Reward Offered - Help me diagnose a Clunking/Knocking noise from Satan

[doobs]

I've had alot of issues with stub axles on my ST162... You said you have replaced the wheel bearings, was there any play in the wheel hub? Jack the car up and try wobble the wheel, if its not soild, theres your problem.

[Norbie]

thats a rod

the rest of your story, in particular the 'stops when i apply the brake' bit, also goes with rod knock

QFT. I've had an engine with rod knock and the symptoms were the same.

[airfireman1]

Do you have access to a dyno machine, if you can get it on one for half an hour you can strap it down and operate the car as if it was on the road. the difference is you can have the bonnet open and walk around the car to listen for where the knock is comming from.
It shouldnt cost much since you are not doing any tuning, just an engine run.
Cheers

[mr_unix]

Cheers Owen

Yeah yeah. I was rushing when typing, jeez we got some grammar Nazi's here.

Btw, remember to capitalise after a full stop o_man_23.

[Ghetto-Spec .:bayka:.]

Cheers for the replies everyone. I can't answer everything in detail while at work but here is some extra points.

Rod Knock:
Those that detailed similar problems attributed to a rod knock. Could the knock be felt through the chassis floor and pedals and be heard very audibly? Would it happen in neutral at rest?

Great point about rpm or driveline related test. Im leaning on driveline because i can't get the knock to happen when im stationary in neutral Determining if the problem was directly related to engine rpm or road speed was kind of done. We can hear the knock at different speeds eg 15km 30km 60kms. Ive only just got car running again so will double check if knock is also evident in other gears at the same speed, to isolate if problem is based on rpm or driveline.

yes car is ae93 with ae101 4agze

wheel nuts are perfect

engine mounts are brand new aftermarket cheapies that are soft as hell and have already half torn so yes the engine does have a bit of movement and this could be a culprit. (im currently waiting on polyeurethane ones)

When i lost the wheel it bounced around in the wheel arch grazing itself on the wheel hub studs and damaging my quarter panel in the process. Its likely that quite a bit of lateral force would have been applied to the wheel studs which "could" have bent the hub or bearing (hence replaced bearing - but the hub looks damn solid) The car then landed on the ball joint underneith the wheel hub which could have bent the control arms slightly toward the rear of the car.
The brake discs were not touched, they are brand new ae101 discs.

Will get back to more comments later tonight.
Thanks heaps

Daniel

[ed]

rod knock is significantly worse when driving, and just between power on and power off... just on the balance point on the pedal with rpm - its VERY audible...

as for felt? cant say ive ever felt it, but the noise is horrid

[o_man_ra23]

I would be suspecting you damaged the hub too. I would replace all suspension components on that side for good measure, even if they dont appear to be causing a problem, catastrophic failure of a damaged component could be... well... catastrophic if it happens on the highway, or somewhere where there is a large truck with a tired trucky bearing down on you.

As for the engine mounts, if they were already failing, and you sustained some sort of an impact... say for instance a wheel coming off and the car grinding on the road... then I would suspect the engine mounts wouldnt have much hope of standing up to that sort of impact.

Cheers, Owen

[Jackel]

LOL i can see his car through his garage door its FWD.

Have you checked brakes? straightness of hub etc?

i don't like fwd's

[Ghetto-Spec .:bayka:.]

Alright Thanks very much everyone.

I almost had a break down today but i just want to let everyone know im ok.

The revised step by step plan
-Replace engine mounts
-Replace suspension components (control arms & hub)
-Take out a $15k loan
-Replace clunking car with fully worked Rx7 Series 5
-Enter a whole new world of mechanical pain, but finally have rwd car
-Get promotion and buy a house with a nice garage
-Get married, maybe have 2 kids
-Purchase Nissan RS "family stationwagon" with GTR running gear
-Settle down, experiment with some shares
-Look into beach property
-Get a nice cork floor for house
-yeh baby

Daniel

[EldarO]

if it isnt any of the other things listed.

id say flywheel/clutch.

Elmo.

[ONETEN]

Why dont you just use the 15k to turbo the new motor and rebuild the gearbox with a straight cut gearset, get some new driveshafts too, maybe macheined down from some tank turrets, get some titanium engine mounts and some truck sized air brakes? o and weld the wheels on

Seriously but i am also the unlucky owner of ae92 seca sx thats 4agze powered, and with the new motor and box, i have noticed a definate clunking very similar to what you describe. I have narrowed it down to being inside the gearbox via use of a chassis ear. The easiest way to tell would be to say roll down a hill at maybe 60kmh in 4th and put the clutch in and listen for the clunking. Mine basically goes away once you do this, also if the speed of the clunking doesnt change at all after doung this u can pretty much tell its drive train after the gearset. So id be putting my money towards diff.

Good Lick i mean luck!

[o_man_ra23]

Alright Thanks very much everyone.

I almost had a break down today but i just want to let everyone know im ok.

The revised step by step plan
-Replace engine mounts
-Replace suspension components (control arms & hub)
-Take out a $15k loan
-Replace clunking car with fully worked RA28 Celica with 3SGTE
-Enter a whole new world of mechanical fun and finally have rwd car
-Get promotion and buy a house with a nice garage
-Get married, maybe have 2 kids
-Purchase Toyota Caldina "family stationwagon" with Turbo AWD running gear
-Settle down, experiment with some shares
-Look into beach property
-Get a nice cork floor for house
-yeh baby

Daniel

Fixed fo joo.

hcope86... straight cut gears are only good if your racing and 1/10ths of a second count... they ARE NOT STRONGER when using direct replacement cogs as the helical gears have a larger contact area. I do like the idea of milled down tank turrets for driveshafts, should have nice heat treatment

Cheers, Owen

[ONETEN]

Fixed fo joo.

hcope86... straight cut gears are only good if your racing and 1/10ths of a second count... they ARE NOT STRONGER when using direct replacement cogs as the helical gears have a larger contact area. I do like the idea of milled down tank turrets for driveshafts, should have nice heat treatment

Cheers, Owen

1/10ths of a second gear change in reverse? i would of thought reverse was straight cut 99% of the time due to to it being a fairly tall gear and in an unbalanced weight situation (ie FWD reversing up a hill) it is straight cut to provide equal load distribution across the whole tooth, instead of slightly unequal dist. helical gear which tends to have more load on the ends of the tooth? being able to handle more load is defined as "stronger" i wouldov thought, but hell thats just my logic. i could be wrong.

And i think its more the dog engagment gearsets your thinking that decrease gear shift times. You can have a straight cut synchronmesh gearset as well which i wouldnt see any benfit in shifting speeds over the helical synchronmesh gears. Except strength of course...

[oldcorollas]

10ths being possible saving of time..
reverse is straight cut.. cos another straight cut gear slides across to engage it. it is not constantly engaged otherwise it would be cut helical

enough of the gearbox talk

anyway, Ghetto, scrap that plan and make a new one.

determine if the noise if road speed based, or engine speed based (you MUST work that out first)

then work out what conditions definitely do and definitely don't make it occur, and list them up (contradictory results do not help )

oh.. and check your oil level...

[wa5]

I would think engine mount too. however I was speaking to someone who knows a little about these engines, and he mentioned that it is not unknown for 4AGEs to break the crank when revved really hard. The engine still runs but gets a vibration and the flywheel etc moving in and out can make gear selection difficult. hope im wrong.......