'03 STR - Engine makes Ticking/Chugging sound on cold starts.
 

Recently when I start the engine after it has been sitting for an hour or longer, the engine will make a ticking/chugging sound for about the first mile's worth of driving, and then it goes away completely. Only noticeable under acceleration.

I just had it in the shop for an oil change last week and talked to the Jag Tech about it. He test drove it but said he didn't hear anything out of the ordinary. I think this was because the engine had only been shut off for about 10 minutes. He drove it again after the oil change, or approximately 45 minutes later, and he still couldn't hear anything. Now I think he can't hear very well, or maybe I have amazing hearing. But when I left the shop 5 minutes after he drove it for the second time, I could immediately hear the ticking sound when I hit the gas pedal and started to accelerate down the road. Then after about 1 minute of driving, it went away like usual.

I always use premium gasoline. Oil changed religiously every 3K. Any and all reccommeded maintence done on time or early.
Car has 46,000 miles on it.

Any thoughts??

Many thanks!

Scott



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RE: '03 STR - Engine makes Ticking/Chugging sound on cold starts.
 

Did it do it before the oil change or after? If it was after, did you use a different brand or grade of oil than what you had in it before? Sounds to me that it could simply be oil bleeding out of the lifters and taking a some time to pump them back up.

RE: '03 STR - Engine makes Ticking/Chugging sound on cold starts.
 

These engines use and OHC with a bucket lifter, they do not bleed off.


Do you have any kind of recording of the sound? What engine does the car have?

There are alot of different causes of clicking noises. How many miles are on the car? Typical causes of a clickare a valvetrain problemor an exhaust leak. What's cool is this: If it's a 4.0, it may have a valvetrain problem, they are pretty good at developing problems in that department. If it is a 4.2 it is probably an exhaust problem. The 4.2's use a much cheaper casting exhaust manifold then the 4.0's and they can and do crack. Unfortunately, you would hear both valvetrain and exhaust problems when cold and not so much when hot do to heat expansion.

RE: '03 STR - Engine makes Ticking/Chugging sound on cold starts.
 

The STR/S-type R is 4.2L supercharged....

Weird how many str owners are having engine problems all of a sudden...

RE: '03 STR - Engine makes Ticking/Chugging sound on cold starts.
 

oops, I missed the str in the title of the post!

RE: '03 STR - Engine makes Ticking/Chugging sound on cold starts.
 

It happens...don't let it happen again! LOL:D;)

RE: '03 STR - Engine makes Ticking/Ch
 

LOL...My jaw almost dropped when I read "What kind of engine does your car have?"....but you caught yourself. ;-)

SO anyway, I took the car in and had two different techs, along with the owner of the shop (also Jag Certified) look at the car and do diagnostics. They all seem to think it is something called the Secondary Air Pump?? Apparently its function is to heat up the catalytic converters when the engine is cold...some sort of emissions BS. They think it is either leaking/improperly sealed, or in the process of breaking.

It took them two hours to figure only that much out. And they want to dig around some more just to make sure before they even attempt to repair/replace. No idea if warranty covers any of that stuff. But they said it is not harming the engine and the car is safe to drive until they have an opening to get me in and start the real work on the car. I just can't wait to see the bill on this one. lol.

Anybody ever heard of this problem???

-Scott

I was wondering if you ever figured out what this ticking is. I have the same thing on my 2005 XKR. It only happens after the car has been sitting (e.g., as in overnight in the garage) and lasts for about a minute or so after startup. My own suspicion is an exhaust leak as this was the same type of sound I had many many years ago on a car after I installed headers. There was a pinhole leak and the effect was like a ticking sound.

Doug

I have exactly the same thing with my STR with 26k mileage. It's an exhaust leak which corrects itself once warmed up. Prolly a hairline crack/pinhole on the exhaust manifold or ???

I'm not payin' someone to fix it and it ain't that big a bother to fix it myself as I would prolly create more problems than this annoying tick, tick, tick for a couple of minutes until up to operating temperature.

It is slightly annoying I must admit but so are my neighbors offspring, taxes and peeps that want to race me in their ricers, tin cans and muscle cars. Just ignore it/all and turn up the tunes...

Maybe the next time I bring it to the dealer (I need to do the J004 recall) I will tell them to look closely at the exhaust manifolds. If there is a crack, it certainly is not going to get any smaller and it should be covered under the SE warranty that is still in effect.

Doug

Have the same issue in an 04 STR. Took it to the dealer, they keeped it overnight. The tech listen to it with a stethoscope and said it was normal part of the cold start system.

That ticking problem turned out to be a cracked EGR pipe. I guess the EGR pipe is hidden fairly well? It took them a few hours to find the problem. But the ticking sound is gone...thank God...it was so annoying.

Anyway, I think that repair ran about $700. But then an O2 sensor went out, which cost another $700 or so. That was a fun visit. Now I need to buy brakes....happy happy joy joy. $$$$

Well, you're eventual diagnosis will surely help someone else secure a quicker, cheaper repair bill. Thanks for taking one for the team!

My natural reaction would be to say "anytime"....but when Jaguar repair bills are the topic of conversation I think I will just say that I took my turn...now it's someone else's turn. lol.

Hopefully that WILL save someone some time/diagnostic fees down the road.

i been having the same chugging/ticking sound on cold starts & now im wondering if i could have the same problem...could someone help me on where to find the EGR pipe & if its hard to get to? thanks, mike