Pinking/knocking?

[Legend83]

Hi all

Took a chap out tonight for a test drive and when he accelerated hard there was a rattling sound when the car got up to 4-5k RPM. He instantly said "ooh, that sounds like pinking".

I had no idea what pinking was until he explained, told me it was bad and stated he was not going to buy the car. Embarassing is an understatement

So what should I do to diagnose this further? The car has an M45 Supercharger so am not sure if I can do the standard ignition timing check now? Could it be something else?

Will an "ordinary" garage be able to help?

I want to get this sorted but am conscious of the cost eating into my asking price!

Any advice very welcome.

Ed

[MX-5 Lazza]

What's the setup? Is there anything controlling fuel & timing?
For now I'd just retard the timing until its fixed (yes it can be adjusted).

[Legend83]

Hi Lazza,

EMB is managing the fuel / timing.

Excuse my lack of any technical knowledge but how would one retard the timing? Could any bog standard garage sort this?

[MX-5 Lazza]

As its timing, I would only trust it to someone who knows what they are doing. You can simply retard the base timing the same way you would if it was standard but only as a quick safety measure until the timing could be sorted properly.
Its also possible that the timing is correctly set but another issue is causing fuel starvation. Does your car have a WBO2 sensor and/or an AFR gauge?

[Legend83]

MX-5 Lazza said:

Does your car have a WBO2 sensor and/or an AFR gauge?

I have no idea unfortunately.

Sounds like the best bet is to get someone who knows what they are doing to look at it!

Cheers.