Running noise like catching on something

[Looney]

Car: 1993 FD3, non sequential set up.
 
I\'ve had an issue for a wee while now. Whe the the engine is running I can hear quiet a loud noise like the flywheel or pulleys are catching on something, to me it reminds me of sticking a lollipop stick in the back wheel of your push bike except it is a metallic sound. It quietens down the higher the rpm, and when you are in gear and driving, but if you come off the throttle and put it back on you hear it catch again.
 
Now, I\'ve taken it to a local garage and he couldn\'t find anything after removing the gearbox, clutch and fly wheel. When he put it back together it the noise went away for a couple of months. He was not a rotary engine specialist so took his opinions with a very large pinch of salt, especially when he spoke about the engine like it was a piston. Durr.
 
I then took it apart myself, back down including the flywheel. I couldn\'t see anyting worn or catching so put it all back together and the noise is still there. The reason I keep taking the flywheel off is because on first install of the engine I forget to torque up the fly wheel and it made this noise its making now, and then fell off.
 
Anyone shed any light on this? I am starting to think it could be a worn rear bearing, but I would have thought the engine would run like a sack of poo, but the engine still runs fine, with no loss of power, I have even restricted boost to 9psi to keep it a little safe as well. Engine also idles fine.
Only other thing I can think of is clutch or gearbox. Reason gearbox is because I do not know if the garage refilled the box up full, and maybe if it was half a litre short, maybe something has given inside? Again I am not sure about the clutch as it looked fine, no cracks, excessive wear marks, etc...
 
Getting bummed about it, as she looks nice, but sounds like a tramp driving locally!

[Efinity]

Any chance you can record a video or soundclip of this issue.

Going by your description reminds me of a very similar issue my friend had, although his car was\'nt a rotary the problem sounds very similar.

In the end it was the crank that became mis aligned, so as it was turning is was catching on the housing, he also had clutch issues, that might have led to this.

Is the sound constant? when  you accelerate, does the noise become faster? Im assuming you have checked all the pulleys etc.

If you know of someone that has a spare transmission you can borrow to test, might be an idea....the more you can troubleshoot and get things out of the equation the easier itll become to locate.

Feel your pain....having a nice car that sounds bad is def not good

Hope you sort it mate.

[Looney]

I\'ll try and get some footage of the problem.
 
Yeah the sound speeds up with rpm, probably why it is less noticable at higher rpm. I hope its not equive to the crank as that will probably mean new engine or big rebuild.
 
I\'m gonn try undoing the clutch whilst still on to see if the clutch is misaligned or something but I may be picking at loose straws...but at least that will be another thing I can check off the list! lol.
 
Haven\'t got a spare box atm, and when I did I have I sold it as it was taking up space..lol.

[jackaleks]

know exactly what you mean, mine does it as well.
 
i doubt it\'s anything misaligned in the engine; mine is only 5,000 miles old and if one of the three moving parts were responsible for the noise you\'d probably be seeing bits of apex seal exiting the exhaust.
 
i swapped my turbo pack for a later \'97 set with zero play, so i\'m sure it has nothing to do with them. i haven\'t properly looked for it yet, but i\'m willing to bet it\'s one of the ancillaries like the alternator or ps pump - it could even be something silly like a bit of loom catching on the back of a pulley.

[Looney]

Ah dude, let me know what you find with yours, I\'ve just got some footage, and the middle section makes it sound hell of a lot worse than it is. I\'m gonna go and remove the power steering belt now to see if its that! As the sound seems to come from there, but it seems to echo around the engine so difficult to say where exactly the sound is coming from!
 
Will get the footage up asap! Should be up later in a bit! lol

[Looney]

Tried getting the footage up but it keeps failing, will keep trying.
 
I have ruled out ancilleries (water pump, alt, power steering), took belts off and played around, noise still there with them disconnected.
 
So I\'m still at a loss as to what it is, one thing I didn\'t check properly was the release bearing. I remember turning it by hand and it turned very smooth and seemed tight.
 
Any other ideas?

[Efinity]

Hey

sorry to hear it\'s still bugging you

I know this may seem obvious, but let\'s look at it simply for a sec.

We know as you press the accelerator the noise gets faster, so from that we know that it\'s a rotating part that rotates with acceleration. So what parts of the car rotate when the peddle is pressed. When you think about it like that it\'s narrowed Down to the flywheel, crank eccentric shaft, pulleys and belts and not much else really.

I remember Reading on another forum about a ticking noise and they mentioned something to do with carbon deposits and some flap things near where the turbos are.......as you cann tell I didn\'t read it thoroughly but just another thing you might wanna look into.

Def like to hear/see the footage, might become apparent when people on here see it.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[m1tch]

Could it be something stuck near the clutch and gearbox? I know there is an inspection cover etc, maybe something has got wedged near there and its pinging against the teeth or the flywheel?

[SiH]

Sure it\'s not an exhaust leak/gasket in the turbo system? These can both show themselves as a \'ticking\'

[jackaleks]

Sure it\'s not an exhaust leak/gasket in the turbo system? These can both show themselves as a \'ticking\'

i ruled out exhaust leaks early on using the basis of "there\'s no way i can be bothered to take the twins off more than once in a lifetime".

[Efinity]

i ruled out exhaust leaks early on using the basis of "there\'s no way i can be bothered to take the twins off more than once in a lifetime".

Haha, its not that bad! Just after the first few hours of fustration, it drives you insane!:Hammer

[fil_auto]

pulley wheel rubbing / catching / knocking the bottom IC pipe? have you a hard pipe kit?

[Looney]

not for me, its not a a ticking sound, more like the sound you get if a bit of metal was catching on the clutch pressure plate fins.
 
Still struggling to get the vid uploaded, I need to get propper broadband! lol.

[SiH]

i ruled out exhaust leaks early on using the basis of "there\'s no way i can be bothered to take the twins off more than once in a lifetime".

I took that a step further - it went something like \'I\'ve got these scrotes off, they\'re never going back on, are they? Balls. How much is a single setup?\'

[slater1982]

mine seems to make the same noise, although its fairly quiet when the car is cold, gets louder as it warms up. although seems to completely dissappear over about 2500 revs as the power comes in, so will be watching this thread like a hawk!!
 
I also have a slight rattle on the clutch release bearing (it goes when you depress the clutch) so was thinking could these be connected possibly, although they do sound like 2 different noises??