Hey guys. my evo 9 has been having problems with the mivec. it has been making a clanking noise from the mivec and only makes sounds when revved up and driving. The car has recently been built and I don’t believe it has any problem with the bottom end. the noise is quite loud and just sounds like clacking. I also can’t get rid of the p0011 code and I believe it has something to do with it. if any one has dealt with this. please let me know cause I’m tired of trying to chase this problem

 

How do you know it's mivec and not otherwise cam related?

 

Well, the sound can clearly be heard from the mivec. Forgot to mention it does have GSC s2 cams

 

It's rare but possible. I would verify it's installed correctly first, then swap with a known good MIVEC gear to be certain.

 

Just installed a known good working one on it. Made sure that had oil primed up before installing timing belt. Everything lines up nice so that’s why I’m stumped. I also installed a new mivec filter and feed line as well

 

If you're certain all is well, then probably not the gear. Timing belt tight?

Keep in mind we're completely shooting in the dark here, hoping to get lucky, based on the limited info given.

Still, never hurts to try.

 

the timing belt is tight, but is there a possibility that it is can be too tight?

 

A tight belt shouldn't rattle. Then again, a working MIVEC gear shouldn't make noise. : lol:

I dunno man, hard to say without being there.
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all kinds of other post about mivec noise.
maybe something to be found there.

 

1. take off a few cam caps and look for wear on cams
2. take sump off and take a look at rod bearings...

dont ask how I know but I had the identical symptoms on an engine that ate its big end bearing..

 

I had the exact same thing, which I thought was the MIVEC as well. The actual cause was the timing belt tensioner failing. I'm 95% confident this is your issue.

 

did you mivec make the noise too? what could possible make my tensioner go bad since it’s not even 2k miles yet

 

In my case, I swore the sound was originating from the MIVEC gear as you described and I even went as far as ordering a new MIVEC gear. I would pull the lower timing cover and verify before spending money on a new MIVEC gear. If you open the MIVEC gear it is almost impossible for it to fail other than it not getting the proper amount of oil. When the tensioner fails it will normally chunk its' grease, but that doesn't always happen. Any slight amount of movement other than the very slow movement to overcome the hydraulics, means it has failed.

 

Yeah. I’m going to buy a new one and try to find out if that solves my problem. The tensioner I have now seems fine and there is no grease release anywhere. I have repinned it couple of time but im going to give it a shot. My first mivec failed because insufficient oil. The oil feed line for it actually somehow had a hole in it which cause that mivec to fail. I have a new one now and still making the noise. I’m still thinking it’s a clogged port or something because it seems crazy that a tensioner would cause all that noise
would a bad tensioner cause a p0011 code to throw?

 

do you possibly have a sound clip of what yours sounded like?