The clicking is the spark igniter doing its job, so the ignition circuit has power. What is missing is either gas reaching the ports or a clean path for the spark. Most of the time this follows a spill, a boil-over or a cleaning session.
Safety First, Briefly
If you smell gas at any point, stop. Do not operate switches, do not use the range, leave the house and call your gas utility from outside. Everything below assumes there is no gas smell and only one burner is affected.
Checks You Can Do By Hand
- Turn the burner off and let everything cool before touching anything.
- Lift off the grate, the burner cap and the burner head. On most Whirlpool gas ranges these lift straight off with no tools.
- Check the cap is seated square. A cap sitting slightly off its head is the single most common cause of a burner that clicks without lighting, and it happens easily during cleaning.
- Clear the ports. Those are the small holes around the burner head. Clear them with a pin, a straightened paperclip or a stiff brush. Skip wooden toothpicks, because a snapped-off tip lodged in a port becomes the next problem.
- Dry everything. A burner washed in the sink and refitted while damp will click uselessly until it dries. So will one soaked by a boil-over. Let the parts dry fully, or give the igniter time to dry out.
- Clean around the igniter electrode gently with a dry cloth. Food residue on it stops the spark reaching where it should.
Reading the Symptom
- All burners click continuously, even when off. Usually moisture in the switch area after a spill. It often clears once everything dries out; if it does not, it needs looking at, and in the meantime the range should not be left unattended.
- One burner clicks, others light normally. Points at that burner: cap seating, blocked ports or its electrode.
- No click at all on any burner. Check the range is plugged in, since a gas range still needs electricity for ignition, and check the breaker.
- Lights then goes out when the knob is released. That is a flame-sensing fault and needs a technician.
Anything involving the gas valve, the wiring or the ignition module is a technician job. Book a Whirlpool range repair visit rather than lighting the burner with a match as a routine workaround.