Engine Noise / Ticking, Knocking, Tapping MERGED

[eric489]

All threads with vague titles regarding engine bay noises are now merged HERE.

If you honestly feel we can diagnose an internal engine problem from a poor description or low-quality video / audio sample, give it a shot.


I own a 1997 gst spyder and there is a ticking noise comming fron the engine. It comes and goes and it mostly sounds bad at idle. I have 97,000 miles on it and i change the oil regularly. I changed it about 2000 miles ago I need help to fix the problem.

 

[l7inthegst]

I just dont understand, how the car was running perfectly and then all of a sudden Boom! this problem, another thing that might help figure this out is that i could smell fuel, so basically i am hoping its the 2g mas because its missing the honeycomb in it, so tommarow i am going to throw on the 1g mas ans see how that works out. I am open to any suggestions so if you have one please i am open to anything at this point

 

[l7inthegst]

Update- I had just switched to the 1g mas,new plugs, tried another ECU, and a different coil pack. Still the car is running bad. I checked the injectors and they all seem to be working, fuel pump is also working. I dont know anyone else had this problem before?

Still have no idea what it could be, thinking the injectors could be over injecting maybe?
Also when driving car sounds kind of like a subaru.

 

[thedevilz]

As the title states, my GS-T 5 speed has a loud grinding noise coming from the passenger side. This noise is mostly noticeable at lower rpm, and its entirely dependent on how hard I accelerate.

It is most noticeable in 1st and 2nd, but if accelerating hard enough, it will do it in 3d. Its too noisy to really tell in 4th or 5th, but I have never heard it.

If I accelerate carefully and slowly, it will grind less. Sometimes I don't notice it at all in 3d...1st is the exeption, it does it regardless.

I did find something while troubleshooting. If i put a small piece of wood in between the tranny and the cross member, the grinding stops. If the piece does not raise the tranny high enough, it will grind, but barely. Mind you we are talking about a quarter inch tall piece or so, it does not significantly raise the tranny, just barely.

At first I though the tranny and engine mounts were be bad, so I replaced them all with new Mitsu units to no avail. I also just flushed and refilled my tranny with penzoil syncromesh per recommendation -- I was advised by a friend that my fluid may be old or not enough.

I suspect that I may either have a bent halfshat/axle, or bad wheel bearing. I would say its the transmission, but I simply fail to see with a small piece of wood I can manage to stop it completely.

Any help and or opinion is highly appreciated guys. I did search before posting, but I could not get any decent info regarding my issue, in fact most articles talk about the AWD models and the issues are different.

Thanks!

 

[jay-red]

sounds like you are on the right track with the axle and wheel bearing, are you sure its not your brake caliper or rotor?

 

[xhackerekx]

u need rebulit u tranny .

 

[thedevilz]

jay-red - I checked my wheel bearing for play, but it didn’t seem to have any. Also, when turning the wheel, I could hear nothing, indicating that it should be in good condition; I think. I had not thought about the caliper or rotor, how do you suggest I check for this?

xhackerekx - I have thought about this. Why though when I raise it slightly it stops grinding? The housing seems quite think for a piece of wood to make any difference as far as the internals are concerned... Of course, I could be wrong.

I took a video today, I'll try to post tomorrow as soon as I figure out how.

 

[Gasolinebaptism]

Well the fact the when tranny is raised, or can be raised at all for that matter, and it changing something mechanically, that it must be the clutch. but it isn't the clutch, because you would feel it, there would be a TINY friction point. so if I think about how a tranny workss, and apply the symptoms.. It sounds like 1st gear is chewed up, along w/ 2nd, but not as badly, 3rd not as badly and son on and so fourth, because they receive the most stress. Your power output is just munching up the tranny. when you changed the transaxle oil, did you notice how much metal was in it?

 

[thedevilz]

Gasolinebaptism - The clutch and throwout bearing were replaced about 1000 miles ago. There is enough space between the cross member and the tranny to stick the piece of wood im referring to, I just forcibly raise the tranny slightly with a secondary jack and wedge it in place.

When I flushed the tranny, the oil was mostly clear with very little metalic glitter, very normal in my experience; same as when I change the auto tranny oil in my 08 civic.

The sound only comes from the far passenger side. When outside, you cant really hear it, which makes it hard to identify exactly where it emanates from. If you jack up and secure the car and accelerate, it does not do the sound at all, no matter how much you accelerate or whatever gear.

 

[frankenstein406]

I would put a thicker oil in it. See if it see grinds.

 

[Never Satisfied]

This may be a fairly simple suggestion, but I would look into it nonetheless. Are all of the bolts that hold the transmission to the engine tight? If they are loose, it may be allowing the transmission to droop ever so slightly and throw a few critical angles out of whack. Make sure you have it supported as you would to put the wood in, and I would start with the top bolts.

