Taking My ‘16 To The Shop for a “tik-tik-tik-tik” noise. Any suggestions?

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Dan Higgins

Dan Higgins

Joined
Jul 24, 2016
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Location
Denver, CO
So my 2016 LC is at about 85K. Regular maintenance. Generally all good. But I can often hear a tik-tik-tik noise. Especially when the window is open. It is not only when the truck is cold as I could have been driving for 30 minutes or more. The sounds occurs even when the truck is not moving. It is continuous and is about 2-3 times per second. My concern is that it is a sign of something wearing out so I am taking it to the Toyota dealership here in Bend, Oregon. Not being a “car guy” like some of you, is there something I should be concerned about, watching out for or that I should pay particular attention to?
 
Do you think you are just noticing the normal ticking from the valves during idling, that may sound louder when the engine is cold as the oil is being pushed all the way up from the bottom of the pan? Maybe check your oil as a first step to rule that out. If you are familiar with that sound, and would say that it noticeably louder than it should be, it could be many things honestly without further investigation.
 
One other possibility could be with a cracked exhaust manifold. That is part of the Toyota legacy LOL. I've had to have that repaired on probably 3 different yotas, but haven't seen it mentioned when it comes to the 200.
 
Oh yea, good call, now that sound is very distinct. And usually gets louder as you get on the gas, obviously. Now depending on the size of the crack or leak, it could be subtle as well. But before we start turning towards the worst, with the engine OFF, pop the hood and check around the engine bay, inspecting the belt and fan, and all around the engine to ensure there are no cables, wires or foreign debris that may be interfering. Then turn the engine on and do the same, carefully.
 
I second the cracked exhaust manifold.
 
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@tabraha - How/why was this happening? I've only managed to crack a manifold hitting cold water wading water. 3 separate occurrences seems extreme.
 
CruiserFan88 said:
@tabraha - How/why was this happening? I've only managed to crack a manifold hitting cold water wading water. 3 separate occurrences seems extreme.
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Mine were always at 100k plus miles and I think it had to do with a combination of metal fatigue along with mud and other contaminants affecting expansion etc. I've never had it happen on any other vehicle, just my Toyotas.
 
In other words, from hitting it hard! I hear you. I hope that doesn't turn out to be the case for the OP, but that sound is undeniable.
 
mcgaskins said:
Sounds like an exhaust manifold. Have you had to change the water pump yet? I know most 3URFEs need a water pump around 90k, and my 16 was making the failing water pump noise at 55k.
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Could you please tell me what is the failing water pump noise?
 
I also have a tick noise that happens only on cooler mornings and goes away when the vehicle warms up. It's a '17 FYI. I assumed it was a leaking exhaust manifold but it isn't bad enough that a tech at the dealer would be able to diagnose it as a real problem.

I can see it now: "yeah we kept it overnight and wasted your time driving it here and going without the truck to tell you that it's perfectly normal." Which of course means it's not, but they're too lazy and the warranty shop rate doesn't justify us doing the work for you until it's a real problem.

If it gets worse such that the warming up and sealing of the exhaust stops making the sound go away I'll take it in, or if it starts sounding like valves or something worse. ...Although if anyone has any better ideas, I'm all ears.
 
Valve chatter is normal operation for all engines. Some cars/motorcycles are more prevalent than others. The R6 I used to ride had to get the valves adjusted every 8,000 miles and they would steadily get louder and louder as they became due. Again, all that is normal. It would have to be a very small exhaust leak for you to be able to drive around town and everyone around you not look as if your car is about to blow up. And will all that pressure, in my experience, small leaks don't last long. I'm having a hard time believing you guys have exhaust leaks on these younger cars. Are you guys jumping these things?
 
Dan Higgins said:
So my 2016 LC is at about 85K. Regular maintenance. Generally all good. But I can often hear a tik-tik-tik noise. Especially when the window is open. It is not only when the truck is cold as I could have been driving for 30 minutes or more. The sounds occurs even when the truck is not moving. It is continuous and is about 2-3 times per second. My concern is that it is a sign of something wearing out so I am taking it to the Toyota dealership here in Bend, Oregon. Not being a “car guy” like some of you, is there something I should be concerned about, watching out for or that I should pay particular attention to?
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I look forward to the dealers diagnosis. My vote is for normal fuel injector noise that your hearing.
 
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Thanks for all of the input! A question on the fuel injector noise. I have heard it before when the engine was cold. But I expected it to go away as everything warmed up. But, being ignorant of such things, I may be wrong. Maybe as time goes on you can hear it more often? The dealership did not find anything obvious wrong with the engine but also were not able to hear the sound. (I hate it when that happens). They are going to keep it overnight to see if they can hear it during a cold start. Either way, I am having them do a FI service.
 
It is different but one of my manifolds cracked while at a machine shop attempting to remove a broken downpipe stud. Right at the weld around the port on the rear cylinder. Yes they were using a lot of heat and who knows how they had it clamped but it did let go at the weld.

If someone wanted to research the prevalence of cracked manifolds on our engines it would be wise to look into failures on 5.7 iforce tundras. A lot more of those were produced and the parts are basically the same
 
I'm convinced what you are hearing is normal. My 5.7 when i lived in Alaska in a -40F morning sounded like a diesel. There are a lot of threads on tundra forums that talk about the noise of the 5.7. Its a combination of injector noise and variable valve timing. There are some pretty exhaustive threads on this very thing. Not surprising to hear this as the weather gets colder.
 
Those of you who thought it was normal were correct. Its not something I had heard before other than during startup so I was concerned about something worse. And since I have 85K on the LC I didn't want to ignore a serious problem before my extended warranty expired. But they service department eliminated any other possible cause and actually couldn't reproduce the noise. So I am comfortable believing it is normal. (I also had them do a fuel injection service which may help? It needed one anyway.)

Thanks again for all of the input!
 
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