When I start my Ranger (V6, auto), within several seconds, I hear sort of a muffled thump... sounds like underneath, to the rear, but I know sounds can often appear to be in different locations from the cab. Is this at all familiar? Almost like something is being engaged. This is without shifting into Drive or moving at all. More noticeable when first starting for the day. I bought the vehicle last fall, 25,000 miles on it (2007), and as far as I can recall this was always the case, just noticing it more now. I've noticed when waiting in line for things like drive-thrus that something engages/disengages with a fairly loud click (change in rpm) on a regular basis... I've tried cycling the heater through settings that should eliminate the air conditioning, in case it's the clutch on the compressor, but it seems to do this cycle no matter what the setting. I'm not sure if this click is what I'm hearing on startup... possible since the window is up on startup and down when in the drive-thru... so I get more outside noise in drive-thru and more of the higher frequency of the noise. This make sense to anyone? Haven't had as noticeable cycling on previous vehicles, and there isn't a lot of mileage on the engine or trans at this point, though the vehicle is 5 yrs old (no more warranty). :blink:
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I know mine makes a thump when turning the heater on and off. It sounds like something engaging, under the dash near the floor boards. Does it sound like that or is it outside the truck?
could still be the A/C compressor, scince it turns on & off on almost all the HVAC settings other than off.
I'll try today with heater controls OFF completely and see if that stops it... I had thought the AC only functioned with AC and defrost selected. Also will have a mechanic take a listen. The AC clutch went on my F-150 once, chewed up the belt (which broke and took out a cooler line to the rad) and left me waiting for a tow truck. This one seems unusually loud, and it's rather early for it to be going bad (but the warranty is off due to time, so anything could go... parts always wait for warranty to expire, I think it's an algorithm in the ECM that we know little about... ;^) Thanks.
