Whistling sound at full throttle
Discussion
I've got a '56 plate Focus 1.8 TDCI, which has done just over 60k miles.
In the last few days I've noticed that at full throttle (accelerating up to speed on joining a DC for example) there is a distinct whistling noise coming from the front. I can best describe it sounding like I've turned the heater fans up a couple of notches. It grows in intensity/volume as I accelerate, so I'm guessing it's a leaking boost hose.
Is it likely to be anything else, and how much should I expect to pay if it is this issue?
The car still drives fine, and acceleration doesn't seem to have dropped off much, if at all.
In the last few days I've noticed that at full throttle (accelerating up to speed on joining a DC for example) there is a distinct whistling noise coming from the front. I can best describe it sounding like I've turned the heater fans up a couple of notches. It grows in intensity/volume as I accelerate, so I'm guessing it's a leaking boost hose.
Is it likely to be anything else, and how much should I expect to pay if it is this issue?
The car still drives fine, and acceleration doesn't seem to have dropped off much, if at all.
Classic Grad 98 said:
It's the intercooler-EGR valve inlet pipe. Common problem. When it started splitting on my mondeo I got a whooshing noise on boost and as it got worse I started noticing misfires, poor economy and loss of power. £51 to DIY fix.
as he said - had the same issue on my mundane - simple test is with the engine off and cold run your hand along the pipework - you will find it as you will feel the split and get the oil-gunk that has blown out allover your handClassic Grad 98 said:
It's the intercooler-EGR valve inlet pipe. Common problem. When it started splitting on my mondeo I got a whooshing noise on boost and as it got worse I started noticing misfires, poor economy and loss of power. £51 to DIY fix.
sounds the same to me too, the whistling noise could just be air escaping as one of the pipe connections may have come loose, best thing is to have an indy look through the system first to see if this is the case, if the leak is minor then I suppose there may not be significant power loss, do you remember "knocking" the car anywhere which may have caused a pipe to come loose or split e.g. going to quickly over a speed bump!
Classic Grad 98 said:
It's the intercooler-EGR valve inlet pipe. Common problem. When it started splitting on my mondeo I got a whooshing noise on boost and as it got worse I started noticing misfires, poor economy and loss of power. £51 to DIY fix.
Ahh, that makes sense. Economy hasn't been great over the last 500 miles, and performance isn't exactly a strong point for the car anyway, so I may not have noticed a drop over time. Cheers for all the replies!
I'd make sure you rule out a blow in the exhaust system before you start throwing money at anything. I recently had a blowing downpipe/cat joint on my Civic Type R, inaudible at idle, could not be heard when revving in neutral until the car was on a ramp in a garage with a mechanic directly underneath it, but made a strange whooshing, whistling noise on wider throttle openings high in the rev range.
If its a boost leak and if it gets worse youll get a drop in power and probably poor economy. But a boost leak itself probably won't cause any other proper harm I wouldn't have thought. Its definitely worth getting your head under the bonnet to see of you can find it for the sake of changing a plastic boost pipe, anyone can do that if it's accessible!
No particular urgency, so long as you can put up with it! The split will reveal itself on close inspection by the fine mist of oil which gets out and goes all over bits of engine bay/radiator etc. Can be quite hard to spot because the split tends to occur on a bent bit of hose.
Re: fitting- must be less than 0.5 hours for a proper mechanic, it took me nearly an hour by the time I'd removed the engine bay undertray, headlight and grille for access (Mondeo).
Re: fitting- must be less than 0.5 hours for a proper mechanic, it took me nearly an hour by the time I'd removed the engine bay undertray, headlight and grille for access (Mondeo).
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