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My wifes car developed some strange noise. Any ideas what it could be ?
Car had head gasket changed about 5 months ago ,together with new cambelt and water pump,everything was fine until last week. Mise seems to be louder everyday.
Another vote for exhaust manifold here. Sounds like a leak between head face and exhaust flange. It's worth checking bolts were tightened up correctly. What mileage is it on and why did head gasket get swapped? Did garage confirm old gasket showed signs of going?
Rocker cover will allow access to it. Have you checked bolts/studs on manifold just to rule it out? Only say it as cams tend to have a more solid resonance than your video is indicating but that could just be the mic. It's very different from actually being there and tricky to tell through iphone speaker.
Given the head has been off you don't know if any swarf/dirt has found its way into an oil gallery.
Did the garage specify how the gasket blew? I.e between a waterway/firing rings/between the material layers? Did they offer any advice on state of water galleries when engine was apart? Some gaskets just go and they are the problem but sometimes they go as a symptom of another problem.
I found a picture of the gasket they removed from her car
Not sure if its easy to see, but there is a bit of a gasket missing in top right part ( around 4th cylinder)
No advice was given to us, we were told it would be good to skim the head so that was done.
Sorry havn't got a stethoscope.
Looks like i will need someone to come and look at it. You are right it's hard to diagnose it over the internet
Tricky pic that. Hard to say if the firing ring went first or the waterway. I've only seen firing rings go on boosted engines or n/a engines (high comp ratio) that have run lean and got hot or from severly sooted up engines where hot spots are present in valve area. You always get a small amount of rusty residue in waterways even with rust inhibitors, it's just one of those things sadly. Gaskets do blow usually if cheap pattern rubbish or through mistreatment of the engine but I've generally found in my limited experience that it's generally just a symptom of a problem elsewhere.
I've recently done a Z12XE Vaux lump where the gasket had blown. Was due to incorrectly torqued head bolts! All waterways/firing rings fine, blew between the multilayers. Engine ran hot, seized the oil rings in two and three and that was that! Bedside table fodder now.
Might be worth whipping the plugs out (paying attention to number 4) and check to see if anything obvious is showing there. Will at least give the next garage a starting point..........
Good luck and sorry that I can't help any further than that.
When things get roasted they are never the same again.
Start looking for a good repacement engine. (Might be hard being a fiat)
Who still uses fiber gaskets these days anyway!
When things get roasted they are never the same again.
Start looking for a good repacement engine. (Might be hard being a fiat)
Who still uses fiber gaskets these days anyway!
I think this maybe the case, oil contaminated, engine cooked. Usually I find the 8valve fiat engines like to drink oil, so if it been used with a low oil level between top-ups/service it all compounds to making it sound like a bag of spammers. (There is a bit if belt noise too, but the main noise is the top end).
An oil pressure gauge may identify that whilst the oil pressure is high enough to keep the light off 3psi ish) it's not enough to lubricate the top end to prevent excessive wear (20psi), the low oil pressure will probably be worn big ends and main bearings leaking out too much oil which starves the top end and tappets of oil as the pump can't meet the demand (it's usually not a pump fault it's just the bearings leaking out too much oil and the pump can't supply more oil that it's designed to provide ).
It the engine equivalent of congestive heart failure. The bottom end won't knock nor will the light come on until the very last stages of the engine's life. Currently it could carry on for quite some time if the oil is kept topped up and changed every now and again - although be warned oil changes can finish off the engine if the new oil is thinner than the old oil.
Of course seek a professional opinion in person who can actually hear the engine running in person, as microphones and compressed MPEG audio on youtube vids can amplify some noises more than others causing a misdiagnosis and wasted money.
Most cars have the ECU in the engine bay. Vauxhall bolt theirs to the engine; the old 1.7 diesels suffering from fractured solder joints as a result of the engine vibrations.
Generally speaking though I've experienced more ECU failures on cars with the ECU located in the footwell or behind the glovebox. Although they are often easier to repair as they easier to break the seals and dissemble. We recently had a spat from a car dealer whose valeter was a bit OTT with the wet vac and not airing out enough afterwards;if the ECU (amongst all the other interior electronics) didn't go for a swim, the humidity would do its best to cause electronic mayhem.
18 July 2015, 07:55 PM
Noisy engine Fiat Panda
