I am old lady so please be kind. My montero started making a loud persistent ticking and upon inspection it sounds like it's by the fan belt or something. Any ideas? Hubby is disabled vet and we are low income.

 

Does the frequency of ticking change with the engine RPM? Does it ever go away?
If the noise coming from the front of the engine, one easy way to check it is to remove the serpentine belt. Start the engine and run it without the belt. If noise is no longer present - one of the idler pulleys is going bad or there is a defect on the belt itself. On the other hand, if noise continues with the serpentine belt off, then it it something else. One possibility - a faulty/failing Valve Lash Adjuster (VLA). The other something making noise in the timing belt area. Let us know if you are able to perform this test. No reason to dive deeper until we know more.

 

HunterD My neighbor looked at it and showed me the idler pulley was loose and he loosened up the serpentine belt and the pulley flopped around. He is going to fix it for me. Thank you for your help!

 

Glad to to hear you were able to fix it. Thank you for the update