Opinions please.

I have a 2.4 liter twin cam. Ever since I've owned the darn thing...there has been a slight ticking noise coming from the engine. Now....I don't know about you.....but that bothers the hell out of me. Plus....the car seems to run rough while in park, on a down hill slop. The engine also seems to run rough when the heater or AC is on...which I'm told.. is normal.

After doing a ton of research...I thought I nailed it down to the timing chain tensioner. So I posed a question at the other forum. I was told to do the "ear to screwdriver" test....to see if the ticking was coming from there. But it wasn't. The ticking was coming from the areas pointed out in the pic below. After showing the pic...I was told that I probably had noisy/bad injectors.


Anyway...I listened to every reachable part of the engine... and I can only hear the ticking in the areas below.

Do you think I have bad injectors? If so....How hard is it to change the injectors? (novice here)

Should I bite the bullet, and take it to a shop?




Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Here is the pic. This is where I hear the ticking noise.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/Levey/Picture1723.jpg

those are the fuel rails. maybe a fuel filter would be something to look at. It is normal the injectors making a ticking sound and the PVC valve ticks too. I just remembered the lifters will tick also, they are inside the engine though.
If your spark plugs are old that will make it run rough. the fuel regulator, which is by the left arrow in the pic, might need replaced, but if its running and starting ok I wouldnt mess with alot.

those are the fuel rails. maybe a fuel filter would be something to look at. It is normal the injectors making a ticking sound and the PVC valve ticks too. I just remembered the lifters will tick also, they are inside the engine though.
If your spark plugs are old that will make it run rough. the fuel regulator, which is by the left arrow in the pic, might need replaced, but if its running and starting ok I wouldnt mess with alot.

Fuel filter is new
There isn't a pvc valve on a 2.4 (that I know of)
It doesn't sound like it's coming from the lifters
Spark plugs are new as well

I'm still thinking the injectors are bad....but was hoping somebody else had this problem....and was able to cure it.

the injectors make alot of noise, have u ever used any injector cleaner? it helps sometimes. You can also buy an injector rebuild kit for some cars. Comes with new O-rinds and end caps for the injectors. I've used this kit on an 86' GA 3.1 and I didnt have to replace them, they(injectors) arent cheap. Keep checkin back, someone whos had these specific problems will hook ya up. \,,/

As xeroinfinity said the injectors make a lot of noise especially when you listen with a screwdriver. The one point you listened to is the fuel line and the other is the fuel rail both will transmit a lot of injector noise. Clean them with some injector cleaner in the fuel tank and then see if that quiets them down. Otherwise don't worry too much about it since it is normal for the injectors to make a slight clicking noise. Changing injectors is expensive not hard.

they are close to $90 each if not more. i've replaced all of mine on my 99', but i was gettting all kinds of misfire codes and it ran like crapola. Afterwards it has ran smooth, they still tick a little.