Light pinging or a tinkling sound under light acceleration is no cause for alarm but, a heavy knocking is very bad. Most of my vehicles have a slight pinging under light acceleration and it just means that the fuel mixture & spark timing are optimized. In my opinion you should not need or use 89 octane fuel. Ed
2011 Camry Engine Pinging
- Thread starter Hokiefyd
- Start date
- Status
Originally Posted By: CBR.worm
My last few toyota's have pinged during shifts and at other times. One of my tundra's had bad piston slap that had no bad consequences by the time I sold it at 220K miles. It bothers me that they all seem to ping, but I think it is an effect of E10 gas combined with very stringent tuning for emissions.
Hypervish - almost 300K out of a toyota van is impressive - was that a previa? I had an '84 and '86 LE van that were both fairly unreliable and were sold by 100K. I attributed it to them being way underpowered for carrying their rated load.
It wasn't a previa, it was a LE van. I have had a previa in the past as a work van, which i shared with my uncle as he owns a shop and we used it to pick up parts from the junkyard and stuff, and that was extremely reliable as well we racked over 365k miles on it before it was crashed. I didn't mention the previa as i don't know if it's running right now (i donated the car), but all of the cars i mentioned are still running today (yes even the 89' van.. lol), even though i don't own them, i know who owns them and i see them around town all the time.
You are right about them being underpowered though, once the previa came out though they have a nice amount of power, but before that it was hard to get up to speed, in the 89' i always found myself switching overdrive off when needing to pass vehicles. LoL.. But it gave great fuel mileage so I never complained.
My last few toyota's have pinged during shifts and at other times. One of my tundra's had bad piston slap that had no bad consequences by the time I sold it at 220K miles. It bothers me that they all seem to ping, but I think it is an effect of E10 gas combined with very stringent tuning for emissions.
Hypervish - almost 300K out of a toyota van is impressive - was that a previa? I had an '84 and '86 LE van that were both fairly unreliable and were sold by 100K. I attributed it to them being way underpowered for carrying their rated load.
It wasn't a previa, it was a LE van. I have had a previa in the past as a work van, which i shared with my uncle as he owns a shop and we used it to pick up parts from the junkyard and stuff, and that was extremely reliable as well we racked over 365k miles on it before it was crashed. I didn't mention the previa as i don't know if it's running right now (i donated the car), but all of the cars i mentioned are still running today (yes even the 89' van.. lol), even though i don't own them, i know who owns them and i see them around town all the time.
You are right about them being underpowered though, once the previa came out though they have a nice amount of power, but before that it was hard to get up to speed, in the 89' i always found myself switching overdrive off when needing to pass vehicles. LoL.. But it gave great fuel mileage so I never complained.
Last edited:
Thank you all for the continued replies.
I actually have premium fuel in it now. And on a day similar to before (75*F, etc), I was able to replicate the ping/spark knock exactly. So far it seems, the octane makes no difference. That leads me to think that either:
1) It's not spark knock or ping that I'm hearing to begin with (although I believe it is, given the knock sensor activity I logged with the Toyota tech), or
2) It's just how the system operates, and regardless of whether I have 87 or 93 or 150 octane fuel in it, it's going to keep the timing advanced as far as it can, and when it hears light pinging, it'll pull advance at the time to correct it. (agreeing with what Eddie said above, about the system optimizing itself for the fuel used)
I'll run premium for another few tanks in a row to see if I log any fuel economy increases, then it'll be back to regular.
I actually have premium fuel in it now. And on a day similar to before (75*F, etc), I was able to replicate the ping/spark knock exactly. So far it seems, the octane makes no difference. That leads me to think that either:
1) It's not spark knock or ping that I'm hearing to begin with (although I believe it is, given the knock sensor activity I logged with the Toyota tech), or
2) It's just how the system operates, and regardless of whether I have 87 or 93 or 150 octane fuel in it, it's going to keep the timing advanced as far as it can, and when it hears light pinging, it'll pull advance at the time to correct it. (agreeing with what Eddie said above, about the system optimizing itself for the fuel used)
I'll run premium for another few tanks in a row to see if I log any fuel economy increases, then it'll be back to regular.
The question is, does it have more power with the 93? If so, then it's cranking up the timing more.
It's also possible that the noise is something else, and being that a knock sensor is basically just a microphone, the computer is "hearing" it as pinging.
It's also possible that the noise is something else, and being that a knock sensor is basically just a microphone, the computer is "hearing" it as pinging.
