Hi, all. Just picked up a '97 3.4l 5-speed 4wd 2 days ago. Pretty darn clean with 106k for $4k. The only real issue I've found is a strange clicking/ticking noise from behind/under the dash that only seems to occur at highway speeds of about 60mph or so. I need to do more diagnostics to see if I can narrow down speeds, etc, but thought I'd post this in the meantime in case anyone has some insight.
Some observations:
- Sounds like a relay clicking on/off. At first I thought it was the turn signal, but a quick flick of the stalk put that idea to bed. The click was also significantly louder than the turn signal.
- happened during day and at night
- Only seems to happen while on the freeway/at freeway speeds. Got up to 50 on a road without triggering the event.
- Seemed to be somewhat speed-sensitive in terms of speed of the clicks though that needs more testing to verify.
- Truck continued to run fine for 15 miles, with no obvious indicators of something (lights, buzzers, engine noise, other drivers gesticulating, etc) being activated, nor of a fuel problem from the circuit opening relay failing.
- Not expecting anything, but I verified no OBDII codes were thrown.
Obviously, it's a little hard to stick my head under the dash while driving, so it's hard to pinpoint a location, other than a general "under the dash on the drivers side".
I've been searching the web for descriptions of relays that live behind the dash, but there don't appear to be many - the COR, the "integration relay" which appears to cover buzzers and bells, the turn signal obviously. Anyone have any ideas on anything else? Does the 5-sp tranny have a back-up relay?
The only thread I found somewhat related was a guy who reported clicking from the COR just before his engine would die. That doesn't sound like my issue, at least not so far. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks, gurus!
Jim
Some observations:
- Sounds like a relay clicking on/off. At first I thought it was the turn signal, but a quick flick of the stalk put that idea to bed. The click was also significantly louder than the turn signal.
- happened during day and at night
- Only seems to happen while on the freeway/at freeway speeds. Got up to 50 on a road without triggering the event.
- Seemed to be somewhat speed-sensitive in terms of speed of the clicks though that needs more testing to verify.
- Truck continued to run fine for 15 miles, with no obvious indicators of something (lights, buzzers, engine noise, other drivers gesticulating, etc) being activated, nor of a fuel problem from the circuit opening relay failing.
- Not expecting anything, but I verified no OBDII codes were thrown.
Obviously, it's a little hard to stick my head under the dash while driving, so it's hard to pinpoint a location, other than a general "under the dash on the drivers side".
I've been searching the web for descriptions of relays that live behind the dash, but there don't appear to be many - the COR, the "integration relay" which appears to cover buzzers and bells, the turn signal obviously. Anyone have any ideas on anything else? Does the 5-sp tranny have a back-up relay?
The only thread I found somewhat related was a guy who reported clicking from the COR just before his engine would die. That doesn't sound like my issue, at least not so far. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?
Thanks, gurus!
Jim
