Ticking at idle?

Video I recorded. It's a little faint, turn up the volume and you can hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ez2rTxIzjw

Normal. If it sounds like a diesel you're GTG. Seriously, I have had an '03 since new and learned to ignore it finally in '07 or so.

It's hard to hear so I wanna make sure you're not skipping over it. It sound most clear at these points. 0:08, 0:13, 0:17, 0:33, 0:36, 0:39, and so on. It almost sounds like a clock tick tocking

OK I put on my headphones and yeah that is different than what I was referring to. Sounds like the exhaust heating up or maybe something contacting the exhaust etc.. It doesn't sound internal from here and it is very intermittent but I can't be sure. Does it sound the same as the exhaust tinks you hear when it is hot and you turn it off?

It sounds a little similar to that, I actually thought I heard it after I turned the engine off too but I couldnt tell because of the various similar sounds right after the engine is shut off. Ill try to go out tonight and pinpoint it more after work.

Listening closer it almost sounds like a piece of loose metal being scooped up and dropped over and over.

I have an outback and it also made a similar sound. It ended up being the fan belt rubbing

maxc2001 said:

I have an outback and it also made a similar sound. It ended up being the fan belt rubbing

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Thanks for the reply. Was the sound heard mostly under the engine and how did you go about fixing it? New belt?

Yeah. The belt was slightly deformed from the factory. One part was slightly wider. Whenever it would pass around, it would rub on one spot and make a ticking noise. I'm not sure if it's the same thing for you but I just replaced the belt itself and now it works great.

Does sound like a belt or maybe the tensioner. Check out this video for tips on how to check this -->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAxiFJ2rHBE .

How many miles and do you have evidence of a timing belt install at 104K etc.?

maxc2001 said:

Yeah. The belt was slightly deformed from the factory. One part was slightly wider. Whenever it would pass around, it would rub on one spot and make a ticking noise. I'm not sure if it's the same thing for you but I just replaced the belt itself and now it works great.

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That sounds like it should be rythmic, not random? Glad you got yours sorted.

Yeah it was rhythmic but it changed in volume. It was an easy fix.

mycologist said:

How many miles and do you have evidence of a timing belt install at 104K etc.?

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It's got 73k. belt hasn't been touched as far as I'm aware. The previous owner kept a very extensive maintenance record on it. I'll double check tomorrow when I'm home from work but pretty sure it was never replaced.

So you are technically due on time but not on miles. I personally consider that as significantly less important than miles but it is there.

From someone who is still keeping up a 1998 Outback as well though, I can only say that chasing after sounds that aren't affecting anything while driving isn't an economic approach. Other than maintance items like the timing belt there isn't anything you can do anyway and you're probably over 100K miles away from and issue beyond that. If it is an external part you should be able to locate it but just because it is ticking doesn't mean it is bad.