after i took my car out for a spin this evening, i stopped just to check under the hood, listen for abnormal noises, blah blah...the usual stuff.

anyway, i notice on the driver's side of my engine bay there was a slight clicking noise, but pretty faint, and was hardly audible over the other engine noises. and in fact, it seemed to come and go - it was not consistent. as for while i drove around, i couldn't hear a damn thing that sounded unusual.

i first assumed piston slap? but i really don't know if it is that, or if it was an injector ticking? or maybe an exhaust leak? bent pushrod even? my car is fairly new - 34k miles.

maybe i'm dreaming? is it something to worry about? thanks for the help.

 

sounds like you might be hearing the injector tick. If it was a bent poshrod you would know because you would have blown a shift and over reved the motor. Exhaust leak would be consistint if you have stock exhaust i would have to say you dont have an exhuast leak. Piston slap I dont have it and none of my friends have it so i dont know what that sounds like. But form what i am told and have read it is more coman(sp) in 2002 and 2001 ls1's and it is only on a cold motor. If it is on a hot motor you got big problems.

 

so injector tick IS audible? the whole car is stock, besides a cutout. i've missed a shift before, but never to the point of overrev. and i've hit the limiter once, but was not a big deal. there doesn't seem to be a loss in power. and like i said, i'm probably a bit paranoid, and was particularly listening for something odd. what do ya think?

 

If you have never dont the 3-2 shift and you car is stock i would not worry about it.

 

I vote for injector tick. Pinging sounds are usually heard when an engine is under a load. A stock tuned car would have to be in some pretty hot weather to be pinging while idling.