engine rattle

[SEAN-NZ]

Car seems to have developed a bad rattle, sounds like its from drivers side of engine, drove it today, noise didnt start till the engine was nice and hot, but would go quiet again at around 27-2800 rpm, everytime and come back at that rpm, thats what it was like on this drive, last time i started it before this drive it was noisy from start up, time before that, went away at higher rpms like today, have been having issues with it overheating on idle the last few months, but i dont really drive it much due to fuel so it hasnt been very high in the to do list, figured it was an easy fix like thermostat or a hard fix, like water pump. back to the rattle though, it doesnt sound like lifters usually do, its louder, lower pitch and more frequent, have a video that shows it fairly accurately, definitely doesnt make it sound worse than it is though, oil level is good, took off aux belts to see if it was possibly a bearing for a pulley, but made no difference

[Nick Mann]

Could it still be the water pump?

[SEAN-NZ]

I hope not, I think, depends on what options are worse, that was something I was thinking due to the overheating, although I forgot to say, the dash gauge says its overheating, aftermarket gauge doesn't get over 100, so I don't know which ones right, it's been doing it since I got it back on the road when the front diff blew, I don't really want to do water pump because of my lack of knowledge on how to do it


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[SEAN-NZ]

Also, with the tune it's had, it has cel on knock, which is going nuts at lower rpms, while the noise is present if I do anything more than breath on the throttle


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[Davezj]

I find an auto motive stethoscope is useful for tracking down rattles, you can get them eBay for about £5. It just lets you get to the parts a listening screw driver can not get to.

Have you taken any if the pulleys off in the past?

If the bolt that hold the pulleys on have come loose then the pulleys can rattle at different rpms.
Then there are the timing belt pulleys and water pump pulley the bearings in any of these can fail and rattle.

Personally I would remove the alternator belt and power steering belt and run the car to see if the rattle is still there. Then you can narrow down you search.
If the noise goes away you know it is something to do with the aux belt which is no great issue.

Also if it is an auto., I have had the bolts that hold the torque converter to the engine flex plate cone loose and that rattles like hell at idle it is particularly bad when power is applied and removed with the throttle.
These just required the correct locktite being applied which I had forgotten to do when installing the bolts.


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[Davezj]

If by over heating you mean the dash temp gauge goes up to the top of the scale into the red while the after market temp gauge say only 100c , then I would change the dash coolant temp sensor it is the single wire sensor they are pretty universal. Cost a couple a quid and see if it make a difference.
I would have said the coolant temp should be at about 120c before the dash temp gauge goes into the red.


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[SEAN-NZ]

It's only made it close to the red once, I always give it a few more revs in time to bring it back down, already took off aux belts to see if those pulleys where at fault, unfortunately they weren't, it's doesn't appear that ican get behind the cam belt cover without taking off the pulley for the aux belts as the last bolt for the cover is behind it


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[Davezj]

yes the main crank pulley has to come off to get the bottom of the plastic cover off.

[SEAN-NZ]

so im finally doing something about this issue, sort of, got a spare engine sitting, but then i thought to myself, how to the bearings and crank look, so i took all that stuff off, and took some pics, what do you guys reckon? drop the replacement engine in, or try and replace the bearings, can the ones between the crank and block be changed without removing the crank?

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these to are from the 2 middle rods
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