Very strange noise!

[Wildhound]

I noticed this for the first time yesterday and it seems a bit more prominent today. A very odds almost rattly noise coming from the engine when I rev. It seems to get worse from 1500 to 4000 revs and then mysteriously stops.

It happens whether in gear or out and whether moving or stationary. It sounds sort of like tappets but a lot louder and rougher.

It's difficult to explain but it doesn't sound healthy at all and it has me very worried (afraid to drive the car in case it's serious). Any ideas what it might be?

[johnny]

dont mean to alarm you but sounds like the cam belt tensioner is shagged....

If so, your timing belt will be literally hopping up and down....very likely to hop off and ruin your engine!!!!

My advice would be to stop driving it and get a mechanic to have a look at it....straight away!

[Wildhound]

Crap, dunno how I'll get to work in the morning!

[mark]

This probably isn't the cause but recently I had a similar sounding problem at 115-125kms on the motorway, strange rattling type noise that was affected when I accelerated, drove me nuts.
Anyway, I found a heat shield on the exhaust near the cat had come lose, tightened it up and all well. Bit of a long shot for you I know

[colm_mcm]

I think Wildhound has found out what the problem is

[Wildhound]

Hehe, cheers mark, I wish that's all it was. Unfortunately the small end bearing on one of the pistons is on it's way out and essentially the whole engine's nackered.

Never heard of this happen to an FTO before, I'm the lucky lottery winner!

[mark]

A sh"te, that's really unfortunate man. Hope you get things sorted as quickly and cheaply as possible. If the rest of the car is in good shape bodywise, hold on to it and get an engine otherwise, I'd let it go as it may give you more grief in the future, best of luck

[CJ]

Wildhound, of interest, did you let the oil level go low? How often did you change the oil and filter and what grade did you use?

CJ

[Wildhound]

Oil and filters were changed 5000 miles ago, along with the timing belt and some other things (have receipts from previous owner) and the oil level is still max. He used Castrol GTX.

There was actually some oil on the outside of the engine once and I posted a thread about it since I was worried. Since then I've checked the oil almost every two days so it definitely never went low! In the end I think it was just a spillage since it never reappeared.

I have absolutely no clue what could have caused this... I'm not even a hard driver. Rarely even touch Mivec. Maybe it'll suddenly start happening to all 12/13 year old FTOs.

[CJ]

Maybe it'll suddenly start happening to all 12/13 year old FTOs.

Lets hope not! THE 6A12 is a very reliable engine ordinarily, seems you just got unlucky this time around

CJ

[Wildhound]

Seems so! I'm looking at it as a learning experience anyway as per my other thread in the For Sale section. In a few months time hopefully I'll have an engine in the car that I'm 110% sure of and I can enjoy my car for years to come.