Hi everyone
i have Ford Explorer 1999 XLT 4.0 SOHC , every time when i crank my engine (whenever is engine is Cold) i hear clicking noise or may be more like chain is knocking some metal, but its goes away slowly when engine gets warm and finally gets over when engine get HOT. I went to few Mechanics and couple of them said i need to replace Timing Chain, and couple said it could be Water Pump or some kind of Barring. Can anyone please help me to find out what is actaully wrong with my explorer?

 

It can be your hydraulic chain tensioner on your drivers side camshaft chain. I think Ford may of even had a TSB on this. I do not know how to test it without replacing it I think it is about $40 for the part at the dealer.

It sounds like it might be the timing chain. I am going though this right now with my 98 Explorer it would not start it has the 4.0 SOHC. As it, turns out there are three timing chains in it, the crankshaft to the jackshaft, the jackshaft to the right camshaft and the jackshaft to the left camshaft. Each of them have their own tensioners and guides. On mine when I pulled off the timing chain cover the tensioner on the crankshaft chain was gone and the guides for the chain going to the drivers side head were broken into pieces. Now to check the passenger side guides you need to pull the motor. That is why my 4.0 is now in my driveway on a motor stand right now. This will cost you more than $600 for all the parts. Then you need to buy a special tool to time all the shafts for $120.

 

Thank you very much for good info; that means since i dont know anything about cars ; it will cost me around $1000 to $1500 to fix this problem.
i need to find some other alternate way to take care of this problem.
Thank you very much MR

 

I paid $1800 at the dealer to take care of this problem on my '99 with the SOHC, and that only fixed the front, not the rear chain. If you had the '98, Ford will fix it for free (up to 100K miles), but they refuse to fix the '99 engines.

 

Unfortunately, I have 118,000 miles on my 98. When did they change it to 100,000? Back when I had 80,000 miles on it they told me, that it was only covered to 72,000. Screwed again.

I really do not mind having to do it but you would think Ford would give you some kind of a discount on the parts. Don’t you think $600 for timing parts is ridiculous. Not to mention that stupid tool for $120 on ebay because of no timing marks.

 

Quick Question?
i have 199698 miles on my explorer 99; how long should you guys think it will run before it will start giving me major problem? Engine sound is coming so smooth, and also tranmission is working great too. Will it run for another 50000 miles ?

 

Ford extended the warrantee to 72,000 for the tensioner and included my '99. The '98s were pushed to 100,000 and included the timing chain. It is possible that either your dealer (who is independant of Ford Motor Company (FMC)) didn't know or the increase for '98s happened later.

But even if you were inside the warrantee, sometimes FMC won't fix it unless you can prove that the car was serviced to their standards from new. Ford Motor Company wouldn't repair mine because the dealer purged all the records of service on my car. So FMC considers my engine to never have been serviced even though I have the paper work (which they say they can't take).

 

For that kind of money I would look for another motor with less miles on it.

 

I would worry that the new motor would have the same problem. Even the new motors that did not have the warantee have had problems with this. The problem happened to my motor at 29,000 miles, then again at 96,000 miles, and is now happening again at 104,000 miles (perhaps this time it is the rear, passenger side).

 

He said it was a SOHC (single over head cam) not a DOHC (dual over head cam) so if its SOHC it wouldnt have a driver or passanger side cam but only one camshaft and one timing chain.

As for the sound... it could be that you have a belt thats slipping which can sometimes make a metallic nosie...or it could be that you jsut need power steering fluid.. it might help it you could describe the sound a little better. Does it persist after you left up off the key? Does it get louder as you step on the gas? Or does it come and go that sort of thing.
-Chris

 

thanks guys for replying
Well, yes it gets louder when i step on gas padel, but again once engine get warm (hot) it stops. Rarely it happens when i crank to start, it starts very smoothly. i mean no sound of chain touching anywhere eventhough engine is cold.
Thanks

 

Could even be your fan clutch slipping... is it like a deep metallic tone or kinda high pitched?
-Chris

 

NO you're wrong... SOHC/DOHC refers to how many cams are on EACH BANK... in other words, on a V-Engine, SOHC has two cams total.. one over each head, and DOHC has FOUR cams total... two over each head.

The single cam in the middle of the engine (under the intake) is usually referred as an OHV (Overhead valves) configuration... and is a NON-Overhead cam design (as the cam isn't actually over the heads)...

Hope this clears some things up...

 

The later 4.0l V6 has an overhead cam for each head. It has 3 timing chains. There is a chain in the back of the motor.

 

I've got the noise on my 2000 Explorer 4.0L SOHC with 140K miles. Supposedly the dealer did the free campaign TSB thing at 72000 miles, but it has always made the noise. The startup noise got better with the TSB fix, but the running rattle has remained, and has gotten louder. It used to go away when the engine got hot, now it is there all the time. I'm guessing they did the front chains, but not the tough to get at rear chain.

The dealer told me last week that it won't cause any damage, so just live with it. He said to fix it, including the rear cam chain that drives the right head, it would cost around $2000, because once they get into the engine that far, they would want to replace all the cam bearings and chains. He said I could buy a new long block that would include all those moving parts plus all new journal bearings, pistons, valves, etc. for $3700. My plan right now is to live with it until I have 200K on it, then I will rebuild the engine myself.

I would think that if my engine is still running then, I would not need an expensive index tool, I could just count the chain links from the driver sprocket to the cam sprokets, make a mark on each sprocket, and make sure the new chain has the same number of links between the marks.

This engine series came from the Ford Cologne plant in Germany, and is a Ford of Germany design.