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Loud knocking sound from torque converter or flywheel

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kidwiththelaser

15+ Year Contributor
206
4
Jun 6, 2005
minneapolis, Minnesota
There is a real loud knocking sound coming from what sounds like the torque converter or flywheel area.

Its a steady knocking sounds and is pretty loud. Almost sounds like rod knock, but I just put the engine in and its been doing it since i first started it up.

Only reason I havent pulled the oil pan yet is because I bought the engine from a reputable shop, it runs real smooth and it really sounds like its coming from the torque converter or flywheel.

Has anyone ever heard of the flexplate knocking against something, or the torque converter knocking as it fails?

Both engine and transmission fluid look nice and clean.

thanks for any help!
 
Do you have a Precision 2g lockup converter? If so, that's your sound, the 3 clutches.

If not, might be a loose flexplate to torque converter bolt.
 
Take off the inspection cover and see whats going on....
 
Do you have a Precision 2g lockup converter? If so, that's your sound, the 3 clutches.

If not, might be a loose flexplate to torque converter bolt.

Its all stock as far as I know.

Take off the inspection cover and see whats going on....

I took the inspection cover off and took a quick glance and everything seemed ok. Ill check the bolts and dig into it a bit deeper this weekend.
 
did you run it with the inspection cover off? sometimes they get bent and and hit the convertor when running. Happened to me before.
 
did you run it with the inspection cover off? sometimes they get bent and and hit the convertor when running. Happened to me before.

Yeah, I ran it but couldn't really tell. Ill get a video and some pics up this weekend.

Hopefully I just have to remove the trans and not the whole engine.
 
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Put the front of the car up on jackstands, take the inspection cover off, turn the crank with a large ratchet and check out all the flexplate bolts..Turn the crank clockwise at all times....
 
Put the front of the car up on jackstands, take the inspection cover off, turn the crank with a large ratchet and check out all the flexplate bolts..Turn the crank clockwise at all times....


I turned the crank over and checked the bolts quick and they seemed fine. Didnt check the torque on them though.

I started the car up and let it run for a bit, then I shifted it out of park and into neutral and the knocking was quite a bit quieter.

Here is a quick video I took of it:

youtube*dot*com/watch?v=g3ea5maUHlU
 
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Gonna say effe it and pull the transmission this weekend. Ill update the thread when I figure it out.

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Guess what I noticed!
 
Turns out the flexplate bolts were right up against the starter plate. And when the engine turned over the flexplate bolts would shave a bit of the starter plate away. That was the knocking noise I was hearing. Fortunately it was nothing major!

I have the transmission out and a new starter plate on the way.
 
How did the wrong starter plate get on the car?
 
I just swapped in a new engine. The engine came from a car with a manual trans, and this car is auto. Cant remember if I swapped starter plates or not, but this one is a bit bent up too.
 
Are you talking about the inspection plate? I don't think you can use the incorrect starter plate. The inspection plate, however, can fit if bent a little, and the incorrect one will hit the bolts. I solved it with a hammer on mine as a temp fix till I got the correct one.
 
Are you talking about the inspection plate? I don't think you can use the incorrect starter plate. The inspection plate, however, can fit if bent a little, and the incorrect one will hit the bolts. I solved it with a hammer on mine as a temp fix till I got the correct one.

Nope, im talking about the starter plate. The one between the engine and the transmission. Maybe it was the right one, but was just too beat up.
 
Wow seeems like the same problem I'm having... I just got my engine and car running. I didn't make the noise until i did some pulls to tune the car.

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Starts out with car in park, then i go through the gears P-R-N-D-2-1,2-D-N-R-P

The noise you deff hear in P, but sometimes when going in D...

I'm going to take a look at the bolts today...
 
Reviving this thread.. sounds EXACTLY like my trans problem... would you say the noise would have gone away without removing the trans?
 
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