Relying on a dashboard oil life monitor can lead to problems as there are so many variables that determine oil condition. My vote is for an oil change and some Rislone as just offhand, a ticking could be a sludged or coked up lash adjuster.
I agree! And my parents are old and naive. My Dad kind of seems POd that I am researching trying to save them money as he “thinks” he knows better. He also does not like to admit when he is wrong…Damn old people…I take after him about 90%…
@hbockoven
Old and grateful is better than old and naive
“Damn old people”
We’ll all be there one day
Agreed…I should of said stubborn and set in his ways but he is very grateful when I do free electrical work for him. I should not of said what I said the way I did…some day they will be gone and I will miss their stubborn @$$.
Continue to do your own work. You’ll learn alot and save yourself and them money. Never be afraid to try to fix something. If you screw it up, you learned something. You may have to pay someone else to fix your screw up,but you will not make the same mistake twice. If you never break anything your not doing anything!
I agree that you should use a stethoscope or a piece of plastic hose and poke around until you find the leak… There can be any of the above mentioned things, plus a cracked exhaust manifold… As to the sound while turning, there is nothing else it can be but the wheel bearings… This car, similarly to other late model cars, has a sealed unit incorporating the wheel bearings… You should replace both left and right as both are surely at the end of their useful life…
so did you ever locate the tick? did I miss it?
@wesw
No. He hasn’t figure it out yet
We’re still waiting for the final answer, so to speak
Sorry all, the weather has been crappy (snow, rain) and I don’t have garage. Warm weather is expected this week so I will get back on this. THANK YOU for the interest.
I don’t blame you. I d pay 100 bucks tosit in the sun foranhour
OK, we had a nice day and I went under the hood trying to find the ticking. Drivers side of the engine, everything has a sound, but sounds equal. Touching each wire connection, I can feel the vibration matching the tick. On the passenger side of the engine, everything sounds equal to me, but louder than the other side. Also vibration felt on the wire connections but feels slightly harder, in my opinion. Other than that it seems the sound is from inside the engine on the passenger side, I can not pinpoint an exact location. Again, no check engine light, it does need an oil change, but the oil is full and looks clean. Is it safe to one at a time unhook the wire connection to see if the ticking stops, or will that cause more damage or trip a check engine light that would need to be reset?
@hbockoven
Still sounds like lifter noise to me
Get the oil change done now
Ask the guy to substitute one quart of rislone for one quart of oil
Please report back to us
Thanks, I will toss in some Sea foam for a few miles and then change the oil/filter myself for my parents. I’ll figure out how to reset the dash oil change alert later. Hopefully that will work and help them out. I don’t think I can pull off changing front wheel bearings, so they are on their own on that, and I agree if one side is bad, replace them both.
I didn’t go back and read everything to see if it had been mentioned, but a tick can also be caused by a spark jumping from the plug boot to the cylinder head.
This is generally caused by an aged, misfiring spark plug or corrosion in the plug boot. It can also cause a vibration or roughness due to an engine miss.
@ok4450
I imagine a spark jumping like that would result in an engine that’s not idling very well
The OP had mentioned a vibration coinciding with the tick so my thinking was that maybe the vibration is an engine performance issue.
I mstill thinking exhaust leak
Timing chain or lifter noise is fairly common on the V-6 engine but not the V-8. Be sure to use the correct 5w20 motor oil.
An exhaust leak ahead of the upstream oxygen sensors might generate lean codes
I’ve seen it
Although the symptoms are similar . . . ticking, which gets quieter as the engine warms up, and as the crack slightly closes
Was this ever resolved? My boyfriends dad has a 2006 mountaineer that is experiencing the same sort of ticking in the same spot. Located on the passenger side of the engine, somewhere in there. I wish I could include a video. I’m going to try to get my bfs dad to use the engine cleaner. They took it to a shop that told him the engines bad and it needs a new engine. That seems to be what all scam mechanics say. They ALMOST had the mechanic put in a new engine if their warranty or whatever they had would pay a portion but that didn’t happen. The mechanic already apparently changed their head gasket and other things they probably didn’t need 
Wish I was a mechanic myself to help them not get scammed.