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.

 

[98GSt_4life]

i made post on this in the past but i have still not come to a conclsion as to what the problem is.. one noise is a bad TO bearing but the other i cant figure out.. the engine now has about 4000 miles on it and has been making the noise sence about 5min after the very first start up. so i figure if it was a bearing it would of went by now.
it is very faint at idle and gets alittle louder as rpm increse, but the speed of the noise stays at a steady pace and does not go up with engine speed.

a friend said it almost sounds like the a plug wire is arking inside the spark plug bores, but ive never heard of that happening and the engine still running good

feel free to ask any questions to narrow the possabilitys down..

 

[cjridert1]

You may have done this on a previous post - is there a vid/audio clip or at least a description of the noise?

 

[AlaskanDsm]

when the car is running is there anyway for you to identify the location of where its coming from via stethoscope or a makeshift one using something like a hose that would kind of help you know the location area of the noise? And a description of the noise would help somewhat as well. As said above.

 

[98GSt_4life]

the noise itself is actually hard to pinpoint. from up to it sounds like its coming from the valve cover area from under the car it sounds like its coming from right under the intake mani. and you can also kinda hear something from the timing area.. i know i need to replace some of the timing parts and that is another noise. ill try and get a vid but i don't have anything with good enough sound quality to do any good.

im pretty sure its not lifter tic ### i already have that and replaced with revised ones and that noise stopped.

 

[AlaskanDsm]

can you borrow anyone's digital camera to take a video? or even a video camera? you can try cell phone but they don't work very well usually. Something else you can try is a digital voice recorder.

 

[skyrone]

Hey guys i just recently developed a problem that when i let off of a hard pull and dont shift up or anything just kinda engine brake i get a binding/ grinding noise that sounds like its coming from the left rear of the car. The other i day i backed off of a hoist and scraped an air jack pretty bad but i got under the car and gave it a very thourough inspection and didnt see anything majorly wrong. Im thinking its my differential. It has 108 thousand miles on it so idk if itd be about due for it to go out or not. If so is there any where that i could buy a kit of just the internals? or like a rebuild kit? Thanks for the help guys

 

[Daveed]

Check for looseness (any up and down or in and out) where the driveline and rear end connect. On two other vehicles I owned the pinion nut came loose. Made no noise on acceleration but on deceleration it was bad.

 

[JeffGST]

When decelerating, while still in gear you will hear a grinding and howling noise from the rear end of the car. It's very common on DSM's especially since they are all getting pretty old.

Driveshaft Carrier Bearings (The most common culprit of the noise). Swap them out for new bearings and fill up the rubber boot with black silicone. Visit the vfaq for more info.

 

[skyrone]

well now that it was warm out i drove around with the stereo off and the windows down and it sounds like the transfer case to me now... i checked the fluid and it is fine

 

[98GSt_4life]

ok heres a slight update on what ive done and checked for. i took the valve cover off and didn't take anything apart but just inspected it visually and it all look great. but one question is do i have to take the lifters out to check if there collapsed or would i be able to see it. and what else in the head can be making a noise besides though.

i also took the oil pan off wile doing my oil change and the oil was kinda dirty but had NO metal shavings and did NOT have any kind of metallic look to it. i also pulled the rod caps off to check the bearings and they look good as new. i re-torqued the rods and mains. my crank end play was .0045" and im pretty sure that is within spec(correct me if im wrong) bolted everything back up and the sound is still there. i forgot to mention that i looked at the cylinder walls while i had the pan off and from what i could see they had no scuffs or scratches so i don't think my problem is related to that..

anymore ideas to what my problem could be?? im still trying to work on a vid but not having any luck with that.

something else that ive noticed that i haven't said yet it that its not a steady noise, its always there but it fades in and out and is sometime loud and sometimes not.

could it be a bad lifter or something else related to the head or do i have too much crank end play?

i still need help diagnosing this problem while i have time from school..

ok i pulled the valve cover and checked all the rockers and re bleed all the lifters(which are all good as new) and after all the ticking went away the noise is still there..

im not sure what it could be ### i can hear it very clearly from both the valve cover and the tranny side of the oil pan.

 

[Kyromoto]

ok i didnt notice this because while im in the car and driving i cant hear it. but i watched a video of me driving and while im in gear and usually when its at WOT the car makes a weird like... grrr i dont know how to describe it. almost like a consistent skreetch but a high tone skreetch. does anyone have a remote idea what im talking about?

by the way i think it sounds like its in my gears. i personally only got to hear it in 2nd gear. but maybe if some 1 else watched me drive they could see if it made it in all gears or what.

 

[STM tuned]

I'm not clear from your description, but you should get the camera out, grab some video and upload it to youtube for us to check out!

 

[Kyromoto]

ok. unfortunately here in socal its been raining more then ever so im gunna have to wait on that. but ill be sure to try and get it. ill try and find a way where maybe i can go WOT some where and have some1 else film it.

 

[JDR7919]

Hey guys,
About 50% throttle in any gear it makes a deep woosh sound. It sounds like it is coming from the driverside of the car. Does not sound like the motor or clutch. The most recent thing I have done to the car was install a afpr and I think thats when it started. Could any type of noise becoming from that?

 

[bluetlr2001]

Just a thought but have you done a boost leak test recently?

 

[hedrick]

Do you just hear a sound or are there more symptoms. what happens at idle and wot?

 

[JDR7919]

Its just a sound. I let off when I hear it so I have not gone wot. Other than that the car drives perfect.

 

[hedrick]

Maybe you have an exhaust leak? Im just throwing ideas out there. Could you describe it a little better?

 

[gpz750]

Is it worse when it's cold? Does it go away when the motor is warm? do you know what piston to cylinder wall clearnace was set to?

 

[98GSt_4life]

the noise is not there when its cold. i know its not piston slap the block was honed to the pistons by wiseco specs. i even rechecked the machine work when i got it back home and it was perfect. the noise goes away above 3k

and its not the tentioner pully or idler pully.. i just had them off and theres nothing wrong with them

 

[cottonballs43]

I forgot all about this post but I just stumbled across it again. The sound was an a rod bearing going bad. It ended up spinning and shooting through the side of my block. Since then I've put in a 6bolt and done a lot of other work.

Food for thought.. I never had a problem until the day after I use an oil system cleaner. It's designed to be run in your engine for 5 minutes before you do an oil change. It cleans out all the sludge and build up in the engine but also seems to cause problems with high mileage engines causing bad oil pressure.

I work at an automotive and have talked to quite a few people who have witnessed this exact problem after using an oil system cleaner. Beware, these cleaners say they are completely harmless but I'll be the first to say I'll never use it again.

-Steve

 

[crimsondragon]

Sucks to hear that. The only thing I would inject is Seafoam.

 

[eric62810]

ok fresh rebuilt 2.0 turbo 4g63 first drive and it makes a winding noise from the motor i hAVE GOOD OIL PRESSURE and it runs real well just dont like the winding noise ne ideas on what it could b???

 

[CrazyM]

winding noise or whining noise? Timing belt being real tight will make a whine to the engine.

 

[eric62810]

any other belts cause it my timing belt isnt to tight i have a lil slack on the top between gears