squeak in engine?

[bigshotsho93]

so my grandma calls me about a noise her car is making. its an 01-02 maybe ford taurus 3.0 engine. what she decribed to me was a constant squeak while the car is running. so i go over to look/listen to it today and i thought it was gonna be a belt idler pulley or maybe an alternator bearing taking a dump. but its not, the noise is coming from the drivers side rear of the engine. maybe from the rear valve cover area. i think im going to have her take it to a mechanic for this one. any ideas , anything common on these cars? i have the worst in mind, lifter, rocker, valve guide, something like that. cam bearing....
anything i should look at before having her take it somewhere?

thanks
mike

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[Dasfinc]

I hope this is the same issue I just repaired on my buddies truck.

Cam Syncro and Sensor. KNOWN failure point on 01-05 3.0 rangers, I'd imagine its the same for Taurii. (My buds truck only has 78K on it when his began to fail.

Is her car the Duratech 3.0, or the Vulcan? (DOHC or OHV)

The OHV Motor's cam syncro makes a horrid squeaking sound when it begins to fail, and is on the 'back' of the engine for the ranger. It has a little round sensor ontop of the syncro itself and looks like this:

Inside the spindle there is a little metal 'flange' that spins around inside the plastic black sensor ontop that tells the engine the position of the cam, and is used for injector pulse timing on these motors.

the bearings fail inside the units and cause a squeak that sounds as if its coming from the head, or block, because the spindle is cam driven.

IF THIS IS what is failing, tell her to stop driving it immediately, as this syncro actually drive the oil pump, if the syncro fails, it can seize the engine.

Identify it, and put an automotive stethoscope on it to confirm. Not too bad to replace, maybe 30 minutes.

 

[bigshotsho93]

Thanks it is the vulcan ohv. This sounds like its the issue. We let her borrow my girlfriends explorer until either I dig into it, or she takes it somewhere. Thanks again I'm going to look into that first.

 

[Dasfinc]

Thanks it is the vulcan ohv. This sounds like its the issue. We let her borrow my girlfriends explorer until either I dig into it, or she takes it somewhere. Thanks again I'm going to look into that first.

No worries, Me and my Bud were terrified that it was a spun bearing, or some bad valve train issue origionally, turned out to be this stupid sensor...

Granted, again, it drives the oil pump, so a failure will kill the motor...

CHEAPEST place to find the whole assembly is Rockauto *We have a discount code as they are a sponsor on here* Its like $40-50, and comes with the spindle, the sensor, AND the alignment tool.