Help With Engine Noise!

February 16, 2012

Ok guys i need some help here. I drive a 2003 celica GTS (USA) it seemed like a perfect used car bout 92000 miles on it and no problims, well 3 months into it the check engine light kept comming on and no toyota mechanic or my regular mechanic could figure it out, it was a camshaft bank a timing over !Removed! (or something like that) code. Well long story short the kia dealership i bought it from pulled one over my eyes, it needed thousands of $ of work on the engine and VVTL-i sysyem but they never addressed it and my #3 piston ring blew up and the whole engine went belly up. I had a bumper to bumper warrenty plan but when i tried to use it the company said "you have an after market cold air intake on it and that voids everything" i tried to tell them it came with the car!!! (the 1st owner hooked it up nicely with a sick radio system, HID headlights, air horn and cold air intake) then he traded it in and the general manager of this kia place bought it as his day to day driving car but never addressed the issues on the VVTL-i and then they just put it up for sale. So when i went back to them to get proof of how the cold air intake was on it before i bought it i found out the general manager and my salesman where fired! so i had to drop my whole life savings on a rebuild 2zz engine. So it was working really good no probs. and some of the interior electrical needed repair so i forced the kia place to fix it all up for free because they screwed me. After that i kept loosing oil, it was like every 4 days i was almost empty and i know i wasnt burning all that oil so when i took it to my mechanic he showed me the 4 engine bolts under then engine where loosened up so oil would leak out, and the place that did that was the kia place so i almost lost my 2nd engine.

thats my car backstory now on to the prob. for about a month now i am noticing this noise around the 3-4000 RPM range but its really pronounced when driving i know the vvtl-i makes a slight ticking noise and its not that, this is like a whirring rattle like somthing is stuck or slapping or fluttering. I took it to the toyota place that helped me before with the rebuilt engine because i trust them and they have the 30+ year exp shop forman working on my car. He lisined to it and said its not the VVTL-i or the lifters but it may be the piston slapping, or a loose piston (crap i forght the name but the pin that holds the piston) or because of the leaking oil issue i could have scared up the chamber a bit, but he said toyota calls that noise a piston slap and it can happen even in newer cars and its acceptable but he didnt want to go ripping apart everything because its not affecting my performence but he said if it gets louder or the CE light comes on to bring it back in. They would need to take apart everything and measure the pistons chambers ect... to see if something is off but i dont have that kind of $$ anymore and if my car breaks again i am so screwed because i already spent everything on a rebuilt engine. he did check for other loose things that could be rattleing around but everything is solid, so it is comming from the engine. anyone have this prob? Rattle/fluttering noise at rpm (3-4000) oh and if i floor it you dont hear it but if i stay at a steady speed in that rpm range you hear it but if i drop back on the speed it goes away.

car has no mechanical modifacations except a AEM cold air intake and the CE light hasent come on since i put the rebuilt engine in

Feedback would be helpful, im sorry if i didnt explane things quite right but i am not that car savvy but i know some stuff about the subject.

February 17, 2012

While I cant offer much in the way of help or advice I will just say I feel your pain! My beautiful t sport threw a con rod 2 weeks ago which damaged the crank and is still waiting to be repaired (under warranty thankfully!) so I wish you all the best of luck with your own car...

February 22, 2012

hi, i thought i had a tough ride when after 2 months of owning my vvt-i, it started knocking at 2.5 to 3.5 revs. sadly you have had it much worse.

i really do hope i am wrong but it sounds like a con rod issue (bottom block).

did you get a warrenty with the rebuild?

if so you will be able to get them to sort this out but they will try there best to make you go away as this is not only saying that they didnt do it right in the first place but its a huge job as i can see you know.

let us know of the outcome?

and goodluck

February 22, 2012

hi, i thought i had a tough ride when after 2 months of owning my vvt-i, it started knocking at 2.5 to 3.5 revs. sadly you have had it much worse.

i really do hope i am wrong but it sounds like a con rod issue (bottom block).

did you get a warrenty with the rebuild?

if so you will be able to get them to sort this out but they will try there best to make you go away as this is not only saying that they didnt do it right in the first place but its a huge job as i can see you know.

let us know of the outcome?

and goodluck

February 26, 2012

i did get a 6month warrenty but its been past the 6 months, i hope its not a con rod issue, sofar its not getting better or worse i hope its just knocking of the piston or the pin holding the piston is loose, and its not a huge issue that i cant afford, i did notiece that if i give it a little gas or floor it the noise really isnt there but if i give medimum gas or push down half way on the gas it makes that sound, i know for now its not a bent connecting rod becuase i know that sound when my #3 piston ring blew up and messed up the 1st block. Some friends who have worked on cars with lifter systems or on other celica forms think it may be a fluttering valve, or a semi stuck valve but right now the toyota master mechanic said to wait becuse pulling apart the block and checking every part and sending it out to be measured or machened will cost more than i have. I was thinking about going to my local mechanic to have him just open up the engine and with out tearing everything out just give a quick look to see if he can see any scraping or wearing on the pistons or the piston walls, and if he does then ill go back to toyota and we have a place to start, i now just have to go to him and see how much he will charge to take a look.