So with in the past week or two my 1996 jeep cherokee with 93,000 miles has been making this really bad clicking or rattling noise. I tried doing some research and from what ive read is that its a lifter thats going bad or that is bad. please give me your opinions as this is my daily driver and i need to get it fixed before anything gets worse or something bad happens.

 

Not an expert, but that sounds more like a pulley or bad bearing of some kind. Bad lifters in my experience are more of a steady rhythmic tapping.

 

k ill look into thats thanks for the fast reply!

 

definitely sounds like a pulley bearing, the deep groining makes me think water pump, if its real bad, (which is does sound so) with the engine off, try to shake the water pump pulley front and back (towards then away from the engine) if it moves a little its very bad! no movement is the goal. or pulled the belt off and rotate each pulley by hand. you will feel roughness or hear it as you spin the pulley. Goodluck and hope for an idler pulley!

 

Its hard to pinpoint the location from the video, but it sure is ugly. It doesn't sound like a lifter tapping.

Has it seemed to lose power or idle roughly? If not, look at the stuff bolted to the front of the engine. Is the fan clutch? Fan hitting the shroud? Alternator? The only other things are the water and power steering pumps and an idler pulley.

 

It turned out to be a bad water pump bearing. No more awful noise. Thanks for the help guys!