Knocking, the wrong type

[ericsmith32]

Well changed the oil in the festiva, put a 10w-30/5w-20 50/50 mix of Havoline in it. I noticed it was knocking past the 2 or 3 seconds it normally does. It was hit on the passenger side before I got it. It used to only knock after a oil change, then for a few seconds on start-up and now it does it all the time. I'm thinking about switching back to synthetic to see if it stops. Anyone care to guess estimated time till death? I'd like to take a B6D and put in it, but i'm moving and going to college and getting married so it may be scraped when and if she dies. I have full intentions on driving it till it quits though. Shall we take up bets :lol:

[gomer]

Time for straight 50w.... I'd pull the pan and change the oil pump and rod bearings... OR ,,, you could throw a "brick on*" party ... charge everyone $10 for a time guess and pay out half to the winner ... use the proceeds to put down on a new car...

*(brick on throttle with oil drained)

[darkdan]

A 50/50 mix of 5w20 and 10w30? Why bother? Most conventional Xw30s are close to a 20. I hope it was just because you had it laying around.

My Aspire has a knocking noise going on all the time....It's NOT a rod knock. It's not! Been that way for 44k miles.

[ericsmith32]

I had both laying around, trying to get rid of the 5w-20 since the truck is on the farm. I think it's more like a knock and warble noise. It seems like I may of had a festiva that did it once before also, can't remember. But the aspire doesn't do it, but it has it's own problems. Oh well the old lady is driving it, so if it dies I can always blame it on her :lol:

[darkdan]

I want to know what that metallic rattle noise is when I'm at high revs.

[ericsmith32]

I checked today and it wasn't knocking. Our festivas and aspires like to toy with us, their version of love I think. BTW, I have that same noise on my aspire.

[gdawgs]

The metallic sound is probably pinging. Is is most obvious under full throttle?

Has it been doing it for a long time or did it just start doing it recently.

Some common causes;
Bad gas
Bad plug/s or the wrong type of plug or a bad wire
Improper timing

If your vehicle just started doing it, it's most likely gas.

[ericsmith32]

I only hear it going up hills before I downshift. Spark plugs, wires and O2 sensor just got replaced. The timing is somewhere between 8-10BTDC. I need check it again since the ohm reading of the #1 plug was 3 times the others. The major problem I have which may be the same would be at idle it revs up and down. I don't think timing would do that.

[darkdan]

I know what a ping sounds like. I wish it were a ping, but it's not.

Sounds more like something loose rattling around.

Not overly concerned though.

[gdawgs]

OK Eric, yours is definitely pinging. Sounds like you have one plug that is questionable, I'd just replace them all again. Plugs are cheap.
Of course, the idling problem could very well be linked to the pinging.
Here's what the manual says that could cause the idling problem
1. Vacuum leak.
2. Leaking EGR valve
3. Plugged air filter
4. bad fuel pump
5. leaking head gasket
6. timing belt and/or pulleys worn
7. camshaft lobes worn

[gdawgs]

Dan, yours could be a loose heat shield. They rust through then rattle at certain rpms. That's happened to me a few times.

[darkdan]

I have no heat shield. =)

I'm basically writing it off as normal "thrashing" of a 145k mile motor that's had a hard life and shouldn't be put in such high rpms.

[gdawgs]

145K really isn't very many miles on these engines. My first one sounded just as good at 280,000 as it did when I got it.

[darkdan]

Yeah. When I bought it the thing had the worse headgasket failure ever. The old lady just kept driving it around.

1/2 gal of coolant in the rad. 10 quarts of an oil/coolant mix in the crankcase. How it ran is beyond my understanding. Lord only knows how long it was like that.