Does your cruiser 'rattle'? (1 Viewer)

[crooozer]

After struggling with a rattling noise in the cruiser and reading everything I can get my hands on/checking everything I can think of, I reasd this
Couple things to consider. First, many engines (especially toyotas) have a rattle when excellerating or going up a hill when the engine is working. This can be eliminated by using a higher octane fuel but is not really necessary as this rattle doesnt mean anything bad. Running a higher octane through the engine every once in a while is not a bad idea though. Second, check your engine mounts, sometimes if a bolt is loose or missing it will make the engine rattle and the reason it only does this at a certain rpm is because that rpm makes a certain vibration that causes the engine to rattle but other rpms dont create this vibration or frequency. Hope that helps.

I'm wanting to know if this rings true with others?
I don't think my problem is attributed to this because it seems a bit too intermittent and loud sometimes when I'm not even travelling uphill even slightly.
Just checking if it rings true.

 

[SFSig]

One of my catalytic converter heat shields rattle...

Also, the sunroof seems to rattle from time to time on the freeway...

Lastly, I think one of my third row seats rattles when in the "down" position...

 

[hawaiicruz]

X2 on the cat shield, that's the only rattle I get on mine

 

[snowrider73]

I have a strange rattle above my passenger side sun visor inside the head liner. Just gonna have to get used to that one. I have owned Toyota trucks for the last 14yrs and they all rattle at age. I call them toyota noises. Get better speakers for your stereo, that seams to help a bit.

 

[crooozer]

Hmmm./.. Well I'm willing to try just about anything to get rid of whatever it is.

Where can I find this catalytic converter heat shield

 

[SiRaDuDe]

(I will explain the location of the catalytic converter in simple terms, not to talk down to anyone just to make sure its understood)

A catalytic converter can rattle if its internally damaged or if its heat shield is loose or rubbing against another part/frame.

You can find your catalytic converters by looking under your truck, just under the front passenger side seat area.

You will see a bulge in your exhaust (like a mini muffler or 2), these are your catalytic converters. The shields would be a metal cover that surrounds them and this cover sometimes jars loose. Inside of the catalytic converter you have a hard material, like stone and sometimes it gets damaged and breaks apart and sounds like loose rocks inside of them.

Get under your truck and shake or hit them with your hand/fists/feet and see if they rattle a bit. The shields in mine rattle even when you slam the passenger front door.

If the shields are loose or hitting against something, then I'm sure you will get a lot of useful ways to solve you problem here.

Catalytic converters are a bit expensive OEM, but there are some aftermarket options that are much cheaper, if needed.

There are also some other heat shields that tend to vibrate loose and rattle, just forward of the converters following your exhaust toward the front, and another just covering your exhaust manifold, (where the exhaust connects to the engine.)

Hope this helps you out in any way.

 

[crooozer]

Thanks for that. I found them before reading here and funnily enough they made a similar noise when I touched the bolted parts, did them up and went for a drive. Nup..

I'm pretty sure that my prob is timing chain related.

 

[autobon7]

I had a heat shield rattle on me for awhile before I found it. Is where the exhaust is making the bend from under the hood to the frame. Rattled like crazy on decel. One hose clamp later and good to go.

 

[joseywales]

What engine do you have? What year truck? Put that stuff in your "sig" line and it will help people help you! I have never heard anything about timing chain noise in an 80...

 

[jlm43]

I have a broken exhaust mount just behind the muffler. The tail pipe goes above the frame and now it sags just enough to rub the frame. Which makes an awful grinding sound sometimes. Enough that I thought my engine was about to be toast. I need to remember to look for the simple things first. It maybe worth a look on your rig too.
good luck
J

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Maybe you are using lower octane gas and it's pinging? That's what the highlighted portion in your first post was referring to.

As far as I know, no clean well-maintained engine should ping as long as it is running the correct octane fuel and has the timing set correctly. That is not to say engines won't ping, but I doubt they pinged when they rolled off the assembly line.


As for rattles, I'm pretty sure any 20 yr old vehicle is going to rattle. The 2008 Colorado I drive for work rattles more than my 80.

 

[wfd175]

I thought my rattle was the cats until after I replaced them. Then noise was still there. I figured out that the clamp on the heatshied visible through the passenger side tirewell had loosened. I threw a ss hose clamp on it and the noise went away.

 

[Tyler Durden]

I have a broken exhaust mount just behind the muffler. The tail pipe goes above the frame and now it sags just enough to rub the frame. Which makes an awful grinding sound sometimes. Enough that I thought my engine was about to be toast. I need to remember to look for the simple things first. It maybe worth a look on your rig too.
good luck
J

x2. Same here. I need to address it at some point.

