V8 Vantage intermittent engine noise

[lestrat]

Good evening all,

Today I payed more attention to a noise which I think was already present since I bought the car.

The noise you will be looking for in the following videos is an intermittent ticking noise, which seems to come from the front end of the engine in both sides (but I could be wrong on the location).

My car only makes this noise when fully warmed up and only in idle; rev it a bit and the noise seems to disappear.

To me it sounds like timing chain, but any hints are really welcome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHq0wUOSJs4&ab...

In this second video the noise ir more noticeable towards the end, around 20s onwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzL35G7XxBM&ab...

Oil and all other fluids were renewed in september last year, they have no more than 500km.

The noise is almost identical to the one described in this M3 forum:
https://www.m3post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=116...

Thank you.

Edited by lestrat on Saturday 6th February 21:26

Edited by lestrat on Saturday 6th February 21:28

Edited by lestrat on Saturday 6th February 21:32

Edited by lestrat on Saturday 6th February 21:37

[milu]

I haven’t a clue really but it sounds outside the engine to me not internal. Sounds thin like exhaust metal rather than a hard knock.
No help that is it ....

[lestrat]

Well, your perception is actually one of the causes of that noise pointed out in the M3 forum; so it well could be, although I was unable to find any heatshield or metal piece which could be loose and causing this noise.

[chris9682]

Can you narrow the noise down to a specific area of the engine?
ie inlet manifold or underneath the engine?

[Dewi 2]

I cannot help very much, but think there might be one clue.
It is a random interval, intermittant metallic tap sound. That must eliminate quite a few possibles, which would create a continuous, or regular sound.

[LTP]

Really odd noise. It doesn't have the hollow, tinny sound of a heatshield and its certainly not regular or revs-related.

It sounds like quite a hard tick - have you actually tried touching the various bits of the car in and around the engine bay to see if you can feel the tick when it happens, rather than just listening for it? That might narrow it down a bit, but I appreciating touching a hot manifold isn't necessarily on the cards.

[lestrat]

I have sourced one of those endoscope cameras that can be connected to the phone, and also a mechanics stethoscope.

Hopefully I will have them next weekend and can trace a bit better where the noise is coming from.

I have also found a video with a similar noise in youtube (in a completely unrelated car, a diesel BMW), and the owner told me that his noise was coming from the alternator pulley.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6dMJi5QugU

Although an issue with the belt/pulley would not explain why it only happens when the engine is warm.

Edited by lestrat on Sunday 7th February 21:35

[NickXX]

Have you tried turning the air conditioning off to rule out the compressor clutch trying to kick in?

[lestrat]

Yes, the videos were made with the AC off.

[dalecan]

Sounds like something is trying to switch on/off, some type of solenoid.

[andyvvc]

Are you certain the AC is off? Mine has an occasional weird habit of the AC being ON when i start the car . . . even though the light on the button is off! If i press the button it lights up (AC stays on). If i press it again the AC actually turns off.

[andymadmak]

if you turn off all the lights in the garage can you see any arcing? It sounds like electrical discharge?

[lestrat]

I spent a couple of mornings further investigating the problem.

Checking with the stethoscope I could discard the noise coming from the upper part of the engine. Noise is surely not coming from the timing chain, nor from the cilinder heads or head covers. I have also checked every injector, which also be discarded.

Using the stethoscope in the bottom end of the engine, I could hear the noise both when putting it against the oil pan (slightly muted) and against the torque tube bell (slightly louder, but could just be subjective).

The noise happens both with the clutch pressed and depressed.

These are my suspicions now:
- Flywheel/clutch case clashing against something
- Exhaust leak (as it only happens when the car is fully warmed, and because the exhaust manifold needed to be removed to do the clutch job)
- Exhaust insulation / metal pieces rattling
- Rattling catalytic converter internals (disintegrated)
- Piston slap (hope not)

andymadmak said:

if you turn off all the lights in the garage can you see any arcing? It sounds like electrical discharge?

I didn't notice, the garage is not dark enough to be able to see anything, but this could well be a clue to further investigate.

andyvvc said:

Are you certain the AC is off? Mine has an occasional weird habit of the AC being ON when i start the car . . . even though the light on the button is off! If i press the button it lights up (AC stays on). If i press it again the AC actually turns off.

I have tried it again, ensuring that the AC was off, and switching from on to off several times. The noise takes place both with the AC on and off.

dalecan said:

Sounds like something is trying to switch on/off, some type of solenoid.

Tried to search for anything able to cause a noise of this type, with no luck.

NickXX said:

Have you tried turning the air conditioning off to rule out the compressor clutch trying to kick in?

Yes I did. The noise is present with both the AC on and off.

Edited by lestrat on Sunday 28th February 14:21

Edited by lestrat on Sunday 28th February 21:06

[Dewi 2]

To OP.

This might be nonsense and nothing to do with your noise, but I will just mention something as a distant possibility.

Something which can make a noise and is probably also located lower down in the engine, is what I think is called a scavenge pump.
Some cars have noisy scavenge pumps, which are a nuisance rather than a fault, although that noise is fairly regular and only heard at tickover, so probably different from your intermittent noise circumstances.

Hope you can resolve the problem.

[Speedraser]

Dewi 2 said:

To OP.

This might be nonsense and nothing to do with your noise, but I will just mention something as a distant possibility.

Something which can make a noise and is probably also located lower down in the engine, is what I think is called a scavenge pump.
Some cars have noisy scavenge pumps, which are a nuisance rather than a fault, although that noise is fairly regular and only heard at tickover, so probably different from your intermittent noise circumstances.

Hope you can resolve the problem.

Bamford Rose mentions the oil scavenge pump noise in this video starting at 4:30. He says it's most common in early 4.7 engines, but might be worth pursuing. He also says it's not something that will fail -- it's just noisy. There are some videos of the sound on this forum, which might be worth a search.
I don't know if the link is working, but here it is:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&a...

[lestrat]

I had discarded the noise coming from the scavenge pump, as it seems to be quite a different noise.

I read somewhere a funny and accurate description of it being similar to the scream of a Wookie

[Ge9rgepi]

Any update to your Vantage V8 rattling? I
My 2015 Vantage V8 GT just started making this exact noise last week. We're stumped. Only 21k miles.
Thanks
George

[Ge9rgepi]

Ge9rgepi said:

Any update to your Vantage V8 rattling? I
My 2015 Vantage V8 GT just started making this exact noise last week. We're stumped. Only 21k miles.
Thanks
George

[GT1 Builder]

I had exactly this problem with my 2006 Vantage.

After a lot of head scratching and a new EGR valve as I narrowed the sound down to the front top of the engine, it eventually turned out to be the throttle body butterfly valve sticking to the body a bit when on tickover.

The engine management was cracking the throtle open to keep revs constant so it would then shut the butterfly again, and so it continues pinging most times the butterfly needs to open a bit.

Only happens at tickover with engine up to temperature as the butterfly is open a bit for faster idle on warmup, so it doesn't do it until fully up to temperature.

If you take the air box feed off of the front of the throttle body you might find a little bit of oil at the bottom of the throttle body. If the car has been standing for a while, say over winter, that little bit of oil turns really sticky so it grabs the butterfly a bit.

Also, on mine there was a tiny burr in the aluminium of the throttle body, so a good clean with carbureter cleaner and a light rub with some fine emery cloth and problem solved.

Been no problem since about 4 years now.

Hope this is your issue and it help solve it for you. Got to be the cheapest fix on a Aston Martin ever.

Cheers

Mike

[V8V Quadcamboy]

Sounds poss PCV or EVAP to me.