2003 Cobra making ticking noise

[Vic_Ferrari]

chip

What are all the modifications done to the vehicle? If it is just a chip I wouldn't worry about it, they are not going to take apart the kick panel, pull the pcm out just to see if it had a chip. Now if it had other mods like exhaust then they may go hunting for more stuff, if you have a pulley on it you are pretty much screwed. I have a lot of friends who are also techs that work at ford dealerships, they say the service managers love to void powertrain warrantys on these cars for simple mods.
Anyways, my suggestion bring it in to a different dealership with no mods, have the tsb performed. You now have your drivers cylinder head replaced, no more ticking, no money out of your pocket, and your car is back at 100%.

On the contrary....
they can and will check for the chip.
If they don't find it, they will look to se if it was there.
Vic

 

[Vic_Ferrari]

UM......

There's some truth to your statement that something else may be going on...

"The other tick" is actually the pistons hitting the heads.
(Not saying that's the case here, but I've seen it)

We took the drivers side head off a Kenne Bell car and not only was one piston toast (had a hole in it, literally), but the piston tops were abnormally clean on the entire bank.
We discovered they were actually HITTING the head every revolution....
I've been told by reliable sources that too much power (and abuse) without correct tuning can cause the skirts to stretch and this is the result:
tick, tick, tick, tick....louder and faster with more RPM.

Vic, Vic, Vic, Vic

 

[5.0's 4 ever]

That is pretty interesting. I had not heard about that or seen it, but we don't deal with 600hp cars at my dealership either. What shop was doing the work on this car?

 

[98yellowstang]

On the contrary....
they can and will check for the chip.
If they don't find it, they will look to se if it was there.
Vic

excuse my ignorance but how will they look to see if there was one? Obviously I have never installed or uninstalled a chip so I wouldn't know. Some enlignenment here.

I was under the impression that I could just pop off the chip and run it into a dealer, along with the pulley and CAI??

Oh well if not, I guess it will be stocky stocky for me for 5 years hehe.

Later
Jason

 

[Firme]

FWIW, there was guy in the local cobra club that had the SAME EXACT problem. At first he took it to Ford due to the ticking head that everyone is talking about on the TSB. Ford went over his car and determined he had had a chip and voided the warranty. The guy got pissed and got a lawyer and started the process of suing Ford. After a couple of months, he got impatient and decided that since it was going to cost a bunch for the lawyer, and ford hadn't even torn down his engine yet, he took the money, for the lawyer to take it to the next level, and took it to a shop to get them to tear it down (if it was part defect, he could use it as evidence). Well long story short, after the tear down, it became aparent that he had burnt two cylinders and the shop stated that it was overly OBVIOUS that it was due to overly lean out conditions. He was surprised as hell.

The chip he had used was a Autogic chip that was tuned based on his mods (not actually custom dyno tuned) and was indeed the cause of his problems. He is now in the process of rebuilding the engine to make it ever stronger and has seen the light to let Jerry ( a total HOSS) at SCT/superchips dyno tune the car.

Moral of the story, kick a$$ tuners like Jerry can tell you all the problem that occur on the 03-04's. They tell of numerous people that they have seen blow the 03-04 engine due to bad chip tunes, or tuners not knowing enough about the car. Look on all the SVT board and you will see a handfull of chipped and KB'd people who have blown their engine. Unfortunetly they paid a debt to the learning curve on these cars. Basically, custom dyno tune the car... otherwise you are playing with fire. Also, with Kenny bell, and real high HP, the fuel pumps start to strain. They do ok on the dyno, but on the strip or at the road coarse, they can be strained enough to drop the fuel pressure just long enough to lean out on the top end and blow the engine. Afton makes some real nice dual modified Focus fuel pumps that are sufficient for high HP of the Kenny Bell.

You got a great deal on the car, use some of the saving to fix the engine and make it stronger (all the factory parts aren't the best best of the best, albeit they are forged)

sorry for the novel and typing errors

 

[Firme]

excuse my ignorance but how will they look to see if there was one? Obviously I have never installed or uninstalled a chip so I wouldn't know. Some enlignenment here.

I was under the impression that I could just pop off the chip and run it into a dealer, along with the pulley and CAI??

Oh well if not, I guess it will be stocky stocky for me for 5 years hehe.

Later
Jason

The port where the chip is installed has a finish on it. In order to put a chip in, you have to sand the finish down so the metal on the leads is exposed. Its not hard to see if someone has sanded that down.

I recommend a PCM flash by the handful of UBER tuner that don't need a chip (unless you got n2o) to modify the PCM

 

[98yellowstang]

The port where the chip is installed has a finish on it. In order to put a chip in, you have to sand the finish down so the metal on the leads is exposed. Its not hard to see if someone has sanded that down.

