Hello everybody!

I did a quick search and was only able to find very few threads about a similar issue, but it didn't seem to match up with mine close enough. Of course, if you find or know of a thread that solves my issue below, I'll immediately close this one so it doesn't add to the pile! Anyways:

2006 Mazda3 S hatchback, 2.3L M/T. When the engine is cold, the ticking gets louder @ 2,000 - 2,600 RPM. When at temp, the ticking is louder @ 3,000 - 4,000 RPM. The ticking is significantly louder at those RPMs than the normal ticking you'd hear from an old car at idle or normal operation. It gets faster as the RPMs increase and I've been able to isolate the sound to the passenger exhaust side of the cylinder head. This is only my second car and I may be more worried than I should be, but I wanted to make sure before coughing up $180 USD for a diagnosis from the dealership or service center. The oil has been topped off, I've replaced the valve cover gasket (and all of the components were lubricated well from what I saw) and have run a couple fuel injector cleaners and performed a fuel induction service myself and it still hasn't gone away. Any ideas?

TL ; DR:
- 2006 Mazda3 S Hatch w/2.3L I4, 5-spd
- Louder-than-normal ticking @ 2K - 4K RPM
- Sound from passenger exhaust side of cylinder head (general area)
- Oil topped, valve cover replaced, fuel induction service, fuel injector cleaner used, but issue persists

 

Sound is so subjective to the unqualified ear hearing them on vehicle. YOu could attempt to make a video but in most cases what you hear and what sounds are normal not to mention how it was recorded are also not helpful.
What you need to do is use a sound locating tool and then find the "EXACT" location of the engine sound and report back to your thread here.
Here is my engine that is in textbook health, all the sounds recorded from my cell phone. To the untrained ear it sounds SCARY! LOL





sound locating tool











Homemade

 

SirLuci_Alpine Welcome to the forum

 

Alrighty, I'll see what I can find. As for your video, my engine sounds the same, but the sound I'm referring to is while under load, so once I get video/audio of it I'll reply again.

And thank you for the welcome. Nice to finally start being an actual enthusiast 😁

 

So engine noise predominantly will be there even not under load. For the most general information acquiring a short video of idle then at about 3,000 rpm should produce engine sounds that should be at least to see if they are somewhat normal. Naturally without good recording equipment it is going to be the best you can do and may not record the sounds you are hearing. But it is worth trying and posting them.
If the noise is load enough inside the car while driving you can try to make a video recording but again most of the time there are to many environmental and other noises to separate good from bad sounds unless they are really bad.

And glad to have you as a new member. We have a wide range of valuable members that have great information, and many are all helpful with problem solving solutions and suggestion .

 

Here's a video with the ticking that I'm talking about. It's faint in the video since I was parked and not under load (i.e. not driving on the highway or something where you can hear it for a longer time), but you can hear the ticking at 3 seconds and 5 seconds. Very short but I think you could tell. Lemme know if you got any questions

 

Ya better video but please re-read post #2 . You need to use one of the tools I suggested.