Hi, i have been noticing even more so now a engine "pinking" noise from my vehicle after every gear change around 1500rpm - 2500rpm.

Though saying gear change, i have even slowed down and accelerated in the same gear and still get the noise.

My car is only 18 months old and covered about 26k but the sound seems more noticeable now.

Does anybody have any ideas ?

Pinking is where the fuel is igniting before it should, this is usually caused by the ignition timing being too far advanced, something that shouldn't occur on modern engines with their sensors and timing advance/retard mechanisms, the other cause is using fuel of too low an octane rating, if you are using fuel of the correct rating as specified in the handbook then the next port of call is the dealer who, as the car is less than 2 years old, should have a look and fix under warranty.

Ian

Hi Ian, many thanks for that.

I have just been using standard unleaded petrol from the stations such as Esso, BP etc, i do not use the supermarket stations.

Will contact my dealer.

Cheers

Steve

Countryboy has summed up the situation - It might pay to fill up with super unleaded, (higher octane) and see what happens.

The other factor is that all this high tech stuff gets in the way of traditional problem solving. I had a problem with a car pinking a while back and no fiddling with the timing would solve it.

In the end, I took the head off and found carbon deposits. They were glowing when the engine was running and causing detonation, (pinking). A good old fashioned decoke cured it. The basic cause was that the car had been in the ownership of an older person and had obviously been driven lightly.

If you have been taking notice of the stupid gear change thing, you may have been underusing the engine. It just might pay to put some good old fashioned Redex in the tank and go for a very extended Italian Tune Up session.

Redex is quite a remarkable product by the way. Put it in all your small petrol engines - mowers etc., you'll never have any more crud and starting problems next spring. It's formulated so that it's safe with catalytic converters etc.