Cant seem to get a general consensus on my engine noise! Please help

[Janina34]

So my parents bought this car for me when I graduated from college. I got it at the beginning of June and drove it maybe a total of 300 miles. Its a 99 eclipse gst and it has a knocking/ticking sound coming from the engine. The sound is always present but tends to get louder/faster when I accelerate. Also I drove it about 100 miles doing 70 mph the entire way and when I pulled over in the gas station I noticed the sound had gone away but then came back once I was driving in stop and go traffic. I've taken the car to three different mechanics now, the first one was a mitsubishi dealer near my house they told me it was my lifters, I then took my car in to get the valve cover gasket replaced and the people who did that told me I bent some valves and lifters and I should just buy a new engine. Finally, the third place told me it sounded like a rod and that I should also buy a new engine. So I've been told three different things, just hoping I can get more of a definitive answer, I'm currently not driving it out of fear I will do more damage. Here is a video of the sound.

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any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[wancsta]

Sounds like a rod bearing to me with some lifter tick in there aswell. Also do you notice any difference when the clutch is engaged/disengaged if so it's likley that you have what's called "crankwalk" . Swap it out for a six bolt and save yourself some future headaches

 

[Janina34]

Thanks for your response. My car is an automatic transmission. If it is a rod bearing do you think I should even bother getting new bearings and turning my crank or should I just buy a new engine?

 

[SpiralOut]

Time for a 6 bolt swap!! Maybe a 5 speed conversion as well?

 

[SpawnedX]

Sounds an awful lot like crankwalk, which happened to me.

There really is no nice way to say this, but I will try anyway.

I understand you want to avoid spending the money to replace the motor in this car, but if it is crankwalk, it will always re-develop even if you replace the bearings and have the crank machined.

Take everyone's advice and drop a 6-bolt motor into the car and be done with it, also do the 5 speed conversion while you are there, and for good measure ask your parents to not buy cars without a mechanically inclined person around.

Never heard of someone buying a car with engine knock without the understanding that this car's motor was beyond salvagable and needs replacing.

Best of luck.

 

[Janina34]

So now that I know it is imminent that I will need a new engine I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions on good places to buy a 6 bolt motor from? Also, I don't think I will have the money to do this swap for at least another 2 months so do you think I should just drive my car til it wont drive anymore? The car runs fairly well, it starts up fine and also accelerates pretty well I just don't want to cause any other major damage to the vehicle. Any advice?

 

[SpawnedX]

Well Dude,

You can drive it until it dies, but here's the problem. It's gonna develop quickly from here soon that noise is going to develop into a loud, almost like an electrical humming noise. When this happens your car is ready to go, it won't be long.

It'll happen suddenly on you too, you will be on the highway driving and you start to lose power, downshifting brings the power back, then you lose it again, until the car can barely get out of it's own way, then that's when the catastrophic failure will happen. Car will be dead on the spot.

Just save up and take rides for a few months.

That's how it happened to me, the annoying noise, the mechanics being split on what was wrong, car picked up and went fine, hooked up to 120 no problems ran like a charm. 6 hours later it was on a flat bed.

 

[tbonitz301]

No dont drive it! It will blow-up for sure.Here's a great place to find a tough 6boltJDM Engine Corp Mitsubishi Engines