Rattling in Gears?

[Kevin R.]

I don't know if this is normal or not so I will ask to be sure.

When i really get on the gas you can hear what sounds like rocks being thrown around inside the gears, not too sure where it's coming from, but it sounds like that area.

Be it you can only hear this with the windows down, music down, so it's not like a unnatural sound. Just passed through my head that it could be pieces of 150k gears moving around.

I'm sure someone understands this, help me out.

 

[JJ95GTID]

Kinda sounds like pinging.

 

[mo_dingo]

Sounds exactly like pinging to me. Only way to describe it.

So a search on this forum for pinging. You will get a TON of info!
Scott

 

[Silver85TC]

Your cats could be on their way out. They're right beside your tranny, so that would account for you thinking of the gears. Is this noise really loud or is it a more subtle sound? The cats on my car are shot and are REALLY rattling right now (exactly like rocks in a can). I'm looking at replacing them with an offroad H-pipe.

If the sound is more subtle, the other guys may be correct with the pinging assessment.

 

[Kevin R.]

I don't have cats. Unless you are with emissions, in that case, I have lots of cats.

I guess it could be pinging, if fact the guy at the tranny shop who drove my car said it was pinging very badly, but I never heard it. Is it pinging of the valves? Or something else?

This can only be bad I'm guessing...

 

[JJ95GTID]

Pinging is when the air/fuel in the combustion chamber ignite without the spark being applied by the ignition. This is very bad if left unfixed for too long. Try running 91/92 octane fuel and see if it goes away. If it goes away then you should be fine. If it does not go away or you don't want to run high octane fuel then you will need to adjust your ignition timing or have it adjusted.

 

[Kevin R.]

I'm kind of scared to run higher octane because the car has been run on 87 for 150,000 miles of it's life. I'm scared something will go wrong that I cannot afford right now. But then again, I guess this pinging could also be a problem I cannot afford right now. Err, so sick of all this.

 

[Silver85TC]

Running higher octane fuel will not cause any new problems.

 

[Kevin R.]

Oh ok. Step 1 of running high octane: Save oodles of money.

I'll give it a try. Should i run 90 or 93?