Pinging, Causes?

well you could do fuel filter change, sea foam your car, or check your timing. it might be time to change the fuel filter anyways depending on the mileage of the car and when it was last done.

Matt's 03 GT said:

40,000 miles and I don't have any history before about 6,000 miles ago when I bought it. It has always had some sort of ping and running 89 octane has helped except at the top of third.

My real question is: Why do cars Ping?

I know the typical answer is too much timing or too little octane, but as far as I know this car has stock timing and is supposed to run on 87 octane?? I have it on 89 octane and it still pings

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well some people have had problems with their gts pinging on 87 and most just run 89 and it goes away.

well a couple reasons why they ping is
1. Air fuel Too lean
2. timing advanced too far
3. too low of octane
4. carbon build up on top of the cylinders

the carbon build up on top of teh cylinders could be taken care of with sea foam. the carbon on top of teh cylinders can increase compression which will cause the motor to ping. or it could also be carbon deposits on teh cylinder wall that act as a heat source and ignite the fuel before the plug.

a cause of the motor running too lean could be something as simple as a clogged fuel filter that needs replacing. for more information on pinging go to google and you can do a search just type in something like engine ping and there are websites out there that will give you a good description.

There's lots of good pinging threads on here too. At 40k miles on an 03, carbon buildup shouldn't be that bad, especially if it started 6k miles ago. Wouldn't hurt to seafoam it. Sometimes a hotter plug can help too....like one step up. New fuel filter is never a bad idea, they're pretty cheap to replace and I'd say you're due one at those miles.

Another thing....maybe try even higher octane gas. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a tank of 93 or 91 would hurt any, or an octane booster.

You sure its pinging and not another rattle such as a valve or piston slap. I only ask because a rattle noise plagued my damn car until I finally gave in and got rid of it...it wasn't pinging, and it wasn't anything to do with the heads on mine.

You are likely hearing audible detonation or "spark knock". It is essentially a result of end gas spontaneously igniting after the spark event due to excessive heat and/or pressure within the bore and combustion chamber. This is normally caused by hot spots in the CC (excessive carbon buildup) and too low an octane of gas. The end gas that is failed to ignite at the normal time of spark event is instantly deteriorated and thus lacks sufficient octane to withstand this combination of increased heat and pressure. This essentially creates a flame front additional and separate from the normally ignited flame front at spark(ignition).

You will hear lots of "car guys" tell you that the pinging sound you hear is the result of these two flame fronts colliding, but this is not the case. Detonation causes a very short but significantly sharp pressure spike in the CC. This sharp spike in pressure creates an extremely strong force in the CC which in turn resonates the rotating assembly and block. This is the audible pinging or spark knock that you can hear. It is said that this resonation occurs at about 6400 Hertz.

I would recommend taking the car somewhere that uses BG fuel system and top end cleaning products. Have you checked or read your plugs?

Matt's 03 GT said:

Laser red:

I am glad you chimed in on this. Your posts are always very informative.

Would you recommend the BG Fuel system cleaner before the Seafoam?

Do you know who does it?

Let me know what you think!

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Thank you very much for the kind words. It is nice to have my advice appreciated.

I would actually recommend the BG service in place of the Seafoam. The BG stuff works awesome. Go to the BG locator page and type in your ZIP -->http://www.bgfindashop.com/locator/index.php

Ask them if they have the BG EGR service tool and the BG inject-a-flush device. If they do, then there is a good chance they know what they are doing.