Weird noise- valves maybe?

[mark pruett]

When I start my truck, I sometimes get a ticking noise. It's not steady; it goes tick-tick-tick..... tick... tick-tick... etc... It goes away after I drive a little bit, and won't come back until the truck has been shut down for an hour or so.

The really confusing part is that it does NOT do it when the ambient temperature is below about 45 degrees. It only makes the noise when the ambient temperature is higher than that.


I have a Dodge Dakota with a 3.7L v6, no modifications or anything, running 10w30 Castrol GTX.

 

[The_Jeff]

Is your climate control on defog? Dodges add AC when you're often not expecting it. Could be the compressor cycling.

 

[Gary Allan]

How many miles? This is a SOHC engine, so I'd imagine it could be HLA noise of some sort. I'm unsure if it has a hydraulically actuated chain tensioner or not.

 

[mark pruett]

11000 miles, and the A/c is set to cool, but off and not running.

I was guessing HLA noise myself, but the part about not making noise when it's cold seemed really strange for that.