Hey guys, hoping you guys could help me out.. I'm getting a ticking sound coming from the passenger bank side of the engine (BMW 550i, 68k miles), and had two independent shops check it out and one said the car was misfiring due to injectors, and the other said the injectors were fine and the car is not misfiring and to not change the injectors. I am getting no CEL light, car drives fine and MPG is fine.. the ticking sound usually comes after the car is completely warmed up, and when in gear and accelerating or revving in neutral. It is engine speed dependent, so the faster the engine revs the more ticking sounds I get..

Let me know if any of you guys have any insight! greatly appreciated..

 

does the tick get louder with more of a load on the engine? like louder while accelerating at high rpm versus cruising at high rpm? then it could be an exhaust leak at the exhaust manifold.

if the noise is always consisitent with rpms regardless of other scenarios, then it may be mechanical in nature.
you could get a stethoscope from your local parts store to try and track the noise.

 

Could be a noisy injector, which is nothing to worry about and not uncommon. The guy I bought my M3 from replaced all the lifters because of misdiagnosed injector noise.

 

From reading the forums most people believe it's the lifters.

 

You can diagnose injector noise by revving the engine and listening for the ticking when the throttle is lifted. OBDII cars cut off fuel to the engine during coastdown by turning off the injector pulses. So if the ticking goes away momentarily when the throttle is lifted then it is injector noise.

 

Seems to have no ticking when the throttle is lifted. Ticks are usually only heard under load, under low speed acceleration, or revving the car, all when the car is warm only. The independent shop says I should change out my injectors before I possibly flood my engine w/ fuel.. how likely would this happen? I only have 67k miles!

 

i'm guessing ehaust leak at the manifold if you only hear it under load.

 

Yeah, he would say that. I think that scenario is highly unlikely. All injectors make some noise, some are just louder than others. That doesn't mean they are about to fail.

 

Try turning your ac on. It may be the ac compressor. I have a ticking noise, and when I turn on ac it goes away. I had a local mechanic check it out, without me telling him I think it maybe the ac compressor, he recommended that, the ac compressor is the cause of the noise.

 

Latest update: Crevier BMW said it wasn't worth it to start tearing down the motor to see where the sound is coming from due to no CEL light and no other issues besides the ticking sound. They said it seems like it is coming from the heads / valvetrain area, however just to keep an eye out on it and keep driving. Annoying to say the least, however nothing I can really do unless I want to spend thousands to tear the motor down...

Another shop said its coming from the VANOS as well.. and also to not worry about it and to continue driving.. I had German Castrol syntec 0W-30 as my last fill and just changed it to stock BMW 5w-30 and sound is still there as well.

If anyone else is experiencing such a sound, please respond if any issues developed! thanks