What causes the clicking sound from engine during climbing?

[Virtuoso]

Good lord, if you need new plugs/wires/PCV at 17k, your car has some problems. It's not even 2 years old!

Edit: Arent you still covered by a factory warranty? Perhaps the dealer could check it out for you (sacrilege I know) if you think it's bad enough.

[ September 08, 2004, 10:43 AM: Message edited by: Virtuoso ]

 

[sifan]

Yeah, I agree with you. That is why I suspect the problem has more to do with carbon deposits. I replaced the PCV valve purely for maintenance reason. I read from another forum that recommends its replacement every 10-12k miles.

 

[QuadDriver]

quote:

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Originally posted by sifan:
The clicking sound becomes more frequent after I drained and replaced the coolant in the radiator last weekend. It is more noticeable in the hot afternoon even under normal acceleration than in the cool morning. Will there possibily be air boubles in the radiator with simple drain and refill? After refilling the radiator with fresh coolant I just put the radiator cap back and ran the engine to operating temperature.

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quote:

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If you have a failing thermostat or any impediment in the cooling system, cylinder head temps will suffer the most, and on an extreme moment (such as a climb) you will hear a ping

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Possible trapped air counts as an inpediment.

 

[sifan]

How do I get the boubles out of the cooling system? Won't the boubles escape into the coolant overflow tank?

 

[edhackett]

sifan states: "I often hear a faint clicking sound from the engine as it labors to accelerate uphill." and "If I step on the gas pedal harder, the clicking sound persists and the car does not go any faster."

You are inducing detonation by driving the car in too high of a gear(lugging the engine). If your vehicle will not accelerate in the gear you are running, shift down a gear.

When you place too much load on the engine cylinder pressures skyrocket, sometimes to the point of detonation.

Ed

 

[mjo]

>Where can you buy the Sea Foam? I bought a can >of throttle body cleaner by BG from a Toyota >dealer. It should work as well, right?

Not sure if the throttle body cleaner can be used unless they say to feed it into the TB while the car is running. You should be able to purchase Sea Foam from several automotive parts stores in your area (bought mine from Carquest). Remember, Keep PCV valve connected to throttle body and pull it out of valve cover.

 

[sifan]

QuadDriver - Thanks for your input. It turns out there is air in my radiator. I top off the radiator with a pint of 50% coolant. Now the detonation is back to normal which only occurs at extremely short duration during hill climbing.

The LC/FP arrived yesterday. I added 4 oz of FP during refuel this morning to treat 10-gal tank. It is too early to tell how effective FP is. I will clean the throttle body this weekend if weather allows. I will add LC to the oil this weekend when the toilet paper of Frantz bypass filter is due for replacement.

My car is equipped with an automatic transmission. When I hear the detonation, I just ease up the gas pedal so not to push the engine too hard.

 

[sifan]

>Remember, Keep PCV valve connected to throttle body and pull it out of valve cover.

I assume "Keep PCV valve connected to throttle body" means to leave PCV valve the way it is on the engine. Not quite sure what you meant by "pull it out of valve cover". Did you remove the throttle body off the engine to clean it?

The instrucation of my throttle body cleaner says to use it while engine is running.

 

[BlazerLT]

quote:

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Originally posted by sifan:
>Remember, Keep PCV valve connected to throttle body and pull it out of valve cover.

I assume "Keep PCV valve connected to throttle body" means to leave PCV valve the way it is on the engine. Not quite sure what you meant by "pull it out of valve cover". Did you remove the throttle body off the engine to clean it?

The instrucation of my throttle body cleaner says to use it while engine is running.

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Is your car a 5spd or automatic?

Are downshifting properly or are you lugging the engine up the hill?

Those engines need their revs for power, it sounds like you are lugging your engine in too high of a gear to me.

 

[sifan]

It is equipped with AT. Maybe I should turn off the overdrive while climbing the hills.

 

[Bill in Utah]

I think with a car that still is in Warrenty (2003 with 17k miles) the last thing I'd be doing is *anything*.

Your Oil and OCI are overkill. (So it's not that)

Your running a "top tier" Fuel. (So it's not that)

You should NOT have to do anything to a outfit like clean carbon, PCV replacement or such with 17k.

Take it to the stealer and let them fix it. (and trust me as someone with a 05 Toyota, thats the last place I'd want to go..

)

BUT, if the outfit has a problem, it's their problem!

Just my 3 cents... Bill

 

[Ramblin Fever]

I would - turn off the overdrive when climbing a hill. You can easily cook an auto tranny if you leave it in too high of gear.

 

[eljefino]

When you swapped your coolant the first time, did you refill with exactly 50/50 premix?

60% coolant/40% water is great in the yukon but doesn't transfer heat as well. Heat = pinging as you noticed by being underfilled. Even if your temp gauge is in the same place you can get localized hot spots with the wrong coolant mix.

 

[Vikas]

Why did you change the coolant on a new car with less than 17K? Aren't OEM coolants now good for 5yrs/150K miles these days?

Even in old days, one never had to replace coolant at least until 30K or 45K.

- Vikas

 

[Jim 5]

Top Tier gas or not....87 octane is pretty low. I had a car in decent condition that pinged like crazy on it's recommended fuel of 87 octane when I did a road trip to Vegas. If it's really hot out, cars tend towards detonation more. All I did was run 91 octane while I was in weather over 100, and the pinging went away. When I left vegas for more reasonable temps, I continued to run 87 octane and the pinging never returned.

If you want to find out if the sound you're hearing is pinging/detonation, wait till your tank is empty and go buy a gallon or two of 91 octane or higher (the highest you can get). Now take it out on the highway and try to make the sound happen again. If the noise goes away with this gas, you know you were hearing pinging. Now go back to the gas station and fill the rest of your tank with 87 octane and use some techron and or fuel power (or anything Terry Dyson suggests to clean the carbon inside your engine).

It may be worthwhile to ask your dealer why you have a carbon problem at 17k miles.

 

[Willy_G]

I just skimmed this, but try a lower gear.

I don't think you need to tear down the engine or run rocket fuel. Get the RPMs up a bit and you may be fine.

 

[sifan]

Toyota recommends coolant replacement every 30k miles in the owner's manual. Since I am not going to replace/flush all the coolant, I do a partial coolant replacement by only draining the coolant in the radiator every 15k miles.

The clicking sound turns out to be engine pinging. I cleaned the upper intake with Sea Foam followed by Techron treament every 2-3k miles. The pinging is all gone now.

 

[TxGreaseMonkey]

Installing colder running plugs from the same OEM should get rid of the ping.