Driving home from school today I started getting a headache so I turned my radio off to get a little peace and quiet on the way home. In doing this I started noticing a weird tick sound and a 100-300 RPM jump immediately after the tick. It does it every few seconds. So far I've noticed it only when I have my cruise set, but it's possible that it's doing it out of cruise also. I havent noticed any of this before because I almost always have my radio on. At first I thought it might be the way my truck is geared but then I set my cruise on 60 and it still does it. They only thing out of the ordinary that I have done to my truck lately is installed an intake a few months ago and changed my spark plugs this past weekend. Does anybody have any idea what is going on and if something is wrong?

 

all ur plugs connected firmly? if not connected all the way (like snapped on) they tick , sometimes pretty loud, and make it run kinda funky

 

Are you running aftermarket exhaust or a tuner. It sounds like the transition from 4 to 8 cylinders(MDS). Try putting the truck into tow/haul and see if it still does this.

 

draco8494 - I'm pretty sure all the plugs are connected firmly, but it is kinda hard to tell since the next generation (or whatever you wanna call it) spark plug wires are all under the ignition coils. It's pretty much impossible to see the connection itself. But since all the coils bolted back down easily, I'm gonna say they're all connected.

jdfisher - No. My truck is all stock except for my intake. You were right about switching over to tow/haul though. When I did that all the ticks and jumps stopped.

So here's what I'm thinking...the ticks and RPM jumps is my MDS kicking in and out. I never noticed it before I put my intake on. I know the intake amplifies the sound of the engine. So maybe it made my MDS loud enough for me to notice it now? But why would it be kicking in and out like that? It seems to me that when you have your cruise set at 65 or 70 it should stay in four cylinders most of the time. Maybe the way my truck is geared or something is messing it up? I know that when I'm driving steady at 70 I stay right around the neighbor hood of 1900 RPM's. What do you think guys? Thanks for the input so far by the way.

 

I doubt there is anything wrong with your truck, exhaust and intake amplify the mds transition, you could disable mds with the superchips 3865. I found the surge and sound unbearable so i disabled it.

 

To answer your ??? better, dodge designs and programs our trucks to operate pretty smoothly so you dont feel that transition, but when you start upgrading things you lose that detuned smoothness. IMO the 3865 was the best mod i made to my truck.

 

It just doesn't seem right to me though that just adding an intake would make it act that finicky. I think before I'll reset my computer when I get home and see if that makes any difference.

 

I have a 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 and i notice during idle that the rpms jump up and back down constantly. i dont notice it while driving. I do have a cherry bomb installed, i am wondering if that may be the problem? maybe the catylic converter is bad? something else?

 

^^^ thread jacked lol