I've got a '96 F-150, straight six with 85K miles. A couple nights ago when it was fairly cold (50 degrees) I started the truck up and I heard a loud rattling noise from the passenger side. I was in a rush so I decided to temporarily ignore it. I headed down the street and it got worse do I pulled over (left engine running), went to the passenger side and started poking around. It stopped abruptly. Truck drove fine, no problem. Yesterday morning, truck runs fine, no noise. This morning, a repeat of the noise, less severe and shorter in duration. Sounds like a ball-bearing is bouncing around in the exhaust pipe or something. Any thoughts on what this may be and how to address it?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Paul

 

Hey,
Well I've got that same engine same year and it sounds like a problem a had a few months ago....it was my exgaust manifold.It sit's on the pasenger side right behind the tire.I've also got a buddy with the same year truck and engine (4.9) and he had the same problem a little bit before me....Hope that helps you