Hi all,
I'm the owner of a 1994 Chevrolet Cavalier with a 2.2l 4 cyl engine,
130k miles. For a couple of weeks now I have noticed a weird sound
coming from my engine compartment while idling. The best way that I
can describe it is as sort of a mechanical "kakakakakakak..." sound, a
bit similar to how it would sound if it were low on oil (which it seems
to consume somewhat heavily now). When I rev the engine past what I'd
guess to be around 1800-2000rpm (I don't have a tach) the sound seems
to go away, and the vehicle is still perfectly drivable, with no
noteable vibration or stuttering. I've been on track with regular oil
changes, and all other maintainence is up to date. Upgrading to a
higher grade of gas (87 to 89 octane) does seems to help to a certain
degree, but the sound does remain..
Anyone ever encounter anything like this? My instinct would be
pushrods or lifters, but like I said performance doesn't seem to be
adversely affected to a degree that would lend me to believe it's
something this severe...
news - 20 Nov 2006 19:18 GMT
> Hi all,
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> adversely affected to a degree that would lend me to believe it's
> something this severe...
could be noisy fuel injectors. My wife's Beretta has them, sounds
almost like noisy lifters. You could do the screwdriver to the ear
trick to isolate the noise...
Other questions to help diagnosis: Does engine temperature change it?
Does it get better/worse as the car warms up?
Ray
nipracw@yahoo.com - 20 Nov 2006 20:43 GMT
> could be noisy fuel injectors. My wife's Beretta has them, sounds
> almost like noisy lifters. You could do the screwdriver to the ear
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> Ray
The temperature, from as best I can tell, seems to have absolutely no
affect on the noise. I'll start her up cold, let her idle until it
reaches operating temperature, the chattering doesn't go away. I then
drive a solid hour to work, all highway, and when I get there the same
sound continues. Hot days, cold days, same thing.
The only things that seems to effect the chatter are the grade of gas,
and revving the engine (when I do this the sound seems to pick up in
frequency, until I hit somewhere in the 1800-2000 rpm range, at which
point it all but goes away).
I think I'm going to do the screwdriver to ear trick when I go home,
and perhaps try pulling one plug wire at a time to see if I can isolate
the sound to a cylinder. I was thinking that it could possibly be bad
injectors, or maybe even an exhaust manifold leak, but if either one of
those are the culprit then the oil consumption has me stumped...
Edward Strauss - 23 Nov 2006 07:46 GMT
> Hi all,
> I'm the owner of a 1994 Chevrolet Cavalier with a 2.2l 4 cyl engine,
> 130k miles. For a couple of weeks now I have noticed a weird sound
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> higher grade of gas (87 to 89 octane) does seems to help to a certain
> degree, but the sound does remain..
> Anyone ever encounter anything like this? My instinct would be
> pushrods or lifters, but like I said performance doesn't seem to be
> adversely affected to a degree that would lend me to believe it's
> something this severe...
This engine uses a timing chain tensioner. A worn one can make a similiar noise.