TxDox21

I replaced my sparked plugs the other day with Denso plugsbought from the dealer. I have not heard any knocking that i can tell. I have had the car under load and gunned the engine and have not heard anything out of the ordinary except for when i pop the hood and the car is idling with a warm engine. I heard a very quiet ticking type noise that seems to come from the drivers side of the engine, near the spark plugs. I misted the plug wires tonight and could not see any sparks. The vehicle is a 2002 4runner with 60k. The only think I can think of is maybe one of the spark plugs is not tight enough, but i will have to wait until morning to tighten them when the engine cools.

Please help me figure out what the noise is.

02SE

It could be several things.

Fuel injecters operating normally

Valvetrain noise

Solenoid on the EVAP canister

exhaust manifold leak

Did you use a torque wrench when you installed the plugs?.

If not, how much did you tighten them?

I doubt that what you're hearing is a loose sparklpug, because they would have to be nearly unthreaded to hear that kind of noise.

Good luck.

TxDox21

OK I went out this morning and made sure the plugs were tight and they were.

The clicking/ticking is still there. it is very quiet and very fast. It is difficult to hear over the fan and belts. I would guess that it ticks about 2-3 per second. Hope this helps.

Thank your for any advice.

emptypockets

I've had the same problem with mine. My guess is that it's something fuel injection related but I'm not sure. Even with that noise, my rig runs great, so I've just kind of ignored it so far.

TxDox21

have you had a mechanic listen to it?

mastacox

My guess is the ticking is associated with normal operation within the engine, either valvetrain noise, or fuel injectors. You COULD have a mechanic use a stethoscope on it if you really worried.

MTL_4runner

Sounds like either valvetrain or fuel injectors but neither would really be anything to be concerned about.

If you really want to track down exactly where it is coming from you can use something like this:

GSGALLANT

Mine does it (very slightly). It's not a noise that worries me, so I've never really tried to narrow it down.

emptypockets

Same here. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

uberhahn

Same noise here. Mine was a lot worse when I had my sparkplug problems. Careful with applying too much torque to the plugs...

uber

Elton

i never use a torque wrench on sparkplugs i let it get snug then a half turn