced but not necessarilly like a "bad" sound. My dealer said it is the high pressure fuel pump. This makes sense in some respects but I wanted to see if this is normal with the new EBoost engine?

Thanks in advance to everyone for your help.

(My new F150 SCrew with EBoost will be in hopefully next week...I can't wait!)

 

Welcome to FTE! The Ford rep said that it's the injectors. The fuel pump is in the gas tank and it will make a whining or humming sound if any at all.

Anyway, this ticking is perfectly normal for the ecoboost engine.

 

Question for you 2011+ owners:
I've always associated the injector "ticking" as more of a clicking (plastic sound) than a ticking (metallic sound). To me the injectors sound more like a relay click (like the click of a ball point pen) than a metal on metal tick, like say a predetonation "ping".
Are the injectors on the new engines making the same sound as the 04-08s did?

 

I noticed this when I first bought mine. 5K later, it seems a little more pronounced...along with the erratic idle(even when warmed up). Its starting to get to me, especially when going through the drive through at Dunkin donuts...which I do alot.

 

The ticking described sounds like the fuel injectors which on these truck is VERY high pressure similar to that of a diesel. On my 99 PSD I had a programmer which switched up the tune on the fly. You could really hear the difference when switching. Also Fords have a test program with the motor off - you should hear how loud an injector is at 2500psi without the motor running.

 

Thanks for the replies thus far...definately helpful. I've heard injector clicking before, this just seemed a little bit more pronounced...sounds like it's from the higher fuel pressure. Anyway...I can't wait...I mean..I CAN'T WAIT! to get my new truck soon!!

 

The fuel pressure in an Ecoboost engine is over 2000 lbs/square inch compared to maybe 60-80 for a conventional port injected engine. It makes sense that the injectors would have to "clamp" closed very hard because they are right in the combustion chamber and would have to close tightly enough to keep the explosion pressure in the cylinder from kicking back into the injector after they squirt the fuel into the cylinder. Regular port injectors are on the intake side of the intake valve and would have very little pressure to hold back.

Just envisioning the physics here, it seems completely logical that the injectors in a direct injected engine would have to be pretty darn loud to clamp shut during the fuel/air explosions!

And welcome to the site, MKEBoost. Lots of accumulated knowledge here.

George

 

You running your a/c or defroster?

 

I think it's the high pressure fuel pump you are hearing.

 

No sir...it was 48 degrees this morning and I let it warm up for about 2 minutes than headed to DD. First red light about a mile down the road, the truck, actually jumped forward with my foot on the brake(as I was stopped at the light). Idle was about 1000 rpm, after a little more warming up, the rpm's hovered from 500 to 700...and no jumping ahead. I didn't have a lot of pressure on the brake, which is probably why it was able to jump forward...but, it was strange to say the least. I definitely will be applying more force in the future.

 

Been having the same problem as Gixer311 although mine goes a little bit further. I will occasionally have rough idle, somethimes on cold engine sometimes on warm. But have also noticed this roughness at highway speed. I really have to be paying attention to feel it, it is slight, but it is definitely there SOMETIMES!! Also when I am experiencing the rought idle the ticking sound is certainly louder. Have taken the truck to the dealer twice, they could reproduce the issue, they did change the converter but did not correct this issue. Going to leave the truck with the dealer for several days while I am on vacation and told them to let one of their two most experienced techs drive it as a personal vehicle during that time. Hope they can find something. Right now I have 10k on it but its been doing this since around 5k. Considering purchasing extended warranty on this truck just in case. Sure would appreciate any information that anyone may have on this!! Thanks

 

Ticking is normal according to Ford and is related to the high pressure fuel pump noted a couple times in this tread.

 

Thanks for the follow up Sugar Pops! I believe that I know the ticking that you are referring to and mine certainly has that tick of the high pressure fuel system but occassionally mine gets noticeably louder and as I said the engine roughness accompanies the noise.

 

Just joined the site, and I to have noticed my 2013 F150 Ecoboost ticks at idle. Glad I found this post. Thanks all for the info!

 

My 2012 Edge Ecoboost 2.0 seems to be doing some of the same things you described in this post. What was the final outcome? My powertrain warranty is almost over and the dealer claims they can' reproduce problem Thanks!!