Rattles - should I be concerned?

[SW_Rob]

Hi all

Owned the car a couple of weeks now and loving it . Just a couple of concerning noises from the engine bay.

One rattle sounds like it is at the top of the engine so I initially though it was the manifold but this was replaced in September according to the service history. This rattle is always there and does change speed along with the engine. You cant hear it when inside the car.

A second rattle/ noise is audible when in the car and on the lower passenger side of the engine bay, its like an occasional loose nut rattley noise, possibley gerabox area?

Any clues or just normal noises?

Cheers

Rob

[joust]

Check the heatshields over the turbos. They often rattle.

J

[NickyTwoHats]

Justin - do you think he should check the heatshields? :-)
N2H

[Naso Grande]

Is there an echo in here?

[joust]

Yes, and what?

J

[AMG Merc]

Lube the belts with a little silcon spray too.

[NobleGuy]

Are you running a standard exhaust? The silencer used to rattle on mine until I gave it a good whallop with my hammer. Then the rattle appeared on the drivers side, until I gave it a good whallop with my hammer. Then the rattle came back again and the hammmer no longer worked.....

Got a second hand silencer from JNM which hasn't made a noise since fitted. Did notice my old box had only minimal internals, so I'm not sure if it was 'adjusted' aftermarket to be a bit louder or if the older boxes just came like that. New one is definitely quiter .

[sean_goodman]

SW_Rob said:

Hi all

Owned the car a couple of weeks now and loving it . Just a couple of concerning noises from the engine bay.

One rattle sounds like it is at the top of the engine so I initially though it was the manifold but this was replaced in September according to the service history. This rattle is always there and does change speed along with the engine. You cant hear it when inside the car.

A second rattle/ noise is audible when in the car and on the lower passenger side of the engine bay, its like an occasional loose nut rattley noise, possibley gerabox area?

Any clues or just normal noises?

Cheers

Rob

think you are just gonna have to have a poke about mate, turbo shield is a good tip, front turbo shield is easy to see from the top, mine needs a new bracket making as well

get the engine running and poke about and listen should not be hard to track down, let us know how you get on

[SW_Rob]

Quick update:

I have checked everything that is easy to get to including the belts and heat shield and all are ok but I still have the rattle.
It is just like tappets I had on my elise K-series but I see from preivous posts this doesnt happen often, if at all with Noble engines.

I have listened from as many angles as possible and it definitely sounds like the top of the engine and changes as you change the throttle. Its not very loud (you cant notice it when driving) but definitely can as soon as your out of the car. It also seems quite a bit louder when hot.

Any more ideas?

Thanks

Rob

[peterguk V6 KWK]

Are you 100% sure its not a blowing/cracked manifold or gasket?

[MadMacMcMad]

If it's a standard un-gusseted manifold, I would not be surprised if it's had it.
Both mine went after about 10K miles. You get a ticking noise that gets louder as the engine warms and the gap gets better. It's very difficult to prove unless you take the manifold off. It it's the front, which went first on my car, it can be a bh to get off and you will need a pit or be able to lift the car up.

Edited by MadMacMcMad on Monday 3rd March 21:00

[node]

SW_Rob said:

Quick update:

I have checked everything that is easy to get to including the belts and heat shield and all are ok but I still have the rattle.
It is just like tappets I had on my elise K-series but I see from preivous posts this doesnt happen often, if at all with Noble engines.

I have listened from as many angles as possible and it definitely sounds like the top of the engine and changes as you change the throttle. Its not very loud (you cant notice it when driving) but definitely can as soon as your out of the car. It also seems quite a bit louder when hot.

Any more ideas?

Thanks

Rob

Hi Rob,

I had an issue with tappets towards the end of last year. It can happen to almost any engine. All it usually takes is a small amount of cr*p floating around in the oil to clog up a tappet which prevents it from following the camshaft profile. You should firstly ask your local dealer to go ahead and do an oil flush to try and dislodge the clogged tappet which might work (It did not work for me though)

An oil flush will loosen up some debris, so if i were you, go ahead soon with the oil flush to make sure any loose pieces get clogged up in your old tappets, then replace the old tappets with new ones.

Tappets cost something around 20 pounds each but the labour may make your eyes water, are you under warranty?

George

Edited by node on Monday 3rd March 21:08

[node]

Yes this fixed the problem.

What you described was very similar to what happened to mine. When i started the engine up from cold, there was very little tapping noise but as the engine warmed up, the ticking became more noticeable.

[SW_Rob]

Thanks all for the pointer. Looks like its down to three possibilites: manifold, gasket or tappets.

I dont want to end up paying a garage several hours labour to investigate this, what would you guys recommend as the best route of investigating it myself?

[node]

is there anyway you can record the sound of your engine and post the file online?

[SW_Rob]

Should be able to. I`ll give it a go this evening.

Rob

[Jim O.]

SW_Rob said:

I dont want to end up paying a garage several hours labour to investigate this, what would you guys recommend as the best route of investigating it myself?

Try using a mechanic's stethoscope to isolate the noise. If you don't have a stethoscope, you can try using a long screwdriver to listen to parts of the engine until you've located the source of the noise.

Jim

[AMG Merc]

Jim O. said:

SW_Rob said:

I dont want to end up paying a garage several hours labour to investigate this, what would you guys recommend as the best route of investigating it myself?

Try using a mechanic's stethoscope to isolate the noise. If you don't have a stethoscope, you can try using a long screwdriver to listen to parts of the engine until you've located the source of the noise.

Jim

... or a piece of garden hose or similar.

[NobleGuy]

Mine rattles in the area of the plenum. Guessing that means the tappets are on their way out, but hopefully not in a nail-bomb kind of way.

[node]

NobleGuy said:

Mine rattles in the area of the plenum

correct, my ticking came from there too, the side nearest to the seats. If you catch it early on you'll be ok. If you keep letting it tick/rattle it'll wear out your camshaft profile prematurely