Hi,
My Panda starts making an irritating noise just like this
Can anyone please tell me if the solution to this is to adjust the valves or if I need to do something different?
Thanks a lot for your help.

Chipotec0 said:

Hi,
My Panda starts making an irritating noise just like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kQCHTYWZwQ
Can anyone please tell me if the solution to this is to adjust the valves or if I need to do something different?
Thanks a lot for your help.

Click to expand...

Oh deary me, that truly is a horrible and maybe expensive sounding noise! The frequency is about right for something to do with the valve gear, it doesn't sound like it's a bottom end problem but I doubt very much if you're going to sort it by adjusting valve clearances. As you are moving your phone around the noise seems a little louder when you are at the clutch end of the engine so does the sound alter if you put your foot down on the clutch with the engine running? That would eliminate clutch/gearbox (which I don't think it is anyway). I would like to stick my "listening pipe" in my ear and move it around the engine till i found where it was most noisy, but it's not long enough to reach you from Edinburgh! So, what to do next? Well, as it's simple to do, I think I'd be taking the cam (rocker, in old language) cover off and having a look. The noise is so loud that I'm sure anyone with some experience who could stick his/her head under your bonnet would quickly come up with an answer but, from Edinburgh, it's a bit difficult.

good luck with it. I hope it doesn't cost you too much money. please do let us all know what it turns out to be won't you.
kind regards
Jock

So many thing cause that type of knocking noise.

Stick valve normal goes away when warmed up.

Connecting Rod normally worse under load

Mine makes a more of a tick tick noise than the clunk clunck in the video which is due to a crack in exhaust heat shield.


Before delving too far into it you need to isolate from where the noise is coming from. Last thing you want to be doing is ripping the head apart only to find out it was a broken bearing in the alternator

koalar said:

So many thing cause that type of knocking noise.

Stick valve normal goes away when warmed up.

Connecting Rod normally worse under load

Mine makes a more of a tick tick noise than the clunk clunck in the video which is due to a crack in exhaust heat shield.


Before delving too far into it you need to isolate from where the noise is coming from. Last thing you want to be doing is ripping the head apart only to find out it was a broken bearing in the alternator

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for your advises. I will start by adjusting the valves and see what happens. The car runs well, only the noise...

There no easy adjustment as such they are shimmed

Get the cam cover off and have a look inside. You'll be doing this for the valve clearances anyway, but do it as soon as possible.

Has the oil been changed regularly?
This could be a lot of wear due to lack of oil to the camshaft and followers. There have been a few on here, all caused by long service intervals. The oil turns sticky in the top of the engine, blocking the cam oil feed bar.
Clearances rarely need adjusting until very high mileages.

Sounds to me like piston slap.

Here's another example to compare

Hi,
Thanks to all for their kind remarks/advises.
I was about to wash the engine before going on with the valve adjustment procedure and I found this: [ame]https://youtu.be/2zB1MZ83laI[/ame]
Do you belive this may be the source of the noise? I checked it and there was no continuity.

If the injector is not working it should create a misfire, which is not normally as noisy as your video. However that is very likely to be the issue, as these engines are very reliable. If the injector is trying to work, but spraying the incorrect amount of fuel in, that could create an imbalance. The connector should not move like that. Need to find a new injector.

Meanwhile, would still be a good idea to get the top off and ensure that everything is oily inside.

The original post is a video that sounds like but isn't the problem car.

We haven't got enough information to even hazard a guess. Could be lots of things.

Noisy injector is easy to diagnose. The sound will hardly be heard from under the car.

If you disconnect the faulty injector the sound will disappear.


But we are again getting ahead of ourselves.


Where is the noise loudest


When is the noise. Worse on startup, acceleration, overun and so on.

Can you hear it bounce back when going under bridges or alongside solid objects.

Let's hope it's something simple. But without knowing at least where the sound it coming from all we can do is guess every part of the car that moving under the bonnet.

