So my Ranger has been making this rattle noise at low RPM's. It wont do it in first gear or second gear but mostly in third, fourth, and 5th. It sounds like its coming from the engine compartment and it does not make any noise when hitting bumps or anything. The idle seems to stick a little when shifting gears but maybe this is normal? It takes maybe like 3 seconds for the rpm's to start dropping. Anyways, so this rattle is driving me nuts. I had my mechanic look the truck over before buying it and he says everything looks great on it. Any ideas?

 

What year? What engine?

 

Sorry its a 98 3.0 manual trans.

 

It could be the spring on the accelerator cable/pedal. The rattle went away when I did the zip tie mod.

 

Welcome to the world of Rangers, Shakes, Rattles and Vibrations come factory.

 

Idle problem could be just a dirty IAC valve.
What oil weight are you running ?
3.0 likes a lighter weight , 5W-20 to 5W30 . Heavier oil causes valve train rattle.

 

Wirelessly posted

Not sure if yours is the same as mine but there is a motor mount on the drivers side that is connected to a small shock absorber mine came loose at the engine block and caused a rattle. Searched for a year before I realized that was my rattle. Tightened it up and no more rattle.

 

I will check the oil, it doesnt seem to rattle when I hit and bumps. I also noticed this morning that it DOES not happen until the motor has warmed up.

 

try running a tank of premium gas thru it.sounds like spark knock .if that stops it you need to have the timing checked,it is a little fast.or the engine is carboned up,run some seafoam thru it

 

When its idling it sounds terrific, even reving the engine in neutral it sounds great. But once the engine is warmed up, about half way to work, around 1500-3000 rpm I can hear a rattle when I hit the gas peddle. It sounds like loose change in a soda can. And it only does it when I accelerate, not when I am running at a constant RPM.

 

classic spark knock ,aka pre ignition ,aka ping , aka detonation .See my post above.

 

Yeah so I ran a tank of premium in it and it did seem to help the noise.

 

why does everyone just automatically blame this noise on spark knock that sound a bit serious i have the same thing going i have seafoamed it had proffesional decarbonated without removing valve covers and new well gapped spark plugs mine does this noise from about 40 to 65 how people think this is spark knock idk if it was it would be during peak reving or all the time? or so i thought but shoot let me know if any of these fixes worked for you mine is driving me insane. its been getting worse with time and even more when i had my tires rotated and balanced. classic spark knock from what i understand is like a ping or knock not light rattle and power differences can be felt when it occurs so im not sure about the spark knock theory maybe fan clutch, motor mount, suspension, wheel bearing let me know what your fix is ?