Engine chatter upon startup

[Zack02]

I'm not personally sold on the idle hours being a cause. I do think it adds to the issue, but not a "cause" per say. I have high idle hours; like 1/2 of what my drive time is for +/- 85K miles. My UOA came back great; molly got rid of my tick and changing the weight got rid of my start up chatter.

Just checked my hours...underestimated my drive hours...I've got 2700 drive hours and 700 idle hours. Maybe that's not high, but it's +/- 30 minutes EVERYDAY for the past 4 years of it's life.

 

[buddy guy]

i can't recall if anyone mentioned this before but i wonder if stop and go traffic idling counts. i believe someone thought you had to be in park to count it. i have about 1/3 of my hours as idle since i bought mine, but i also bought it at the point where winter was at its worst this year and remote started and ran for 10 minutes to warm up a bunch of times. i think last i looked i had about 28 idle hours out of 76 drive hours.

 

[RamCares]

I most likely will... I am keeping this truck long past my warranty expiration and I baby my truck and have had the dreaded lifter bleed down noise but now this extremely noticeable piston slap noise dealers claim is normal due to variances in the pistons as they wear and the engines short skirts shouldn’t be considered acceptable in a 40k+ vehicle , I have hear many ram engines with well over my mileage of 25k that don’t make a peep on cold starts , now mine hesitates and has a horrible noticeable piston slap ..... it’s concerning


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Hey BEAST19,

Your sentiments expressed here are completely understandable. I do apologize for the frustration associated with your situation. To clarify, have you been to your dealer for this concern in the past two weeks? We’d be happy to learn additional details of your situation to determine how to best assist at this point. Please follow up with us via private message at your earliest convenience.

Mark
Ram Social Care Specialist

 

[Billyo]

I most likely will... I am keeping this truck long past my warranty expiration and I baby my truck and have had the dreaded lifter bleed down noise but now this extremely noticeable piston slap noise dealers claim is normal due to variances in the pistons as they wear and the engines short skirts shouldn’t be considered acceptable in a 40k+ vehicle , I have hear many ram engines with well over my mileage of 25k that don’t make a peep on cold starts , now mine hesitates and has a horrible noticeable piston slap ..... it’s concerning


i had a new 15 on a lease and gave it back with 27k. if you search for my older posts, that thing made such noisy piston slap on cold days approx. starting between 115-120 degrees on dash gauge. it would go away at about 180. and dont even get me started with bleed down and hot tick at idle. unreal. had it all starting at about 6k
my new 17 leftover bought in 18 has only been on RL 5/30 after dumping the factory fill at about 2k - has 12k on it now. all quiet.
you might want to consider giving it a try and run it for a little while. good luck to you friend. i hope you get this squared away and get rid of the anxiety. i know the anger you feel.

 

[Billyo]

hey Beast,
i had a new 15 on a lease and gave it back with 27k. if you search for my older posts, that thing made such noisy piston slap on cold days approx. starting between 115-120 degrees on dash gauge. it would go away at about 180. and dont even get me started with bleed down and hot tick at idle. unreal. had it all starting at about 6k
my new 17 leftover bought in 18 has only been on RL 5/30 after dumping the factory fill at about 2k - has 12k on it now. all quiet.
you might want to consider giving it a try and run it for a little while. good luck to you friend. i hope you get this squared away and get rid of the anxiety. i know the anger you feel.

 

[J's_Sport]

My 15 has done this since new but it wasn’t very common until recently. I have found that I can make it happen every morning. I have 1 year left on the Powertrain warranty and I am getting super frustrated. The dealer says they can’t find anything wrong. When I brought the noise up they instantly said it was the manifold after I thought it was lifter bleed down clatter.

 

[William Hastings]

That is exactly what i get intermittently on my truck with 8.1k miles on it. Been doing it since about 3k. Agree, Frustrating as hell. Just switched to qsud 5w30 to try out. My truck knows when i have the camera out and then decides to cooperate

 

[Garce421]

Mines not quite that loud or rapid but it’s definitely a tick at startup that seems to quiet down after it heats up. Tried to upload a vid but it keeps saying file too large to download it’s only 3 sec long?

 

[J's_Sport]

I went to pick the truck up from the dealership today after them having it overnight to diagnose the problem. Of course they can’t hear anything wrong, yet again. So I recorded the startup in their lot and walked right back in to the service advisor and showed him the startup. His response was, “oh that noise? That happens on every truck. It’s totally fine. Nothing to worry about”. Are you kidding me? I will be trying the oils other member have suggested to shut it up a bit. Here’s the video from the dealership.

 

[Doodoo972]

It sounds like a problem with the oil filter bypass valve... your engine is starving of oil at start up. It's not good, try another oil filter like Royal Purple or Wix XP.

 

[blackbetty14]

Good point but what's your option, buy beercan body Ford Egoboost so instead of paying 4k for lifters/ cam you pay 4k for 2 turbos on a truck that, if equivalently equiped to your Ram, cost you 7k more to purchase AND THEN still cost you 4k to fix with just over 100k on the clock.