I have never tried this but can't see why it shouldn't work.


Record the sound on a phone at roughly equal distances around the engine and see if one is a lot louder.

Or if you have a smart phone download a Sound Level Meter or Sound Analyzer App


Like I said not tried it myself be interested if anyone has.


This is the method i use. But be very careful.

Thanks to all for their input. I have cleaned the injectors using a LiquiMoly device and product that is made for that purpose, adjust the valves (wasn't so bad) and wash the throttle body. This is the noise I got.


Any idea what can I do to find out what it is?

Thanks.

It's not really a knocking, so check the timing belt and auxiliary belt tensioners. It could be a bearing issue.

Use a listening stick to listen to each bearing checking for rumble.

Crank bearing noise is 1x a rev. Con rods and pistons are 2x per rev. Cams are every other rev.

However, that's catastrophising. If the oil pressure is ok you pretty much stop worrying about engine issues. You need to test the oil pressure and listen to all potential noise sources -
Water pump
Alternator
Tensioner bearings.

The gearbox can also be noisy. If its noisy in neutral but the sound stops with clutch pressed then its a gearbox input shaft bearing noise.

A week ago I suggested taking the cover off and looking inside to check all is oily. A simple thing to do, and will relieve a lot of guesswork and unnecessary worry.

Chipotec0 said:

Thanks to all for their input. I have cleaned the injectors using a LiquiMoly device and product that is made for that purpose, adjust the valves (wasn't so bad) and wash the throttle body. This is the noise I got.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrsAz_Lu--E&sns=gp

Any idea what can I do to find out what it is?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I was going to support P B's suggestion to remove the cam cover and have a look (I also recommend this when I posted a week ago). However I see you said that you had "adjusted the valves" and that it "wasn't too bad"? If you'd said "I checked the valve clearances and that wasn't too bad" I'd accept that but adjusting valve clearances on these engines is a laborious task involving shims, and specialist measuring tools. I did it on my old Panda (Felicity) when I rebuilt her head after she blew her head gasket and I remember one of the most frustrating things being actually getting the shims I needed! But my point here is that you must have had the cam cover off to work on the valve shims? So what did you find inside? Nice and oily? No obvious damage to cam lobes or followers? Do please let us know.

Koalar makes a very interesting point. You seem to be supplying us with other people's recordings of noises which you think are similar to the noise you are experiencing? Without an actual example of your engine itself I think what we are on a hiding to nothing here. We might come up with suggestions regarding these examples but it's going to be just luck if that's the answer to your problem.

Some time has now passed since you first started investigating this and, although I applaud your efforts and certainly would not wish to dull your enthusiasm for working on your car, I feel concerned that if you continue to drive it like this you may be causing further expensive damage. For that reason I would suggest that you call on someone with experience to give you an opinion. I would favour an independent Fiat specialist but you may not have one near you in which case ask round your friends if any of them know of a local, trusted, independent garage. I make this recommendation because you will likely find that in a smaller garage you will be talking to the mechanic who is attending your vehicle and not a receptionist who may have very little technical knowledge which is often the case in a larger establishment. You might get really lucky and find that the "little man", if it doesn't take him to long, may not charge you at all for his opinion!

Anyway, whatever happens please do keep us informed. I'm really intrigued to know what's wrong!
Good luck
Jock

The guy who replaced the clutch on my Punto HGT worked from a scruffy garage in a back street of Pontypridd, South Wales. He was always busy, but did a fantastic job at short notice.

Many, many thanks for your good advises. I checked the valves clearance and everything was very well oiled. Getting the shims out is easy with this tool:
I am going to take the car to a mechanic in order to see if he can find something. The car runs just fine. I will keep you updated. Thanks again.

Listening again to your engine noise I think its too loud to be cams or valves. You may well have a damaged piston so my first step would be to test the compression. If that finds nothing remove the sump and look underneath.

As already said, a listening stick will help to localise the noise source.