 

[veeLC]

Elsie does not rattle....she drips

 

[GatorPlater]

Elsie does not rattle....she drips

they make a cream for that...

 

[Desert4x4Cruiser]

I have a strange rattle above my passenger side sun visor inside the head liner. Just gonna have to get used to that one. I have owned Toyota trucks for the last 14yrs and they all rattle at age. I call them toyota noises. Get better speakers for your stereo, that seams to help a bit.

I had the same thing but I recently fixed it. It was an easy fix. I opened the sunroof and then pulled the molding away on the passenger side. By doing that I could stick my hand and look up under the headliner. There are a couple rods... the one that was rattling was up in the front; it was the least visible and hardest to get to, but I could still easily get my hand up there. There's actually a small piece of foam rubber that's wrapped around that rod in the corner to prevent it from rattling against the body. On mine, that foam rubber was compressed and abraded so the rod was rattling against the body (roof). All I did was get some foam packing material and stick it up there between that rod and the body with some scotch tape. Replace headliner. Problem solved!

 

[Dave 2000]

Assuming this is not a 'physical' rattle ie. loose bolt, small animal caught in fan belts ect then it is more likely 'pinging' or 'pinking' and is a classic problem on older engines. The engines accrue carbon on the valves and head chamber and piston faces. The sound is 'pre ignition'. Instead of the spark plug igniting the fuel and creating a controlled flame front, glowing hot carbon ignites the fuel invariably creating two hot spots and an uneven burn. Another cause can be semi blocked injectors where the spray pattern is poor, not enough to cause rough running but enough to upset the aforementioned flame front. Of course filling with a higher octane fuel may help but is not the answer.

Of course years ago it was the norm to put in X amount of squirts of 'upper cylinder lubricant' (am I showing my age here?) per gallon from a pump that was on all garage forecourts, then as the fuel improved this was eventually dropped and replaced by 'REDEX' treatments, a bottle poured into the tank once in awhile kept the carbon down.

The trick is to get the chambers cleaned of carbon, in the uk we used this REDEX product to do the job. We would get the engine hot and then pour plenty into the air intake whilst the engine was running at about 2000 rpm, after a few minutes we would let the engine idle and then administer another dose but this time at idle and fast enough to stall the engine. We then removed the spark plugs and poured a couple of CC's into each of the spark plug holes and replace the plugs loosely. Left overnight we would then remove the old plugs and spin the engine on the starter to expell as much as we could, then the old plugs were cleaned and put back in and the engine started, at this point I concede that me and my friends may have contributed to global warming, the cr*p that came out of the exhaust on a scale of 1 - 10 as being so bad we often scored a 28! The car was then treated to new spark plugs and then all was well for another 10,000 - 15,000 miles. If you decide to try this I would suggest you take the car to the hills and do the job there otherwise you may fall out with your neighours.

Now before all of this there some other factors to consider:

Incorrect ignition timing.

Poor quality fuel, you may find that one brand pings more than another, try running diifferent brands for awhile, not just a tankful but a couple of tanks so that you get that partiucular brands additives into your system.

Worn oil control rings contaminating the charge hence lowering the fuel octane

Wrong heat range of spark plugs, you can often choose a 'cooler' plug and this may help but of course you are masking the problem.

Leaking inlet manifold gasket, this can upset the stoichiometric ratio and cause burn issues.

A semi blocked cat can also be an issue,

Previous cylinder work that has seen the head being 'skimmed', if too much was removed the compression ratio will be higher perhaps moving you into the higher octane fuel range?

There are plenty of treatments out there i.e. injector cleaners ect so give them a go, it cannot make the problem any worse. Work out the cheapest course of action and work from there but whatever anyone tells you, take it from me continued 'pinging' can (and will) eventually damage your engine, the most common damage being the ring lands are crushed and the rings become trapped and unable to expand/contract leading to an increase wear rate, on the other hand total and sudden piston failure is also not unknown.

Hope this helps, assuming your not hiding in a cupboard with a phone calling your therapist?

regards

Dave

 

[crooozer]

Well said Dave, and I believe you are right about my problem with the 'ignition timing' which no-one even mentioned previously. It has so far been mentally draining and caused much anguish

 

[jvazquez53]

Rattle until yesterday; Cat shield.

 

[BlueCruiser84]

Well said Dave, and I believe you are right about my problem with the 'ignition timing' which no-one even mentioned previously. It has so far been mentally draining and caused much anguish

I said it in your other thread where you asked the same question, but included details. You never mentioned messing with your distributor in this thread which is why I suggested bad gas.

All you said in this thread was that your cruiser rattled...