1999 Pontiac Grand Prix Ticking noise and small oil leak

SAVA2424

MEMBER
1999 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
140,000 MILES

I recently took my car in to the shop because it sounded like it was miss firing, but all plugs wires and the coil packs were good. Come to find out I had a bad injector. The mechanic said that it had a puddle of water around it which caused it to short out. He said that the water must be coming from a leaky intake manifold gasket. $800 later it was fixed. But when I picked the car up and was headed home I noticed a ticking noise coming from what sounds like the bottom end. I also noticed that it was leaking oil. Since the mech put new oil 5w 30 in it, I new that was too thin so I changed the oil to 10w 30 and changed the filter. Took it out for a drive and it still makes the same noise, and at high rpms it sounds like rocks falling on a tin roof. The mech said he thinks it needs a new oil pump. I think he's full of it cause if oil wasnt being pump I would be able to drive very far. Does anyone no what my problem might be. In dire need of repairing soon. Please help.

1 Reply

BLUELIGHTNIN6

MECHANIC
16,542 POSTS

Hello
Thanks for the donation

You need to check the oil pressure with a manual gauge to ensure the oil pump is operating properly. The minimum allowable oil pressure reading is 15 psi at 1100 RPM. The ticking noise is more than likely the lifters slamming into the valves. They are not receiving the amount of oil they require to lubricate properly. This could be caused by the suspected faulty oil pump. Just because the pump is faulty, that doesn't necessarily mean it isn't pumping ANY oil. It could just be pumping a limited supply of oil which is enough to keep the engine from seizing up, yet not enough for proper lubrication of all components. Driving this vehicle without repairs will result in a major engine failure.

Hope this helped.
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