I've known a few ecoboost owners and the trucks are cr@p except when they work good (which is short) as they have decent power. My last encounter was an electrician (2 months ago) who upgraded my house service from 100-200amp and he had a new ford F150 sport ecoboost and he was blowing blue smoke out the tailpipe in my driveway. I asked him how many miles and if he knew his turbos took a dump. He replied "don't get me started..." he's on his 3rd set of turbos in less than 40k and the truck is 2 yrs old. They dealer isn't cooperating anymore on replacing the turbos so he's stuck dumping oil in the exhaust. He wants to get out of that truck big time.

My wifes Honda CRV has the earthtech turbo 1.6L and its almost up to 30k in less than a year and has no oil burning issues.

 

[chrisbh17]

It sounds like a problem with the oil filter bypass valve... your engine is starving of oil at start up. It's not good, try another oil filter like Royal Purple or Wix XP.

My truck makes basically the exact same noise if I drive it very little (move it from one side of driveway to the other) then park it. On next startup, get that clatter for a bit and it goes away after a few seconds.

I have the RP oil filter. I do not think its filter (and maybe not even oil) related. Its something to do with programming, somewhere. At least currently, my truck ONLY makes that noise under that one condition. Every other normal start (i.e. I drove it yesterday then parked it overnight) is what I would call normal sounding. It did this on factory fill, PP, PUP and RL. With stock and both size RP oil filters.

 

[Ysook1212]

Finally got the tic. Like a drum roll on start up. Recently moved to SC from CT. Called my regular service dealer in CT and they said manifold bolts. Common occurrence and it's covered. Coming back up in a week. They'll take care of it. Great service department in Danbury, CT.

2017 coppertail sport. 72,000mi.

 

[Fitz-0518]

The start up and warm up noise that our HD 6.4 engines make come from many sources. Exhaust, rotating external parts, air intake etc. Some dealers try to claim that all engine noise is normal and customary.
* Injector tick is normal.
* Alternator rotation is normal.
* Fan blades are normal.
The common noise that some owners hear that is not normal are;
1. Exhaust leaks that sound like a screech/hiss are not normal.
2. Dry start valve train noise is not normal.
3. Piston slap, wrist pin knock is not normal.
I have stopped the cold start up valve train noise. I run PUP. 4 qrts 0-40, 2 5-30, 2 10-30. Just my POV. I do not believe our 6.4 engines perform best on 0-40 oil in hot climates. The 0-40 is only a CAFE spec. Common sense and a little engine knowledge suggests that these engines need protective, helpful lubrication.

 

[J's_Sport]

My truck makes basically the exact same noise if I drive it very little (move it from one side of driveway to the other) then park it. On next startup, get that clatter for a bit and it goes away after a few seconds.

That is basically the exact scenario for me to get the noise. I have been using dealer fill since new. I was dumb and bought what I thought at the time was a “good priced” maint package. After reading the oil filter bypass post I figured I would try a new filter. With amazon prime day, I just bought a couple jugs of PUP and a couple wix xp filters. At least I know there will be quality oil and filter on it from now on. I guess when I move the truck in the driveway I will let it run a bit longer to try and avoid that clatter on startup. Thanks for the input!

 

[DamnRam1500]

It’s rather strange that this popped up in my email this morning as I just made an appointment for next week to have my truck checked out at the dealership for this. I’m at 47,000 miles on the warranty expires at 50,000.

My truck does it once in a while on colder mornings. It lasts for about 5-10 seconds and goes away. I’m really hoping it’s the manifolds because it will be covered and cost me nothing.

If they says it’s normal I’m going to be charged for the diagnosis. I’m on a budget this month but need to get this fixed before the warranty is expired.

Does anyone have any tips to tell if it’s the manifold bolts before I go to the dealership?

2016 Hemi 1500

 

[indept]

See if the heat shields are loose. Also get under it & see if any bolts are missing.

 

[16RamHemi]

From what i get from posts about these issues is.....if it is the manifold bolts they do take care of that. But if the bolts are fine and its your motor ticking, then they will tell you its normal. I dont recall anyone coming on here saying a dealer told them its normal, then went to another dealer and they found the bolts to be the culprit. I could be mistaken however. So i would guess that if it is truly your MF bolts, they will fix it...if motor then you will get the ol' its normal. Which then its time to switch to Redline 5w30 and RP filter.

 

[MDORAN]

Put in a Wix or Napa gold oil filter with the anti drain valve they are about $9.00, That worked on my 2014 5.7

 

[WhiteStar]

It's definitely caused by a lifter(s) bleeding down after sitting for awhile. Here's a video of it for reference. (not my truck but the same sound at startup)
My new 2019 Classic has done it since new. At first just every now and then but now everytime I start it from a cold start and sometimes from a warm start.

I just did an oil change at 3k using Shell Gas Truck with a Wix XP filter and that made no difference.

Is this the precursor for the infamous lifter failures wiping out a cam?
Is it a weak valve spring? Who knows but it's certainly a good way to bend a pushrod or valve stem from having too much lash in between the pushrod and rocker.

Here's something that will stop it but you'll be putting more wear and tear on your starter. Hold the throttle pedal to the floor and turn the engine over for 5 secs or so. The engine will crank over but will not start. Turn it off and then start the engine normally. This will pump oil to the lifters.