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.

 

[rob1621]

So i was leaving home and i was driving down this hill in 1st gear and all of the sudden for about 2 seconds my car makes a higher pitched screeching noise mixed with a grinding noise then just shut off. I tried to restart and all it did was try to start and not turn over. What could this be?

 

[90on35psi]

Did you look under the hood? Check to see if your bellhousing cracked and the trans fell off the engine. Same thing happened to me in a parking lot due to a broken rear bolt on the tranny.

 

[black_gst]

sound like u could have spun a bearing

 

[rob1621]

ok so i guess i had the wrong idea of "turning over" because it does.

But my car would puff white smoke at idle or wot. If that means anything.

Would head gasket do anything like this?

 

[black_gst]

so can u drive the car or not will it start and idle


white smoke is water open the radiator cap and start the car ans see if theres alot of air bubbles

 

[rob1621]

Well no i cant start it, i was just saying that when it did run, it puffed white smoke. Ill check the radiator.

 

[ramsack]

white smoke is also oil burning in the exhaust. could be a turbine seal in the turbo or the valve stem seals on the exhaust valves.

 

[black_gst]

white smoke is also oil burning in the exhaust. could be a turbine seal in the turbo or the valve stem seals on the exhaust valves.

oil will be more of a grey foggy color sometime its hard to tell between the 2 if its not alot

 

[805DSM]

sounds like it Snapped the timing belt , remove the cam gear cover and check , if not it may have jumped timing and bent the valves.

 

[AlaskanDsm]

I would start with check ing your oil to make sure you didn't loose it all somewhere.
If you have oil, I would recommend doing a compression/leakdown test to make sure you haven't blown your HG.
If you don't have oil, have a second person turn your car over and watch the camshaft gears and crankshaft bolt in the driver wheel well to make sure both are freely spinning. (this happened to me. My car seized the head and even though the engine would crank, the camshafts, were not spinning, just the crank spinning in place.)

General rule of smoke:
White = coolant
Blue = oil
Black = Rich on gas
There are exceptions but this is usually how it falls.

 

[ramsack]

oil will be more of a grey foggy color sometime its hard to tell between the 2 if its not alot

oil burning inside the engine is the color you describe. oil in the exhaust is white and cloudy as hell. kinda like someone poured fog machine juice in there.

 

[rob1621]

if i think back, the screeching sound more like a belt screech than anything else. does that help?

 

[ramsack]

maybe your timing belt shredded teeth?

 

[rob1621]

also, how do i check if the belt jumped a few teeth?

 

[90on35psi]

Rotate the engine with a half inch drive breaker bar to TDC and check the timing marks on the gears.

 

[rob1621]

ok so say the piston all the way to the right, next to the cam gears, is at TDC and the timing marks are NOT aligned, does that mean timing jumped? if so, how does this happen? and is all i have to do next is re-time it?

i took off my valve cover and checked out how my cams turned over. The bottom camshaft (closest to front) turns over and seems like there is a lot of compression and it springs back and forth with good amount force. But the cam shaft closer to the windshield seems like less compression and spring back.

So i took off the valve cover and one of the cam caps has scratches on it. When you take one without scratches and put it on the rod, its spins smoothly, but the one with scratches is rough. Could this be my problem?

How do i check for bent valves with out taking my whole motor apart or just taking the head off the block?

soooo cam caps, one has scratches, what does this mean?

 

[Lofty]

Check your harmonic balancer. It's the crank pulley. Does it wiggle?

 

[AlaskanDsm]

I think a compression check would see if you have bent valves. Also, if you did just timing, it's possible if you have balance shafts, the belt that turns them could have gone and slipped under the timing belt causing it to jump... I can't remmeber if the 2G has BS. Also, if you timing is off by more than 1 tooth, you bent valves.

 

[Anger890]

Timing can be off up to 3 teeth before there are issues, with timming off 1 tooth, the car will run but will not run right, it will be doggy and slow mid/topend.

I will be traveling through your area next week for work and I could stop by to give a hand in diagnosis, PM me for contact info.

 

[Bluefire16]

^^ i just want to say thank you Anger, its great to see members offering to help other members out.

On another note...Everyone has already discussed some of the possibilities, hard to say without seeing any pictures or videos or knowing exactly what you heard....

 

[rob1621]

Ill PM if anything man, i appreciate it. Its really cool that you offered to help and you dont even know me. haha
But yeah ill try to take some pics of the cam caps because thats the only thing right now that i get get a picture of that shows anything.

 

[Anger890]

Ill PM if anything man, i appreciate it. Its really cool that you offered to help and you dont even know me. haha
But yeah ill try to take some pics of the cam caps because thats the only thing right now that i get get a picture of that shows anything.

No problem, I'm bored as my house is up for sale and the DSM's are stuck in storage till we sell. At least I have some engine stuff to work on in the basement, for both cars and 3 new sled engines.

To me it sounds like a spun bearing or the balance/timing belt headed south for the winter.

A quick check by bringing the engine up to TDC on CYL #1 and checking the timing marks would tell if it jumped time. Id it jumped a compression test would show if you bent some valves.

Is there oil in the engine? Is the oil low or off colored?

 

[EagleTalonTim]

I just recently replaced my oil pump, main bearings, rod bearings, timing belt, timing belt tensioner, and did the balance shaft eliminator kit. I did this because I was having a strange vibration from the engine and I could hear it. I had a similar problem about a year ago and it was my timing belt tensioner. Everything is brand new now and I am still hearing this noise At 1500 RPM, it is as loud as it gets and the vibration is really strong. At idle you cannot hear it and 2k RPM you cannot hear it. The noise started right after I installed my transmission I rebuilt. The noise is NOT coming from the transmission. It sounds to be around the timing belt area.

>>>> THIS IS NOT THE EXACT NOISE, BUT IT IS CLOSE!!!!<<<<
Link : YouTube - Something is just not right!

To describe the noise as best as possible, it sounds like a bad exhaust leak that goes away after 2k RPM.

I have already checked the harmonic balancer and it seems fine. It does not appear to be rubbing anything or show to have any play.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dsmbooster]

Could your T-belt be walking and contacting the cover at lower rpm's?

 

[BLINKY619]

yea and check your t-belt tightness