Help - Knocking noise
 

Bleh.

I hope my engine isn't going kaput. I hope its something I'm doing wrong.

Ok, I get a knocking noise when I drive my car for the first coupleof minutes.

When I start up in the morning, I blip the throttle to get it off the autowarm up and then I let the car idle for about 30-seconds to a minute. The temp gauge doesn't really move very much. (after market temp gauge in the mail.)

Anyway, as I'm pulling out of my apartment complex, I hear a knocking noise. It increases when I give more throttle, and goes away if I coast in neatral. As soon as I'm out of my apartment complex, my car is warm and the knocking goes away.

I've done a few searches and learned that knocking could mean signs of being lean, bad detonations. I'm not burning any smoke or anything. I have mods, and the cpu was reprogrammed....

Anyone have any suggestions on what to check? Should I just let it idle longer before taking off?

Thanks in advance.

list of your mods would be helpful :)

High Performance Radiator - Koyo
Stainless Steel Downpipe - ATR
Reprogrammed stock ECU - Jet performance
Sway Bar – Suspension Techniques
Free flow Cat – Bonerz
Metal overflow tank – Koyo
High volume intake – HKS
Free flow exhaust – HKS
Oversized intercooler - Greddy
Strut tower brace - Greddy

bump

Someone must have some suggestions! :(

I dunno if your engines blown. Knocking noise can mean that you're running lean, but generally knock occurs under boost, in conditions where detonation can happen. If you're worried, get a compression check. Otherwise, if it's running ok (steady idle no loss of power) I'd look elsewhere for the cause.

on the way home from work I noticed a bumpy idle. The electronics dim and the engine almost dies. It never does though...

after a few minutes of driving, its fine. No problems, even during idle.

I'm taking it to have a compression test done I guess...

b0rk

Generally if you can actually hear the knocking from an engine with your own ears inside the car you are screwed already, it would take a serious engine knock for you to hear it. My guess is that the noise is not internally engine related..

Matt

Mine was doing that too. I looked at the pulleys while it was idling. Turned out that the power steering pump bearing had failed, and the pulley was moving around a lot!

It got progressively worse as the failure happened.

Take a close listen to your power steering pump.

It could be something non internal. Or it could be excessive carbon build-up. Do you often redline the car? If not, then go out and do it. It will clean it up if there is a build-up of carbon. You may also want to do the ATF trick(aka put atf in the intake, let the engine soak in it, and then burn it off).

Well... I drove it again and with another person, we figured out it couldn't be the engine. It sounds like its coming from the back. I now noticed it DOES happen when I coast, but NOT when I brake.

So... thats kind of a relief... I'm thinking suspension... who knows.

The wacky thing is it still goes away when after 2 minutes of driving. Mah buds (mister7) theory is my bushings are dry.

Any thoughts?

How is you cold idle? Is it rough? If it's rough and then clears up at the same time your knock does you might have bad plugs. Sometimes when plugs are on the edge they will idle rough but then clear up as the engine reaches operating temperatures, rare, but it can happen.

Regards,
Frank