engine ticking

Hello,
My 97' E420 engine has a ticking noise that becomes progressively worse as the car is warmed up. It occurs with the a/c running or not. Any clues as to what this may be. It definitely comes from somewhere in the engine but cannot narrow it down.

Thanks
Dean

[mercedesdoc]

Dean,

That ticking sound is probaly your lifters collapsing due to lack of oil pressure, Very comon on those engines that the lifter bridges are bad. The ;ifter bridges are a passage way for oil to travel to the lifters, what happens is the caps on them usualy fall out and this causes oil to flow out of the bridge and not get to the upper lifters. This causes lack of oil pressure. If the noise just started then you would just need to replace all 16 bridges (8 to each cylinder head). If it has been a long time you might damage a lifter. Also gonna have to remove the oil pan and try to retreive the plastic cap from the bridge that broke off.

good luck

Robi

[Cigar Havana]

I agree with mercedesdoc. Usually the plastic/composite material based oil tubes blow out the bottom end. I recommend you get them replaced ASAP.