I have about 1,000 miles on my new f-150 and it recently started clicking consistently. The cicking only occurs when the air is on, or the heat. It sounds like the AC compressor is engaging. Which would be normal, but it does it when i'm slowing down or taking off from a start. It really gets annoying, and just doesn't seem right. I took it down to the dealership and the guy said thats normal, but it just seems hard for me to believe that ford would engineer something that annoying. Does anyone else have this problem, or is it really normal?

 

A light ticking sound at idle and low rpms is normal. It is the fuel injection system. If you have a louder knocking sound, that is not normal, and could be a cam phaser.

 

i don't think it has anything to do with the cam because it only does it when the vent or heat or AC is on. And i can see the engine RPM go down when it clicks on, like would happen if the AC compressor was engaged. Thas what throws me off when it does it when the heats on.

 

Sounds like the AC compressor clutch engaging.

 

Yep, may be a bearing in the pulley.

 

Just some educated guessing here.
It may be that the the factory has programmed and set it up to drop out the compressor at less than WOT like it used to be and also drop out on deceleration. EGR works in this fashion.
These tricks are pulled to gain throttle response, save gas, take load off the motor etc.
Observe all this over time and ask other owners what they see for operation.
Unless you make these efforts, they can tell you anything and leave you no farther ahead.
Good luck.

 

I can see exactly what you are saying bluegrass, it makes total sense. But why would the compressor be engaging with the heat, or vent on? Does anyone else notice this? Its an 06 with the 4.6.

Thanks for the helpful thoughts guys.

On a sidenote, i never noticed it until about 500 miles.

 

They are doing things from year to year that older truck and cars never had.
In my 02, the defrost and some other functions use the dry air from the A/C instead of the old way of just using heat. Took me awhile to catch on to that.
Matter of fact you should be able to see that you can even get dry heat out of the dash vents from the A/C before the engine temp even comes up.
Something like Heat Pump operation.
They are trying everything thay can to change and improve on operations.
It's often not in the owner's manuel per-sey.
One way to test out what each function is doing is to idle the engine with the hood up and try each function and see what the compressor does.
Good luck.

 

I'll try that, thanks for the info.