What is this noise? spun bearing?

[azn1028]

i am about to look at a car that's 3 hours away. the guy says everything in this s13 is great, except it makes a noise. he kinda described it to me and made the sound and it sounds like when you roll your tongue. so it kinda sounds like when you put a playing or index card on your bicycle and let the spokes hit it, make sense?

anyways, so he thinks it's a spun bearing or sounds like it. the noise comes on when the car first starts.. and it happens at around 3-3.5k rpm in all gears. it doesnt matter if the clutch is depressed or not, it always makes the noise. also, he says when you give it more gas it doesnt make the noise. he says the noise is fairly audible when outside the car, but inside with the windows up it's really faint. any ideas? is this car worth buying or am i gonna have to put a new motor?

[RPS1392]

I betcha he already knows whats wrong, thats why hes selling it.

[HyperTek]

could be a loose heat sheild..

[S13 S I L V I A]

Usually a spun bearing will make a knocking sounds and will increase with engine speed, see if its possible to drain teh oil into a clean containier and look for metal and brass the brass will look like gold flakes in the oil, this would indicate that a bearing(s) is whiped out.

[stinky_180]

sounds like some valve tapping or timing chain guide noise.

[azn1028]

valve tapping? could this be timing chain issue? car has 90k? any other tests i can perform to tell waht the problem is? i assume if it's spun bearing the engine is pretty much shot?

[ericb382]

The motor is not necessarily shot if it is a spun bearing. You can change the bearing from under the car by dropping the oil pan. How long has he been driving around with the noise being made? To test and see if it is rod knock (spun bearing) you can just have him rev the engine until it starts knocking. Then you go through and pull the injectors one at a time. If the noise goes away when you pulled an injector that tells you that it is rod knock and which bearing it is.

[S13 S I L V I A]

The motor is not necessarily shot if it is a spun bearing. You can change the bearing from under the car by dropping the oil pan. How long has he been driving around with the noise being made? To test and see if it is rod knock (spun bearing) you can just have him rev the engine until it starts knocking. Then you go through and pull the injectors one at a time. If the noise goes away when you pulled an injector that tells you that it is rod knock and which bearing it is.

True, but if the bearing spun all the way threw the soft layers of metal to the steel backing of the bearing it will have scored the connecting rod journal on the crank and then you would have to remove the crank and see if it can be repaired but hopefully it didn't, you would have to use a micrometer to check to see if it has any runout or what not, IMO easier to swap a new engine....

[drftmark]

That noise comes from my car also. But I don't know if they are related, my oil pump to the cams runs retarded at idle, so it is making that noise, like a knocking noise. But if you accelerate a little it just goes right away because it is seeing its not at idle. But once again I am not sure if they are related because mine only happens at idle, and goes away when going. Its an s15 sr, fairly stock.

[aggiez32]

What's the price?