Midwst Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Okay, so took the 1992 loyale on a test drive. has only 25,000 miles! Really. One owner. There was a kind of lifter like sound in the engine area under load. I had a real mechanic drive it and he said it sounded like the exhaust. When the car is standing still and the engine is brought up to 3000 rpm, I don't hear the noise. Suddenly let go of gas, still no noise. Does have oil pressure. Does this sound right for an exhaust leak? My guess is that if the noise was really in the engine itself, I would hear it at 3000 rpm standing still. Right? Second question. The car is grossly underpowered. Can I put 600 lbs of weight in it...people or other...and still drive the thing? FYI other test drive notes: some rust, not real bad. One CV boot torn, but still throwing greese. No biggie. Brake pedal soft, but stops okay. No biggie. AC works well. Thanks so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
555Ron Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Yeah, they're all underpowered. They'll take weight though. If it is your muffler then that maybe restricting power a little. Just go to the exhaust with the engine off and kick it. It could be a loose baffle in the resonator or something similar and it should make a noise if you do that. You can take a screwdriver, flat end to the engine and put the plastic on your ear. Check the cam housing, oil pump, block etc for the tap. Anyway, one tap can be easily fixed... usually... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midwst Posted June 25, 2005 Author Share Posted June 25, 2005 Not the muffler. Its new. Sounds like it is comming from the engine. Maybe the front pipe to the header. Maybe the converter. Maybe the engine is just loud? I guess the real question is can an exhaust leak near the front of the engine sound like an engine noise/tap? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
555Ron Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 Yes, there is a rear muffler... but it will be the middle pipe with the resonator that could make this noise (loose baffles). Get down on your knees, the pipe is in 3 sections. Your rear muffler may be new, but 9 out of 10 times your resonator and catalytic converter will be 15 years old. Give it a few kicks and you'll see if it is that or not. If it isn't get the screwdriver. If you don't like it, i think everyone on the board would pounce on this car, its a goer (imo:cool:). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 was this some grandma car, having only 25,000 miles and short trips to church and the grocery store? tellus a little more about the car, what tranny it has and what were the circumstanced of it having such lo miles and being for sale, the people you got it from or why they sold it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midwst Posted June 25, 2005 Author Share Posted June 25, 2005 Yes this is grandmas car. Don't know why they sold it. Probably because it has no power. Found it at a dealer, as a trade in. The dealer couldn't sell it...I don't know why, so they kept dropping the price. One onwner. Regular maintenance...but based on time or milege...I don't know. I do think the noise is in one of the resonators/mini mufflers or the cat rather than the engine. It doesn't quite sound like an upper end tap. Too fast to be bottom end? Can't do the screwdriver test on the engine, because it only makes the noise under load at higher rpm...like accelerating. I suppose if it is the engine, I can tear it apart, it looks hard to get too, never worked on the flat 4. You guys say its easy to work on, so I'm taking you at your word. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 it wouldnt be pingign would it, inder load? does the sound sound anything like a diesel motor or marbles rattling in a can? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWet Posted June 25, 2005 Share Posted June 25, 2005 92 Loyale, so Single Point Fuel Injection (SPFI), correct? 9.5:1 C/R, so detonation could be a possibility. A very common engine tapping noise is from the hydraulic valve lash adjusters (aka HVLA or HLA), which are like hydraulic lifters in a pushrod engine. They can collapse a little and tap, especially after sitting for awhile. (I had one engine that sounded for all the world like a rod about to come out of the block, but it was just HLA noise that went away after 5 minutes of running.) Ignition timing on the SPFI/MPFI engines are NOT straightforward, so power may be partially a timing issue. Timing belts might have slipped also, causing power issues. These are not muscle cars, but you should still get Toyota Corrola / Nissan Sentra class performance. They are also short stroke engines, and prefer running above 3k RPM. Working on these engines isn't hard, and many find it more convenient to pull the engine (20-30 minutes with practice ) and work on it outside of the car for stuff that nominally could be done with engine in situ. Doing piston/crank work is mildly a pain (at least for the inexperienced). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midwst Posted June 25, 2005 Author Share Posted June 25, 2005 Yes, it could be pinging. Sounds more like that than lifters. Only heard once the car is fully warmed up...another reason to look at exhaust noise or pinging over lifters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilesFox Posted June 26, 2005 Share Posted June 26, 2005 if its lifter noise you have try running a quart of ATF in the oil for about 100 miles or so before your next oil change. i just put a litte but in my oil and the noise quieted considerably from the time i put it in at wal mart and the time i got home. i plan on changing the oil inthis car considering i just picked it up for 50 bucks if you continue to have problems maybe you can change the oil pump seal, per my response in your other posts about removing the timing belt covers off. anyway if you want to consider doing any preventative maintenance might as well do it all at once since its just as much to do one thing or all of it check the usrm link at the top of the page and there you will find articles about the lifter tick and timing belts, oil pump seal and water pump i wrote some of the articles but the pics are down because my server is down, so if you have an questiuons regarding the articles i posted i can send you pictures in the email or put up a .zip file for download Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom63050 Posted June 26, 2005 Share Posted June 26, 2005 One reason it might seem like it has no power (other than the fact that at its best it IS low-powered) is that the timing belt on the driver side might be a bit stretched. That belt drives the camshaft which also drives the distributor. When I adjusted my timing belts with only 10,000 miles on it, I noticed a little more power and easier starting and shutting off. The usual recommendation is to adjust them every 20K miles, but I believe 10K is better, based on my experience. I never noticed the gradual loss of power until I re-tensioned the belt. This is an easy job, by the way, if you can do even simple things like change spark plugs and such. And also, it WILL carry a load, even with that motor. I pulled a trailer from Oregon to Virginia with my Loyale over the Rockies, including the real steep part at Vail on I-70. Total trailer and car payload was 2000 pounds. The car is grossly underpowered. Can I put 600 lbs of weight in it...people or other...and still drive the thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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