Hi, I bought a t2 about a month ago, and only now am I driving it (had to replace the starter, and master cyc.). My question concerns this sound I keep hearing while the car is idling. Through the almighty search function I've learned that detonation becomes a issue once you dont feed the engine enough fuel (or that's my understanding anyway). I have not modified the car in any shape or form. While the car is idling I just hear this pinging sound - kind of sounds like a rock hitting a very thin piece of metal. I've driven the car about 300 miles now, and I was told that if it's pinging then by the 4th ping your engine is nighty-night. So is it possible that my car is detonating? Any checks I could do to ensure everything is on the up and up?

thanks in advance

 

I dont think the noise you are hearing is a ping, its definately not if you only hear it at idle. Ping usually only occurs when the engine is under the most load or where your car reaches its peak torque numbers.

 

Track down the general area the noise is coming from. I don't think its possible to denotate at idle, not sure though.

 

actually, detonation at idle is possible, (i dont know about a rotary though), it is however, highly unlikely that you are detonating at idle, i've seen it happen before (on piston engines). at first, when i heard you said the rock against thin metal, i though, could be a pushrod, but rotaries dont have those. lol...so i dont know what to tell you. :-)

 

thankz guys you saved me a heart attack (or two) - I'll try to see where the hell this little sound is coming from tonight.

 

The stock ECU has you running much too rich at idle for you to detonate.

 

Usually detonation will happen when you give it gas. But my car survived about 2 months of detonation at lower rpms. Still runs, and yes i am supprised.

 

I had the exact the same thing on my tII for a while, quess what it was.??? the stock top mount intercooler at idle was shaking hard enough to just lightly ping the top of the mounts......

Rotary engines tend to shake a little more than usual at idle....at least mine did.