I was getting a very annoying ticking sound ( and I hate noises like that / slightly paranoid ). I went through hours searching on line to try add see if I could learn something else about other peoples experiences but i kept coming back to either a stuck tappet/lifter or noisy injector. Other possibilites were leaking exhaust manifold or maybe some issue with the inlet.

Well none of these were the case, the noise never got worse or better when it was hot or cold and I've always given the car frequent oil changes using Ford 5W30 or Castrol/Ford 5W30 and Ford filter. Also with only 50K miles there should be no sludge / blockages etc. Also when I unplugged each of the injectors in turn with the engine running the noise did not go away so that was also ruled out. I was using a hi-tech auto-stethascope, well actually an 18" length of a broom handle to listen to the engine and injectors, if youve never tried and dont mind looking stupid give it a go. Its amazing what you can hear.

So I dug a little deeper, took off the plastic cover over the plugs and listened again with the stick placed on top of the spark plug module, 1 fine, 2 fine, 3 woah ! major noise, 4 fine, 5 fine. I whipped of the module and took out the plug, no knowing what to expect really and fearing the worst. When I looked at the plug there was no gap ! The core of the plug was loose and moving up and down inside the casing, the electrode was stopping it falling in to the engine. Close.

Got on the phone, picked up some new Ford plugs and thank God its perfect again. It had felt slower than usual the past week (not surprised!) and more thirtsy too. Glad to say the power is back. I've never heard of this before and the ticking was identical to tappet or injector noise.

 

Nice when you finally pinpoint a problem like that!

Thanks for letting us know what it was

 

Good to find an annoying fault but where did you find spark plug 5 to as the yb only has 4.

 

Sig gives it away.

 

Glad you found it and there was no damage to the engine.