Is this a normal engine sound?

[Sheik Jabooti]

Hi,

I have been trying to get to the bottom of a false knocking problem which you may have noticed through several posts around the place. Not sure if it's a faulty sensor or an engine that is fubar'd. It's only done 40k and isn't driven that hard (normally). Regularly serviced, etc. Also note that under rev's it's fine (no pinging and no thumping...just faster ticking).

Anyway just wanted to compare my engine sound with others. I have posted a link below to a short snippet of a warm start. There's lots of ticking but I've been told this is standard Subaru boxer noise. Note that I put the camera-phone inside the engine bay for a clearer sound...so it is definitely louder on the video than when you stand back from the car. You'll notice as I pan across the engine it's not as loud as when the microphone is 15cm away from the block.

Any feedback appreciated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4TTpAY ... ata_player

[Robbks]

just sounds like injectors to me.
normal.

[Nottage969]

I have an identical sound on my 2.5L N/A, which i always thought was the headers/tappets ticking away. It's nowhere near as loud though, and once warm it tends to disappear. I think this video has made me rest a little easier...

[Sheik Jabooti]

just sounds like injectors to me.
normal.

So are noisy injectors are problem and is there any fix?

I have an identical sound on my 2.5L N/A, which i always thought was the headers/tappets ticking away. It's nowhere near as loud though, and once warm it tends to disappear. I think this video has made me rest a little easier...

Glad my noisy car makes your's sound better! Vid is probably louder 'cos I stuck the phonecam inside the engine bay. It's not as bad standing in front of the car as you'll hear in the vid as I pan over the top of the engine.

[bass_straitener]

Considering the oil is fairly new, I think it does sound too noisy for my liking.

Have you taken it to Subaru to listen to it, and what's their opinion?

Why has XRT told you to get rid of the car?

I noticed you are experienced with Romraider and possibly Learning View. How have the LV screenshots looked?

[Sheik Jabooti]

Considering the oil is fairly new, I think it does sound too noisy for my liking.

Have you taken it to Subaru to listen to it, and what's their opinion?

Why has XRT told you to get rid of the car?

I noticed you are experienced with Romraider and possibly Learning View. How have the LV screenshots looked?

XRT I guess only has the logging to go by; He basically sees knock he can't tune out so reckons there is something majorly wrong. Matt from Kido thought otherwise...hence my confusion.

As for Subaru, I spoke to their mechanic on the phone and he didn't seem to be too clued up...sounded like he just got out of school But worth driving by I guess for a third opinion.

I'll post a learning view I guess...though I'm very knew to this tuning malarcky. This is what got me to notice this weird problem in the first place. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

[zch91]

My old EJ20 NA used to make that noise.. Never skipped a beat

[bass_straitener]

My old EJ20 NA used to make that noise.. Never skipped a beat

Big difference.

Tuned car, with extra boost, extra timing, and leaned out fueling to generate power.

And this is a car with 40,000kms only.

I'll reserve judgement till I see a current Learning View screenshot showing IAM at 1.00 and no FLKC.

[Sheik Jabooti]

My old EJ20 NA used to make that noise.. Never skipped a beat

Big difference.

Tuned car, with extra boost, extra timing, and leaned out fueling to generate power.

And this is a car with 40,000kms only.

I'll reserve judgement till I see a current Learning View screenshot showing IAM at 1.00 and no FLKC.

Actually all this is on the stock ROM/tune. Flashed back to simplify the issue at hand. Even added octane boost with no change in the knock sensing.

And I can tell you without a LV, that the IAM gets as low as 0.5 on the stock ROM. (Watched it work it's way back up to 1.0 on the weekend). This is because the knock sensor is going off at around 2000rpm, hence my hunt for the root cause.

[bass_straitener]

The stock rom has IAM initial as 0.5 with it climbing to 1.00 if all happiness conditions for the engine are met.

Is the knock your seeing knock sum, FBKC, FLKC or IAM dropping.

If your IAM is climbing to 1.00 then you should feel a bit better.

Would you have a LV of your XRT tune and your current stock map reloaded.

Would be interesting to see any differences.

[3rspecb]

Wow, that's pretty loud. Hope it can be sorted..

[Robbks]

here's some knocking from a 40k km old engine

still nothing wrong, just really sh!tty clearances in an EJ20R

http://youtu.be/UIZiJCMwGRo

yours may be some valvetrain noise that's setting off the knock sensor
i'd try the rubber washer trick or relocate it to the TMIC bracket to desensitise the knock sensor and do more logging.

but to me that just sounds like normal injector noise or slightly noisy/ rattly pistons
EJ205 in my old forester had a bit of piston slap, was an issue with short piston skirts in those engines, there's still lots of them making 180KW+ ATW everyday

[Sheik Jabooti]

The stock rom has IAM initial as 0.5 with it climbing to 1.00 if all happiness conditions for the engine are met.

Interesting, I didn't know that. I assumed it started at 1 and went from there.

Is the knock your seeing knock sum, FBKC, FLKC or IAM dropping.

Predominantly FBKC, sometimes in FLKC, although I don't know how it got in there as I didn't get any FBKC in the same area? After some time I will also see a drop in IAM. Again, this is only around 2000rpm not on boost.

If your IAM is climbing to 1.00 then you should feel a bit better.

Until it starts to retard again

Would you have a LV of your XRT tune and your current stock map reloaded.
Would be interesting to see any differences.

I'll post the stock LV tonight. Haven't got an XRT one...though I do have 000's of lines of logs.

[Nottage969]

just sounds like injectors to me.
normal.

I have an identical sound on my 2.5L N/A, which i always thought was the headers/tappets ticking away. It's nowhere near as loud though, and once warm it tends to disappear. I think this video has made me rest a little easier...

Glad my noisy car makes your's sound better! Vid is probably louder 'cos I stuck the phonecam inside the engine bay. It's not as bad standing in front of the car as you'll hear in the vid as I pan over the top of the engine.

Me too, cheers! Yeah i understand that, but it's obviously going to be noisier if you put your head/ears near the source of the sound.. I always thought it was related to my oil, as with new oil it tended to be noticeably louder. Also on a cold start. But i could be completely wrong.

My old EJ20 NA used to make that noise.. Never skipped a beat

Pleased to hear this also Not so bothered anymore




Good luck with your hunt, will continue to read updates on this thread

[bass_straitener]

Agree a sound clip on the internet is no way to make any sort of accurate diagnosis.

And yes it could be that the engine is completely fine and it's just the way the clip was made.

The IAM dropping below 1.00 is still a sign of something not being 100% right.

Suggestions have been put forward to either get some knock muffs or knock link connected and monitoring of the engine at that RPM should occur.

It may simply be a knock sensor issue or any of the myriad of reasons for the sensor to think it's detecting knock.

I would start by checking everything that could register false knock and once done replace the knock sensor and see how you go.

There's plenty of info on RR on knock and false knock. I'm sure you've read your way through the info there.

You're probably going to have spend a bit of money determining if this knock or false knock.

If you can't get your hands on a knock link or knock muffs then I'd probably check everything I could to ensure there isn't anything in the vicinity that could impact the sensor and following that replace the sensor and see how you go.