What the heck is this strange sound?

WestCoastDan

JK Enthusiast
Joined
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I've got a strange 'ticking' sound from my '15 Rubicon.
Here's a short audio clip that I just recorded of it at operating temp, idling in the garage.
It has me stumped.
 
Could be the famous 3.6 "tick". Swear that JKU's are a turd-brick.

If its coming from the bottom, maybe waterpump or exhaust. But Id be skeptical.

Curious how many miles on your 15?
 
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Almost 140K miles.
I thought it sounded like lifters, but it wasn't a consistent sound.
I was concerned that it might be an early sign of an oil pressure issue, but no CEL or code.
I'm probably going to take it in and see what they tell me at the dealer, just to see.
They'll probably tell me that it's everything from lifters to windshield wipers that are bad, but we'll see.
 
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Almost 140K miles.
I thought it sounded like lifters, but it wasn't a consistent sound.
I was concerned that it might be an early sign of an oil pressure issue, but no CEL or code.
I'm probably going to take it in and see what they tell me at the dealer, just to see.
They'll probably tell me that it's everything from lifters to windshield wipers that are bad, but we'll see.
Please chime back. Id luv to read what the dealer suggests. I'll take a guess:

DEALER:
"Not sure. It could be a number of things. Why not leave it here with us and we'll diagnose it for a fee of $150?"

And I can almost guarantee they still wont know what it is until they charge you more to get inside the top.
 
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Well, the dealer 'did their thing' (inspected the noise) and reached out the other day with the following:
"We suspect the noise is due to excessive rocker play, which could be serious or not that bad. Worst case, 2 new heads, cams, and all of the rockers, lifters, etc. or best case, just new rocker arms. We need to tear it apart to see the extent of the damage, and that cost is $1,560. This would be applied to the repair cost."

Today they reached out and let me know that it needs all new rocker arms, lifters, and one cam.
Add to this that I asked them to check all fluids and to change the oil (They also discovered the mounting plate for the filter is jacked up) the total cost was just over $4,100 plus tax and it will be finished next Wednesday.

I was able to get them to agree to $4,100 out-the-door.

It's not cheap, and I'm not thrilled about it at all; but at least the top end will be new w/ a 2 year unlimited mileage warranty.

The only real question is, "Did I cause this, or was it already failing when I bought it?"
I'll probably never know for sure, but I do know that if we had bought one with lower mileage (at about $4K more), it could have still happened.
 
That’s to bad man .Sorry your out of pocket so much . Cause if I remember you haven’t owned very long .
Not sure what you mean when stated “ Did I cause
this” . Unless you were drag racing don’t think your the problem .
It would’ve happened to whomever was driving .
Possibly PO knew issue was arising so unloaded it . Happens all the time . No way to be sure .
As you said it’s best to look at the positive . New warrantied top end .
Thanks for giving us the end result .
 
Not the fault of anyone. This is a relatively common issue for the 1st, 2nd gen Pentastar. It happens due to weak or subpar parts. It's a toss of the dice, really.

The repair cost is high but it could have easily been 6k. Or a new engine. I had a friend with a tab that was approx 6k but he had a head replaced as well as some rockers. Not all of them. This was covered by his lifetime Mopar warranty, so he lucked out IMO.
 
I had the 5.7L HEMI on my '08 charger replaced under warranty @80K miles in 2018.
That bill would have been close to $12K if I hadn't had the lifetime powertrain warranty... I guess this is just MOPAR getting even with me a bit. :ROFLMAO:
 
This is unrelated but I had a bad ticking sound near the firewall on my 3.8. No codes and drove me mental for over a year. There was a crack at the base of my EGR valve so exhaust was sneaking out at the gasket to the head. I just got a new Dorman last week, but did not swap it in. I used muffler cement to seal the valve leak. Working so far, Jeep is a 2010 but I only have 46K on it. Going keep driving it this way, until I get a code, rough idle or performance issues. Which will probably happen this winter when the weather here is at its worse. LOL
 
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