I can't yet decide if it has more power. Once I get my ScanGauge (birthday present...c'mon calendar!), I'll be able to look at the timing advance on a daily basis.
I could very dramatically tell the difference in power and smoothness between regular and premium in the Acura (premium recommended). I can't really tell yet on the Toyota, which means that there's probably little-to-no difference.
I could very dramatically tell the difference in power and smoothness between regular and premium in the Acura (premium recommended). I can't really tell yet on the Toyota, which means that there's probably little-to-no difference.
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
1) It's not spark knock or ping that I'm hearing to begin with (although I believe it is, given the knock sensor activity I logged with the Toyota tech)
I believe that things other than spark knock or ping can be picked up by the knock sensor. They are sensitive to vibrations and anything that makes vibrations in the range (regardless of cause) that they are tuned to will cause the knock sensor to show activity.
1) It's not spark knock or ping that I'm hearing to begin with (although I believe it is, given the knock sensor activity I logged with the Toyota tech)
I believe that things other than spark knock or ping can be picked up by the knock sensor. They are sensitive to vibrations and anything that makes vibrations in the range (regardless of cause) that they are tuned to will cause the knock sensor to show activity.
Thanks for the tip on the UG. Have you used it before? The ScanGauge has a pretty strong following, so support is there. I'm sure UG supports their product as well, I'm just not as familiar with it.
Thanks. I will start another thread on it to gather impressions.
I said I'd run premium for a few tanks to see what my fuel economy would be. I just filled up yesterday and didn't feel like I was getting better economy, so I put regular in it. I didn't think I was getting an economy improvement, and I didn't think I could feel any performance improvement, so I didn't see the value in premium.
I think I'll go back to premium. My economy for that last tank was 29.75mpg, which is an honest 8-10% better than what I expected. And I wasn't really driving it easy either. The throttle response seems a hair softer now also, with the regular back in. It may just be in my head, but the economy isn't. I will go back to premium on the next tank and monitor. The pinging does seem to be worse on regular. It was warm and humid yesterday, which is the worst conditions for engine ping.
I have found a number of references to engine ping on the internet, with seemingly the exact same description/symptoms as mine, on a variety of cars. Looks like this is just how a lot of modern cars operate.
http://mdx.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=786871
Quote:
...a slight metallic pinging sound when accelerating at partial throttle but not under wot...seems to be more pronounced in between the shifting of the gears as the revs drop and build between shifts, but at full throttle the engine sounds great.
http://forum.chryslerminivan.net/archive/index.php/t-16658.html
Quote:
...the engine usually pings when the car shifts from the second to the third gear specially when i am going up a hill. the engine revolution drops dramatically (during shifting the gears) from about 3000 rpm to about 1000 rpm and this causes the engine to ping. the higher octane fuel didnot solve this problem...
http://www.yoursciontc.com/forums/89-mis...4000-miles.html
Quote:
The ping/knock was heard while I was driving with the windows down and shifting into second on a hill. It was a brief knocking/pinging...like it hesitated. I then took it to a less traveled road and got on it a little, pushing the pedal to the floor. No knock. No ping.
I think I'll go back to premium. My economy for that last tank was 29.75mpg, which is an honest 8-10% better than what I expected. And I wasn't really driving it easy either. The throttle response seems a hair softer now also, with the regular back in. It may just be in my head, but the economy isn't. I will go back to premium on the next tank and monitor. The pinging does seem to be worse on regular. It was warm and humid yesterday, which is the worst conditions for engine ping.
I have found a number of references to engine ping on the internet, with seemingly the exact same description/symptoms as mine, on a variety of cars. Looks like this is just how a lot of modern cars operate.
http://mdx.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=786871
Quote:
...a slight metallic pinging sound when accelerating at partial throttle but not under wot...seems to be more pronounced in between the shifting of the gears as the revs drop and build between shifts, but at full throttle the engine sounds great.
http://forum.chryslerminivan.net/archive/index.php/t-16658.html
Quote:
...the engine usually pings when the car shifts from the second to the third gear specially when i am going up a hill. the engine revolution drops dramatically (during shifting the gears) from about 3000 rpm to about 1000 rpm and this causes the engine to ping. the higher octane fuel didnot solve this problem...
http://www.yoursciontc.com/forums/89-mis...4000-miles.html
Quote:
The ping/knock was heard while I was driving with the windows down and shifting into second on a hill. It was a brief knocking/pinging...like it hesitated. I then took it to a less traveled road and got on it a little, pushing the pedal to the floor. No knock. No ping.
- Status
Similar threads
