Ticking sound from engine bay - help my paranoia!

My ticking was two things: exhaust manifold leak and sampler tubes. All good now.

 

What are smpler tubes? Was the leak the front or rear manifold?

 

Great! Glad it was nothing serious.

 

Others call them "sniffer" tubes.... I tried to find a photo but could not... other, more knowledgeable people than I, can probably furnish a photo. They often fail due to corrosion. The manifold gasket was at the rear.

 

The sniffer tubes are likely for US spec cars, mine is a Euro

 

Chris, thanks a lot. When I sold my 308GTB in 2002 and bought a great car in return (Alfa Romeo SZ) I regretted selling the 308 soon so bought my 328 in 2007 and am happy ever since...despite various issues....

Many times the sniffer tubes are mentioned here but these must be the analyser tubes as used for the US spec 308 and 328 as per below picture. Next picture shows that the Euro cars don't have them.
Did you buy another great car??

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I Know this is a dead issue now that the car is gone however i saw a car with a "repair" done this way. The crimp was on the Front of the engine against the firewall and the crimp burned through so the exhaust gas was shooting up and melted the the fuel line, car went up like huge candle.

 

I've had three ticking noises over the years
A/c belt and loose H/T wire on coil were more of a static shock noise.
The third, a front bank exhaust manifold joint, sounds just like yours. Mine also went away when the engine was hot.
By the way - also had the click but no starter engagement. Turned out to be a dirty bendix on the starter motor. These cars seem to have little tolerance to this and slightly duff batteries. I suspect brought on by voltage drops along the length of the car.

 

Problem solved. The heavy ticking was from the.............AC belt. I could not believe it since the ticking was real loud. I cut the belt to have the check done fastly and checked the belt. Found small indents on the outside indicating that at one spot over some 50 mm (2") there was contact between the belt and the metal compressor holder on the top/backside. The gap is small and if the tension on the belt is too low it can make contact until it gets warm and less stiff.

 

Many wrote that it is static electricity but I do not believe that since I never heard it at any other car.

 

I get loads of static noise from my AC belts when the weather is cold. My long respected Ferrari Indie here in the UK (QV London) knew immediately what it was when I asked. It goes after a few minutes when everything gets warm. So yes - it does exist.

 

Those are things you learn when you buy the car new. Static discharge from belts makes a snapping sound and there is an intermittence howling sound, I forget the source. Not all cars do it. Some do one or the other. Mine did both when I bought it new. After a belt change only the howling sound when cold. Both go away when warmed up. Both are normal.

 

O.k., since so many say it ....there must be a static discharge issue on rather many 308/328/Mondial. Still does my old belt show traces of impact on the outside whilts the ticking was clearly louder than years ago when I had a ticking sound that disappeared due to unknown reason. To me we also need to be keen towards the space left between the bracker and the belt. By the way my compressor is a Euro car hence Sanden SD-507 (US spec cars have York what is a larger and heavier compressor than the Sanden.