grandcaravanseeker

The car has a 3.1 v6 and 4 speed auto transmission. It has 115,592 miles on it. The car drives fine, but the engine started ticking while it's running. It would only tick if the car was accelerating or decelerating ,if it was a constant speed it woundn't tick. The trans also likes to stay in 4th gear without the torqe converter locking up for a couple of minutes.
The car is driven mainly around town. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

richtazz

the tick is either a piston slap or lifter problem. The piston slap is a little more serious, as it requires the motor to be torn apart. IF it's a lifter, it's a common problem on these engines as they get up in mileage. They use a design called "zero-lash" lifter that cannot be adjusted like most hydraulic lifters can, so as parts wear and clearances change, ticks develop. A piston slap starts out as a tick , and will develop into a louder more metallic sound. If the noise doesn't change, then I wouldn't worry about it, as I"ve had ticking 3.1's go well beyond 200k, with no other problems.