Hello out there. I am having a problem with my 2006 Grand Caravan SXT. This van has 84000 miles and have had a Ticking Noise in the Upper part of the engine. If you play with the gas you can make the noise just about go away. But this is a loud noise like a Lifter has no oil pressure. The oil pressure lamp has never come on. The problem is that the Warranty company said the this is a normal problem with this 3.8 with high milage (85000) is not high milage (180000 on my Lexus GS) is high milage. I have yet to find any complanits of this problem on any of the 3.8 that Mopar has put out. The warranty company said that 99% of these engines have a valve train noise that cannot be found upon tear-down,which would leave me holding the bag. Also the Warranty company also said that this noise is a normal sound when the mileage is high. My question to ya'll is HAS ANYONE OUTTHERE HAD OR HEARD OF THIS NOISE,AND IS IT A COMMAN SOUND. It really sounds like BS. I have checked all of the bullitens that have been sent out and have still found nothing. If anyone has any help please let me know.

 

I have an 06 too, no tick to speak of inless you really really listen hard, so no tick

Question, what type of oil are you using,
if synth you might want to change it out and try regular dino,
( or a little thicker or thinner oil,) not sure which way you want to go, thicker should quite it down, but thinner is better for cold start in cold weather

also did it just start with the cold weather, parked outside?

 

This noise is not to bad until it starts to warm up. This noise is not just lound but I can hear the van pull up under the carport with me in the house. This is a loud tick. I have been running Valvoline 10w30 and a Mopar filter. It just sucks to have a van that can be heard 30ft away.

 

We had a 3.3 engine with a ticking sound that came from the rear head. We replace the lifters and there was no change. We did find the problem, it was the number 4 rod bearing. The way we found it was removing the oil pan and inspect each bearing.

 

I recently had a ticking that I thought was a lifter. I replaced the serpentine belt because of mileage. Ticking is now gone and engine is as quite as new.

The belt had been replaced at the Dodge dealer so I assume it was a Mopar belt. It had the V grooves missing for about 3/4 inch in two locations about 180* apart.

 

Master Tech, I am wanting to know,when your dealership replaced the lifters and still had the noise,did it still have the sound of a bad lifter? That is the thing that is bothering me. The noise sound just like a lifter,but the noise is not that noticable when the engine is cold. As the engine comes up to temperture the noise starts to get louder when it gets hot. I did pull the plug wires on the front of the engine to see if I could change the noise like we use to do to check for a bad rod bearing. But that did not change a thing. I did not test the back Cylinders.I know it sound strange but it almost sounds like this noise can change where it is coming from. Sometimes it sounds like it is coming from the front head and then sometimes it sounds it is coming from the back. I am just about to give up on it.

 

It still made the same noise and the tech thought it was coming from the rear head. It was louder when hot.

 

Well the noise has turned out to be excessive clearance between the crankshaft and the connecting rod. After mesuring we found about.004 to much clearnce. I

 

so is the rod end oversized or is the crank journal undersized?
hope fully you get lucky and its just the rod end thats enlarged, and not the journal worn down

 

Well the tech found the the side play of the rod was .0019 when it was cold. So what we found was when the engine was hot the metal expanded it was making the noise louder,like a lifter noise. So I am going to install a used engine.