Pretty ridiculous to find out that the vehicle my dad left behind when he passed away has a consistant timing chain issues. I hear a loud rattle at start, seems like its preparing for something. Then it calms down, and you can hear it at idle. Sometime when im driving down the road, i can hear it. But to be quite honest, the noise occurs more often than it doesn't. I hear that damn rattle noise 95% of the time my vehicle is running. I feel that this is FORD'S issue, its a huge complaint and a huge costly fix for us american drivers that choose to DRIVE an american made vehicle. Ford should be cutting us a huge break, especially after hearing that this fix could cost me over $6,000 dollars depending on the problem. I'm quite confident that if Ford doesnt do something to redeem themselves after this explorer mistake, that the explorers won't be a future purchase for most people. IF anyone can help me out on a real fix for this problem, its very important to me that this vehicle stay's up and running. Its pretty much the last thing I have from my father. So its very disappointing to read up on all these poor people that have to spend double the worth of the vehicle, and that I may have to do the same thing. Thank's Ford, you're a real american company.

I'm a little paranoid the noise is definitely annoying. It seems to be worse when I run the a/c and it’s to hot to drive with out it. It also feels like the car wants to shut off when I stop at a light.

Any suggestions? I hate going to the mechanic. They seem to want to tell me anything because I’m a woman...lol

Update from Jul 7, 2010: I finally heard the noise and was near a mechanic. He said it was my rpm valve that needed to be replaced.