Uh oh, I think I broke my Crown Vic...

[vonirkinshtine]

Well, ever since I've had my 99 P71 I've delt with a light pinging from the passenger-side cylinder bank. Sea Foam has helped a bit, but it's never gone away. Well, yesterday I was dogging my car getting on the interstate, and it was pinging under heavy acceleration. After about 1000ft, the pinging went away and it was replaced by a tapping. I turned off the radio and the HVAC so I could listen, and it sounds like someone has wrapped a zip-tie around my crank shaft and it's smacking around inside my motor. Now again, just like the pinging, this tapping noise is only noticable when the motor in under load.

I haven't noticed a drop off in performance, nor have I thrown a CEL.

I'm a bit worried here. I'm thinking I may have underestimated how tired my engine really is.

Any thoughts?



*adendum*
I originally posted this at CrownVic.net yesterday, well today on my way into work the ticking was more consistant. It really didn't matter if the car was under load, the motor would still tick. I backed it down below 50mph for my interstate portions of the drive to keep it from being so bad and was able to limp the car into work.

What do you all think? I wish you could hear this thing, it does not sound good.

[Rocknthehawk]

My brother (hot-rauder) had a similar sound in his MM. The dealership diagnosed it as "a little piston slap. no worries". It was just a light tick, not always noticable (i didn't hear it till right before it went). Monday morning, the car had given up. Turned out the cam was installed wrong and he had 2 bent rods. The tick turned into a nasty knock

[RF Overlord]

Check all your spark plugs. They've been known to blow out on the 2V motors. The fix is to install a TimeSert.

[RF Overlord]

Turned out the cam was installed wrong From the factory?

[DOOM]

How many miles on your vic? I have 210,000 on mine with no problems :bows: and i beat the hell out of that car.

[Rocknthehawk]

From the factory?

No, there was a tick in the original motor around 30K miles, under service the original owner had a a bunch of parts replaced, one of these was the crank

[CWright]

I had this to happen with my 2005 CVPI. I had the local ford dealership change all fluids and filters on the car. When I got it back I noticed a tick under the hood when climbing hills or engine under a load. Went to a friend who is a mechanic and he said sounded like a lifter problem. We tried lucas and it did not fix the problem. Next we replaced all the lifters at 780 dollars and this did not fix the problem. We could not figure out what it was so he took to another mechanic friend of his and he hit the nail on the head. FoMoCo had put the wrong airfilter in and the filter was sucking down in the holder breaking the seal, and allowing too much air through. This was creating a "spark knock" he said. When this was changed it corrected my problem. A simple solution. Atleast I have new lifters. Hope this helps. Good luck.

[vonirkinshtine]

Wow, so it could be pretty much anything huh? Great.

Man, to have someone diagnose the problem it might just be cheaper to just get a new engine?

[Aren Jay]

Or how about getting a Marauder, they are dirt cheap right now.

I've been looking at this one and thinking how it would make a great winter car, however for you it might be the answer to the Marauderless problem you face.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?ct=u&car_id=249321978&dealer_id=57063871&car_year=2004&model=MARAUDER&num_records=25&systime=&make2=&highlightFirstMakeModel=&start_year=1981&keywordsfyc=&keywordsfyc=&keywordsrep=&keywordsrep=&engine=&certified=&body_code=0&fuel=&awsp=false&search_type=both&distance=200&marketZipError=false&search_lang=en&showZipError=n&make=MERC&keywords_display=&color=&page_location=findacar%3A%3Ais psearchform&min_price=&drive=&seller_type=b&max_mileage=&style_flag=1&sort_type=priceDESC&address=28201&advanced=&end_year=2009&doors=&transmission=&max_price=&cardist=24

Take your Crown Vic in as a trade in and enjoy driving a Marauder.

[HotRodMercury]

Or how about getting a Marauder, they are dirt cheap right now.

I've been looking at this one and thinking how it would make a great winter car, however for you it might be the answer to the Marauderless problem you face.

http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?ct=u&car_id=249321978&dealer_id=57063871&car_year=2004&model=MARAUDER&num_records=25&systime=&make2=&highlightFirstMakeModel=&start_year=1981&keywordsfyc=&keywordsfyc=&keywordsrep=&keywordsrep=&engine=&certified=&body_code=0&fuel=&awsp=false&search_type=both&distance=200&marketZipError=false&search_lang=en&showZipError=n&make=MERC&keywords_display=&color=&page_location=findacar%3A%3Ais psearchform&min_price=&drive=&seller_type=b&max_mileage=&style_flag=1&sort_type=priceDESC&address=28201&advanced=&end_year=2009&doors=&transmission=&max_price=&cardist=24

Take your Crown Vic in as a trade in and enjoy driving a Marauder.
Miles are hie but car does, look nice.

[vonirkinshtine]

Man, that's right up the road from me. DTR, wow...that's sexy too (it's not DBP but it's a close second, haha).

So, if I take my car to a mechanic, he'll dig into the engine, maybe find the problem, maybe take me for a ride, and depending on what he finds I'll probably be out a couple grand. Sound about right?

OR, spend 10k to get a car (granted, much nicer than mine) that has high miles, and hope and pray that I don't have any problems with it in the couple of years that it'll take for me to pay it off (because I sure as hell don't have 10k in cash laying around).

[Rocknthehawk]

I think the price on that DTR is about $2500 too high for that mileage.

RoyLPita can run an oasis report if you're interested in buying a MM. There's lots of MM's on this site with over 100K miles. I know GoMifuni has over 100K on his and has never had a problem.

[Marauderman]

Pm Roy for Vin data and also see if there is someone who has a car fax accout that help with that vin #.....and yeah--8 would be a good offer for
95K I think too....

[vonirkinshtine]

Ya know, as much as I would LOVE to have a 'rauder, for me there's no difference between an 8k car and a 12k car. Either way, it's money that I don't have laying around.

Unless you want to start a collection for me, I'll have to take my car into the shop monday. I'll have to deal with whatever bill the shop hands me. I can only hope that if the price is too steep that I can work something out with the shop.

Either way, I can't think of a plan that doesn't leave me hosed.

Oh, P.S. the latest diagnostic is the timing chain is coming loose. I think this is the most comprehensive diagnostic I've heard yet. It was pointed out to me that the knocking is not coming from a certian side of the engine, but actually from the front of the engine.