 

[xhackerekx]

jay-red - I checked my wheel bearing for play, but it didn’t seem to have any. Also, when turning the wheel, I could hear nothing, indicating that it should be in good condition; I think. I had not thought about the caliper or rotor, how do you suggest I check for this?

xhackerekx - I have thought about this. Why though when I raise it slightly it stops grinding? The housing seems quite think for a piece of wood to make any difference as far as the internals are concerned... Of course, I could be wrong.

I took a video today, I'll try to post tomorrow as soon as I figure out how.

i have same symptoms on my first tranny and die 2weeks later.

 

[thedevilz]

Update: while checking some things I noticed that when I spun my wheel, somehow, my break dust shield scraped up against my rotor. I dont know how I did it, but I could not get the disk to rub up against it again. nonetheless, I decided to remove the dust shield.

I drove the car to school today and noticed immediately that the noise, while still present, was considerably quieter and different. I can now accelerate a lot more before I hear the grinding/scraping noise.

This said, I believe that jay-red may have been right about either the caliper or rotor. I will get the rotor from my rs and swap it with my gst's and see if it makes any difference since my rotor could be warped. Any effective way to check the caliper?

*** one last thing, when my car is jacked up and I accelerate, both wheels will spin, but my passenger side wheel does not seem to spin freely, almost as if the breaks are being applied. Not sure if this is normal?

here are the links to the videos i took.
YouTube - Grinding noise 1 -- cant really hear it too well.
YouTube - Grinding noise 2.wmv



Thanks for your help with this everyone!

any opinions on the sound?

 

[AF1GSX]

Not 100% sure but i believe that nipple is the intake that sucks in fresh air upon start up and purges the canister into the intake pipe.

 

[jm1080]

I just ended up taking out emissions and charcoal canister out. You guys just leave the line coming from the firewall vented? I put a hose to it and routed it down against the firewall, there is no way it can enter the cabin can it?

 

[snowborder714]

What you've done is fine. The hard line from the rear of the car needs to stay vented. You did what I did and it's been working fine for a while.

 

[jm1080]

Thanks snowboarder,

so putting a hose against the firewall, there is no way of getting gas vapors in cabin? That is what I'm mostly worried about, don't want to be breathing gas vapors and dying

 

[GRAVEDIGGER]

so putting a hose against the firewall, there is no way of getting gas vapors in cabin? That is what I'm mostly worried about, don't want to be breathing gas vapors and dying [/QUOTE]

No you won't die or anything from the vapors.

 

[DJ23GSX]

Ever fix this issue? I have the same problem/symptoms. Only thing I've noticed physically being under the car is that my tranny leaks and it seems like my carrier bearings have more play than I think they should. I can grab the drive shaft and move it maybe a 1/4" in all directions. I don't know if its supposed to do that. Other than this weird noise when accerlerating my car drives and shifts beautiful. One other thing I've noticed is my shifter moves a bit while in gear like the vfaq. I don't know if this has anything to do with the noise or its a totally different problem all together. Either way my tranny is coming out to have the leak fixed and that bolt checked that holds the gears together to hopefully fix the shifter movement issue.

 

[brandon1239]

I had the same problem and all of a sudden my trans cracked due to misalignment... and my clutch disk fell apart.

 

[DJ23GSX]

I had the same problem and all of a sudden my trans cracked due to misalignment... and my clutch disk fell apart.

What exactly was misaligned? My tranny is leaking at the seam where 2 pieces of the case meet. I've never seen a dsm tranny leak there before but if something is misaligned it would def put stress on the tranny I would think possibly causing the seam to leak. All my other tranny seals were dry with no signs of leakage I'm thinking someone was inside this tranny at some point due to the fact is shifts so nice and there is gray sealer around all the case seams which I've never noticed on any of my other dsm's. Every once in while I do hear a small whine/screeching noise when I disengage the clutch.

 

[brandon1239]

the input shaft was stressed. basically the tranny didnt sit flush with the block and caused it to eventually stress crack along with a blown up clutch. I'd just take it out inspect everything, find out what exactly is leaking and fix it. then remember the dowels for the tranny and put it in perfectly straight.

 

[bgeclipse]

i just had my motor rebuild,had valve job done,piston rings & rod bearings,first day i drove the car there was no noise,second day it started doing ,the noise can only be heard at idle ,at 1300 rpm's it goes away,it coming from the pulley's area,check bolts aand there pretty tight,new belts too,
it sounds like the noise in the video im going to post,if any of u guy's are near me i can drive over,please help me out,im in L.A by 10 freeway,west from staple center,i try press the clutch down but noise is still there,sometimes it goes away for like 30sec and than comes back,

YouTube - 2005 Silverado Knocking Noise

 

[b00stedeagle]

Bring it back to whoever rebuilt it??

 

[bgeclipse]

Bring it back to whoever rebuilt it??

i did,and he told me it was pulley's that i had to change,you think pulley or tensioner will cause this noise

 

[brandon1239]

yea thats definitely something you should get checked out... take it back to him tell him you'll buy the pulley and he can put it on and if there is still a noise he has a new motor to build.