I recommend a PCM flash by the handful of UBER tuner that don't need a chip (unless you got n2o) to modify the PCM

Ok but as soon as Ford hooks a reflashed PCM to their computer they will see that it has been reflashed, correct? If so then how is anyone with mods on these cars getting warrenty work done? Can you tell this is the first car I have ever had a warrenty on it to? hehe

Clue me in.

thanks for the reply.

Later

 

[RaceRat]

Term is looking at buying a used car with a blown motor and no warranty from a less than honest seller. I hope this thread has helped him.

As for the other drivel...modded Cobra's are blowing up. Not all of them are tune related. The pistons are **** and they melt. The fuel system is inadequate above 550rwhp.
There's a TON of misinformation in this thread and all over the internet. Good luck sorting it out.

 

[ColdBloodedVert]

The head fix will definitely not work all of the time. My car has had the tick since the day I got it in July of 02. I had it in there many times and I would get the run around. Then the TSB came out so they changed my head. They found a cracked cam tensioner so they replaced it as well. Now my car ticks just as bad or not worse as before and they refuse to work on it anymore. Up until that point I had done nothing more than CAI and exhaust.

I have grown impatient in the meantime and I have added a pulley and a reflash of the computer. I am just going to keep driving it until it blows the ***k up. Then they better work on it since this has been documented since it was brand new and I waited 15 months before installing the pulley and the reflash. Otherwise I will be locked up for beating the s*** out of somebody.

I would not buy the car. Too many headaches will follow.....

 

[Uncle Meat]

As for the other drivel...modded Cobra's are blowing up. Not all of them are tune related. The pistons are **** and they melt. The fuel system is inadequate above 550rwhp.
There's a TON of misinformation in this thread and all over the internet. Good luck sorting it out.

I for the most part agree with RaceRat, although I don't think I would go so far as to say the stock pistons are ****! They're fine if the car remains stock, or mildly modified. If you want to start pushing the HP envelope, many people might want to think about some better slugs.

U.M.

 

[term]

Ok time for a update, I now have this car, the mechanic that is working on it says nothing more than valvetrain noise, he doesn't think its a knock, or there is anything even remotly wrong with the bottom of the engine.

I will try to get a digital camera and take pictures of what was causing the problem if I get time tonight (Assuming he gets it apart and finds the problem today).

 

[Vic_Ferrari]

98 yellow...
Get a superchips 1725 programmer....all the benefots of a chip, but can be flashed back to stock and anytime without any physical evidence whatsoever.

A chip will leave clean telltale contacts behind, but the programer won't.
I highly recommend the Superchips piece over anyone elses.

 

[Uncle Meat]

Ok time for a update, I now have this car, the mechanic that is working on it says nothing more than valvetrain noise, he doesn't think its a knock, or there is anything even remotly wrong with the bottom of the engine.

I will try to get a digital camera and take pictures of what was causing the problem if I get time tonight (Assuming he gets it apart and finds the problem today).

So what were the results of the leak down test? I'm curious on what cylinder #7 looks like....

U.M.

 

[Vic_Ferrari]

These things are noisy as hell.
Everyone thinks they have "the tick"
These things all tick to a degree.
If you have the tick, you will know it and so will anyone within 50 yards =o)

If the #7 is fine, leave it be.

Headers, h-pipe and catback helps cover up that noisy ass engine =o)

 

[term]

These things are noisy as hell.
Everyone thinks they have "the tick"
These things all tick to a degree.
If you have the tick, you will know it and so will anyone within 50 yards =o)

If the #7 is fine, leave it be.

Headers, h-pipe and catback helps cover up that noisy ass engine =o)

The noise shouldn't be there. The "tick" my Z28 made could have been passed off as normal noise but this is too much.

But its wierd, sometimes the noise totally goes away. My mechanic thinks that this cobra is effected by the defective left head problem with early build 03 cobras, we verified that this cobra was one of the first 03s built.

 

[Rogue Cobra]

How do I get an Oasis report. I bought mine new, but would like to see it.

Thanks, this thread has been very informative. I have not started modding my 2003 Cobra and I am learning the do and don't BEFORE I mod it.

Rogue Cobra

 

[term]

The dealer may be able to print it off for you, they didn't seem too surprised when I walked in with it.

Or someone on here can probably run it for you.

 

[Uncle Meat]

The noise shouldn't be there. The "tick" my Z28 made could have been passed off as normal noise but this is too much.

But its wierd, sometimes the noise totally goes away. My mechanic thinks that this cobra is effected by the defective left head problem with early build 03 cobras, we verified that this cobra was one of the first 03s built.

Term - If you have the tick, it DOES NOT go away! The tick is not intermittent. You may not hear it while the engine is cold because many of the cars, including mine, have a little piston slap that will mask or cover the tick. Once the car is warmed up though it will tick loud and clear.

U.M.