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So about a year ago I developed a dreaded mysterious rattle. It was clearly coming from the front end around the engine compartment. I could tell that it was something vibrating and it annoyed me but not enough to REALLY investigate it. Figured I'd get to it when I had the time. That's why it's been 1+ years. The rattle would only happen when starting from a stop...so under load (I have a manual), or when idling, or when driving slow, like in a driveway, after engaging the clutch. And even at those times not always. Over time I would check this or that to see if it was loose and could'nt find anything like a cat cover being loose. Fast forward to about two weeks ago. I notice another different rattle developed. So today while changing my oil I decided to investigate more thoroughly. Checked everything underneath that I could. Did a Google search for F150 rattle and pulled up a million things of course. In one thread I noticed someone mention that it was the engine brackets used to hoist the engine out of the bay. So I decided to check them.
Drivers side bracket made a "twang" vibration when I plucked on it. Decided to try and tighten it down. It was already basically as tight as could be. Checked the passenger side one and noticed that one of the threads that goes into the engine that the bracket gets bolted to was missing. The other nut was tight and flush. Thought to myself "that seems odd, what could've happened to that thread?'. So I decided to just roll the dice and remove both brackets. The bracket with the missing thread and nut was a little tough to get out. The nut that was there was pretty hard to turn. Took like 3 minutes to unscrew it with a ratchet. The nuts on the other bracket came off easy. When I took the bracket off of the drivers side (the one that twanged) I found out why it was twanging. The bracket had somehow cracked and sheared itself off. It was still being held in place by the other nut and thread but it seems very strange that it broke. I have literally never touched these brackets and I've been the only owner of the truck...bought new from dealer.
Question: Anyone have any ideas on how that bracket cracked on its own? And any ideas on what may have happened to the threads and nut for the other bracket? Seems odd.
Oh, and btw, drove it around a bunch and all rattles are gone. Quiet as could be. Changing from Motorcraft partial synthetic to Mobil 1 full synthetic seems to have made her a bit quieter too. But that could be my imagination
Bracket with sheared bracket thread hole and only 3 nuts
Last edited by Kristoffer80; 05-09-2018 at 10:13 PM.
I guess I should have said "after disengaging the clutch". So when clutch was depressed and driving slowly (actually rolling) in a driveway or the like.
So it looks like that “missing exhaust manifold bolt” is actually sheared off and still attaching the exhaust to the manifold. It seems there are two nuts on the bolts with the brackets. One holding the bracket on and one attaching the exhaust to the manifold. You can see the nut still in place in the top picture. It seems it still has the bolt securely in place....just sheared off at the outer edge of the nut. If I remove that nut would I be able to remove the sheared off bolt with the small exposed part and replace it with a new exhaust manifold stud?
Last edited by Kristoffer80; 05-10-2018 at 03:07 PM.
05-09-2018, 10:02 PM
