Engine noise, only at very certain circumstance

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A throttle body may get gunked up, but it does not cause the engine to get dirty. It receives debris, it doesn't contribute.

Get a couple of people who know cars to listen to the noise. They can tell in a few seconds if it is mechanical or spark knock.
Then we can go from there.
 
UPDATE :

Wanted to give you guys an update and see what you think. In my last tank of fuel I added Redline S-1 Fuel Cleaner, which I normally do before an oil change. During that tank of fuel, the knocking was gone 90% of the time, and when it did knock if was very quiet, you could barely hear it unless you were trying to like I was. The Redline helped the noise, alot.

I ran that tank down, then filled up with normal 87 octane from Shell. Once again the knock is back, just about as bad as before. So I'm back at square one. I had my brother listen to it (who has worked on cars for about 15 years) and said it sounded like pinging to him, but didn't understand why the premium gas and Redline only helped the problem for a small amount of time.

Before I goto a dealership and get racked over the coals, I'd like to eliminate other possibilites. Could a bad oil filter cause this (bypass?), spark plugs fouled, Seafoam the engine, valves need adjusting? I'd like to take this on myself, I don't have a trusted mechanic so I'm sure somebody would just take me for a ride, and likely not even fix the problem.
 
I'd say it is either the knock sensor being bad, foul plugs (1 foul plug will increase the amount of oxygen reaching the exhaust and makes the timing advanced for the other plugs), O2 sensor, or an intake leak.

Are you sure it is a ping and not an exhaust leak? I had some loud engine noise for a while and I would avoid certain throttle position. Only to realized it is an exhaust leak when I replace some O-ring along with the oil pan gasket and realized how quiet it becomes all of a sudden.
 
Thanks for the response PandaBear. I never even thought about the exhaust, and will certainly check that out. One reason I don't think that's the case is the Redline cleaner helped the noise a bunch, and I don't see how that could affect the exhaust. However, I want to check out all possibilities I can myself, and that is certainly one of them. Thank you for the suggestions. I am going to replace the spark plugs in the spring to see if that helps the problem at all.

Anyone else have other ideas?
 
I just read something interesting in my owners manual. It states...

"Engine Valve Clearance : Audible inspect every 75,000 miles, if noisy, adjust"

My engine has a bit over 74,000 on the clock. My question to the community is, if in fact this turns out to be a valve adjustment issue, how much have you all paid for the service? Is a valve adjustment required? In other words, if I let the noise remain will it be harmful to my engine in the long run? Any insight would be greatly appreciated, thanks all.
 
I've done valve adjustment on my honda/acura 4 banger before, and it is easy to do (15-30 mins), I'd imagine if you bring it out to a shop they'll charge you 1/2 to 1 hr labor rate.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
I've done valve adjustment on my honda/acura 4 banger before, and it is easy to do (15-30 mins), I'd imagine if you bring it out to a shop they'll charge you 1/2 to 1 hr labor rate.


It's not a hard job on a 4 cylinder, but certainly not 15-30 minutes. What do you have an 8-valve? Gotta love people's ridiculous macho claims on message boards.

If you've never done it expect at least an hour to 90 minutes to take your time and read the manual as you go. Only time I can see 30 minutes is if you've done it before and NONE of the valves need adjustment, or just dont know how to tell time.
 
Holla, thanks for the reply. It is in fact a 16 valve, so I'm not sure if that will make the process harder? I am going to get a copy of the service manual and see how involved it is.

Are there any ill effects of not adjusting the valves, other than the noise and less than optimal engine performance?
 
iirc those motors use shims, not the spiffy honda style lash adjusting. you need to measure the shim, see how much you need and then get different size shims to fit if you want to adjust.
 
Actually the 8-valve question was snark for the guy who said he could adjust 16 valves start to finish in 15 minutes.

If they're noisy I'd adjust them. Any metal on metal noise ain't good.

I had commented a few weeks ago on this thread that I'm trying to snuff out a similar noise that seems related to cold. Mine's intermittent which makes it a total pain in the [censored] to find and made me think it's combustion related but I bought a tank of premium and I didn't hear it for a few days but it came back so now I don't know. I've replaced all kinds of [censored]. Next step for me is to check main/rod bearing clearances. That could be your problem. But for me I don't know, most people don't describe rod knock as being intermittent or related to engine temp. I've replaced/cleaned so much at this point that there's not much else it can be.
 
Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
iirc those motors use shims, not the spiffy honda style lash adjusting. you need to measure the shim, see how much you need and then get different size shims to fit if you want to adjust.


Oh, that's going to take a lot longer than honda then.
 
Originally Posted By: BBuzecky
UPDATE :

Wanted to give you guys an update and see what you think. In my last tank of fuel I added Redline S-1 Fuel Cleaner, which I normally do before an oil change. During that tank of fuel, the knocking was gone 90% of the time, and when it did knock if was very quiet, you could barely hear it unless you were trying to like I was. The Redline helped the noise, alot.


Since you had some success with SI-1 why not take it a step further and use some seafoam. Then clean the TB and intake manifold. Before you start tearing apart your engine where you can introduce more engine noises.

Try the easy fixes first.
 
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