Hi all,
I have just been out for a spirited drive and it’s hot out today. I’ve pulled up and my engine is making this noise. What could be the cause? It’s not doing it when it’s cold. I’ve put oil in so it shouldn’t be that I wouldn’t have thought.
Any thoughts or help?
Slightly random, light weight, but with hints of cyclic,
Myself I would listen to the pulleys the serpentine belt runs around.
A cheap engineers stethoscope is useful for this sort of investigation.
BUT BE VERY CAREFUL and avoid getting caught up in moving parts!!
See lots of helpful posts about this on the forum.
I agree with Richard as a first look see, could be the tensioner pulley, plus you would have a knock from cold if an internal engine noise. Has it been run low on oil or even driven on a low oil level?
Thank you @RichardFX
I’ve just found a video on YouTube of a similar sound and someone says this is normal injector noise on the NC. It is only happening when hot and it doesn’t increase when I rev the engine.
Is this safe to drive?
Hi @MickAP
I’m not sure about historically. I’ve put some in after the drive out this morning though.
How much oil top-up and how did you read the dipstick, engine hot or cold?
I poured in about 500 ml I’d say. I did read the dipstick beforehand and it looked like there was oil in to me. I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to anything technical but I find the dipstick on these a little difficult to read
The NC1 dipstick Is notoriously difficult to read.. I swapped Over to this one.. made life so much easier..
If you register/note your membership you’ll also get a 10% discount but not necessarily straight away
Leave the car overnight then check the oil level again when the engine is cold. Dip a couple of times, the stick can be difficult to read definitely.
Regards the noise, it does sound more like a pulley, only way of knowing is remove the auxiliary belt and start up, briefly run it and listen for the noise.
How many miles on the clock and how long have owned the car?
Fantastic shout I shall do
That’s started up just now after sitting for an hour. No ticking noise at all
That’s good advice @MickAP
I’ve owned it for a few months. It’s been serviced since I owned it.
It’s got 104k on it now.
I’ve never noticed this sound at all until today. By some margin this is the hottest it’s been since I’ve owned it.
Even now after resting it for an hour and restarting it the sound is not there. Odd
That sounds more positive then re the noise. As Richard first thought a pulley could be worn on those miles, I replaced all mine on an 07 plate Sport @ nearly 80k miles, the tensioner pulley was definitely worn, squeaky.
Keep the oil level to the max mark on the stick, check weekly as a routine. Change oil around 5k miles intervals or annually whichever first, keeps them running sweet.
@MickAP thank you.
this might sound like a silly question but how much oil should I put in? Is there a risk I put too much in?
I will speak to a garage about checking the tensioners.
Would you continue to drive it as it is now? I have no technical basis for saying this what so ever but I’d like to as the sun is out and it’s great fun
Around 3mm above the max mark on the dipstick is good and is what I did, much more and it’ll be overfull.
I’d leave the car to warm up first before driving it anywhere, if that noise returns it sounds serious enough to get it checked out, don’t drive it, only to a place for inspection. Having said that, don’t rule out it being an internal engine noise until it’s confirmed otherwise.
@MickAP thank you very much for your help.
Here’s hoping it’s nothing too serious like a bearing or something catastrophic
This might help?
Good luck
Thank you @davidcreswell1 & everyone else. I think I may well have found the culprit. I had the AC regassed on Friday. When I turn the AC off the ticking noise stops.
I don’t know exactly what that means in terms of fixing it but it’s not the engine at least.
If the rattling sound completely goes away when you turn off the air-con, I would be relieved as you are, and would take the car along to an air-conditioning specialist to see what needs to be done.
Good luck
Well it’s suffice to say that this forum is much more positive than Facebook as the common thread on my post there is “Rod Knock” engine kaput.
I’ve just satisfied myself that it’s the air con causing the issue. I left the car to cool for hours then ive taken it for a drive with the air con off and it’s totally normal, no knocking at all. Then I turn the air con on and the knocking starts up.
Definitely not injector noise. I would change the belt, idler and tensioner pulleys if they haven’t already been done. It’s very inexpensive and easy to do yourself with basic tools too. It doesn’t sound exactly like how my pulleys sounded, but it does sound like that type of thing.
If it’s AC-only, then it still might be the pulleys as it’s all on the same belt, but could also be your AC compressor or its clutch on the way out.