Wuh oh.

My engine has started to sound like the valves are hitting the pistons or I've spun a bearing or something. Somewhat loud metal clanging that speeds up with RPM. Any ideas for things I could check for before taking it to the dealer?

Maybe I'm the first person to ruin a 4B11T

 

Check the heatsheild under the car over the driveshaft and exhaust. It is very rattle prone. Bend it if needed.

 

Good idea, thanks!

 

Yeah, I've heard that some X's have this issue with some of the heat shields, usually the one over the turbo manifold. Mine doesn't do it, and most people don't seem to have a problem with theirs so it's probably easy to fix. Like TTP said, check the heatshields and bend them a little if necessary. I'm sure it's nothing though.

 

As far as I can tell with my puny human ears, the noise is coming from the throttle body / intake manifold area

 

Hmm, that doesn't sound good. Were you running high boost or did you have any mods on your car? If so, you better return it all back to stock before going out to the dealers.

 

The car may have been pushed a bit hard. And of course it will be stock at the dealer.

 

I wonder if it has anything to do with this
https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=338239

 

Let us know what it turns out to be.

 

I looked at the heat shields and they don't seem to be rattling, although they are surprisingly flimsy.

I changed the oil and that didn't help, even though my oil was a dark black and reeked of gas...

The noise is definitely coming from the intake manifold... I'll probably drop the car off at the dealer tomorrow and get it back on thursday...

 

Your oil reeked of gas....that is no good. Maybe your car was running so rich it washed the cylinder walls and dried out the bearings.

 

If you want to check for a rod knock, just disconnect the coil on plug connectors one at a time and see if the sounds gets quieter. To do this, leave the engine off, disconnect a COP connector, start engine, listen. If no change shut off the engine, reconnect th COP connector and then disconnect the next COP connector. Repeat.

If it's a rod knock, the plug not firing in that cylinder will make the sound significantly quiter.

You *might* get a CEL from this is the ECU monitors the COP circuit. Will probably have to disconnect the battery for a bit when you're done.

 

Just out of curiosity, what mods did you have on the car? I don't mean to point the finger, but this might be self inflicted since you, and I quote, "might have pushed the car too hard." Based on that statement I am willing to bet that you ran too much boost or timing and leaned out and got a bad detonation or something, but who knows. Let us know that the dealer finds. I am very curious what it ends up being.

 

intake and works flash.

 

And I seriously hope that mikebutler is not your name because I can tell you that Mitsu watches these forums closely. However, with that being said if the car is stock then it would be difficult to "push it too hard" without seriously beating on it like a red headed stepchild...