Hi everyone I'm new to this forum had a ford for a few months and thought it was time to join a club but I could do with a little help please I got a 02 focus 1.6 and I think it's pinking when it's hot it pinks under slight throttle eg going uphill and keeping it at 30 in 3rd gear seems to set it off it happens between 1500 and 2000 rpm it makes a clattering noise driving me crazy but once i pit my foot down its gone, there's no loss of power cannot find why as I run it on tesco 99 it has had a new knock sensor fitted my mechanic cannot find why it's making the noise but his computer says everything is spot on its had new plugs and filters not burning oil maybe a litre every 5000 miles it's either normal or something wrong just need a little nudge

Thanks again

will be worth having the injectors tested for spray pattern/leakage

a full exhaust 4 gas test readout could be useful too

if possible, get the mechanic to check the live data when the engine pinks, to see if the knock sensor is actually communicating with the ecu and timing is getting retarded..could be a breakdown in the circuit somewhere, or a fault within the ecu itself...an easy way to test this is at idle speed, litterally tap the side of the engine and watch for timing being retarded

Brilliant cheers ill see if I can get him to do that over the weekend

How would you get the injectors tested for pattern and leakage ???

Id get a good engine cleaner in like bg244 I think its called, put some in wifes mums car cos it was running like a pile of money !Removed!, after about 30-40 miles started running better and better and by 100 miles was like a new car it cleans all the crap off everything

BG244 is a very good product, however if you want to go one step futher, why not clean your engine with a toothbrush? (not being sarcastic) If you get yourself a "Teraclean" Service, then that is pretty much what the service does! its just over £100 all in on average, but it pretty much cleans out every nook and cranny, and and spit polishes it too!

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/41765-terraclean-seems-to-be-spreading/

So what's a teraclean what happens

And where would you get that done ??? Cheers I did put a bottle of redex in very concentrated like a bottle in per 10 letter of fuel that made no difference lol

Cheers guys again is there any sensors or anything I should look at whilst I have it on diagnostic on saterday

Sorry jebowhite I didn't see the link lol was using my phone hmm might be worth a look into see if there anyone near plymouth that can do that :) thanks

No Worries :)

if your confident in what your doing...just need to remove the fuel rail/injectors and suspend them over glass jars for eg..supply power to injectors and observe the spray pattern, looking for fine, even cone shape pattern, plenty of examples of what you should/shouldnt see on www.

then you remove the power ansd observe for any leakage over a period of time [should be zero}

should add that safety is paramount so dont do this without proper prep.

any problems, injectors can normally be serviced, sometimes need replacing.

pinking can do serious damage if left, so you need to get to the bottom of it

Brilliant cheers well I see what I can do on saterday at the garage annoying really because I brought the car in January and only notice the pinking when I open the windows 2 months ago because the warm weather :) so who knows how long it's been going on for just annoying that at the garage he couldn't find the problem

there are so many possible causes of pinking, it isnt an easy task to find, espercially since the days of not being able manually !Removed! timing and less likely a coking issue [though not impossible}

till its sorted, would highly reccommend backing off when you hear the pinking, trying to drive through it increases chance of serious damage

Yeah that's what the mechanic said so when I hear the noise I just chance gear to keep out of it. Thing is its hard to describe the noise beside a clattering of metal at 1500 to 2000 rpm when warm and slight throttle hmm little stuck haha

Have you checked all your heat shields around your car, I used to have a v6 vectra that did something similar and took me weeks to find what it was, it was actually my mate who found the problem after 10 mins lol was a heat shield in engine bay that had come lose but only made the noise certain rpm