I got a 97 jimmy from my aunt this past fall, it has some issues but nothing that from the help of this board cant be fixed. Anyways I was driving it to work this week (1mile roundtrip) and most of the week it was making a loud ticking noise almost sounded like a lifter. Oil pressure was fine and so was oil level, was going to look more into it on my next day off which was today. Also the most anoying sound ever while driving to the point where i wanted to beat the console w/ a bat. It was the door open beep going off constantly, what seemed randomly , and for different lengths of time from a second to times of 30 seconds. The door does need new door shims but nothing drastic, I would also open the door and slam it again that would sometimes shut it up. Now this is the funny thing I was driving totally on E since Saturday and both these noises started up again, it has made these noises before but didnt really look more into it since they just went away. Well I ran out of gas driving home yesterday and luckily my sister was driving by and spoted me we went and filled up a can poured it into the jimmy then headed over to the gas station to fill up. As im driving away I notice no more ticking and no more beeping!! I drove it today as well with no issues. Now im wondering WTF could have possibly been ticking? And is that beeping (door buzzer) supposed to be as a low fuel warning since there is no "low fuel" light on the dash? Any insight would be helpful. By the way this forum helped me fix my 4WD, and at no better time since we got dumped full of snow here in Northern Indiana. Works beautifully THANKS GUYS!!

 

I can't tell you anything about the noises but just a heads up if you make a habit of driving around with your gas tank that empty you may want to look into the prices of an acdelco fuel pump and start saving your money for it because the one you have is going to quit. Keep it at 1/4 tank or higher and it will last much longer.

 

Without knowing exactly where the ticking sound was coming from it's hard to say what it might have been. I was unaware that a '97 does not have a low fuel warning light, but I have not heard of a warning beep for fuel level. One thing for sure, you do not want to let your fuel level get below about a quarter tank. That's going to cause the fuel pump to heat up, thereby shortening its lifespan.

 

You could have a lifter or rocker tick that is intermittent. My engine is pretty high mileage and if you are under the truck or have the hood open you always hear a quiet tick... but sometimes towards the end of an oil rotation, particularly in cold weather it gets really loud until the engine warms up...loud enough to hear in the cabin. I usually add either lucas oil treatment or wynn's oil additive for noisy lifters and it goes away for a few months. The only way to know for sure is to open the engine up and if you dont' have loss of power or seriously bad fuel mileage i'd throw in some lucas and call it a day