Hi,

I'm new to RX8's (and rotories) but have fallen in love with them after taking one for a test ride.

One of the ones I'm looking at has a ticking noise in the engine, increases with revs if you slowly increase them, but give it a blip of the throttle (say 4k) you can't hear the ticking noise (seems to go away) until the revs come back down to idle again. If it was a normal car I'd be thinking valves / cams wearing sort of noise.

The cars a Japanse import (into New Zealand, where I live) 2004 6 speed manual.

Does anyone know what this could be? Very keen on the car ( and price...but that could be because of the problems).

Thanks,
Gus.

 

your spark plug wire is loose...check it and make sure its fully covering the spark plug

 

Thanks for that, will check it out.

Fingers crossed as its a nice car...and I'm adicted to that rev'ing

 

this happend to me too...it got annoying and i thought it was either a belt or something...then i thought to myself, what "TICKS" that fast, and gets faster as i rev...AHHA the spark plugs, i took a look at it while it was running and BAM saw the spark plug wire off the spark plug, thus not "covering the noise up"...just secure it back on there and you should be fine

 

mine makes a real faint ticking at all times, kinda similar to the way an audi or VW sounds. I got it checked out and was told the sound comes with aging and is completely normal. Guess they were right because that was 40K miles ago and Im still going strong with the same ticking noise.

Dozer, when my spark plug wires went bad they were making a LOUD ticking noise, way loud. Loud enough that I thouhg my engine was knocking, when really my ignition wires came loose and were banging around.

Not sure if thats the noise the OP is talking about.

 

Sorry to resurrect an oldie, but I'm trying to diagnose a ticking now myself...

If a spark plug wire was disconnected, wouldn't there be a really noticeable loss of power?

Mine is ticking, but I haven't noticed any power problems...

 

its not disconnected fully, the spark plug is showing that much more

 

see what would you without me?

 

When you have a ticking sound and the wires are fine check the plugs.
My ticking sound was because of a cracked front leading plug.

 

Can anyone help me with this similar problem, i have an 07 6speed AT with 53k miles. when i drive it makes a clatter sound when i give it little or a lot of throttle, and sounds very VERY similar to loose valves in a piston engine. I DEFINITELY know its not the spark plugs because i took them out and cleaned them today, the sound has been going on for a while. Also when i am not driving it'll make a high pitch tick like the playing card on bicycle spokes when i rev it. I have homed the high pitch sound to the intake valves like right where or is the VDI valve, as far as the clatter while driving i have no clue.

Also the car does suffer from a little power lose and when i go full throttle to redline it makes a loud raspy (something is loosish) sound. sometimes this happen and other times it runs fine but still has clatter.


any help with this will be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

hold the actuators on the intake manifold to see if the noise goes away. i'm only really familiar with the 6 port manifolds which the SSV tends to clatter on higher mile engines.

 

+1, it makes a sound like a direct injection car, or a tractor from 1937...

 

I'm wondering if the high pitch noise is in the clutch. When idling push in the clutch and see if it goes away. If it does I believe it's the throw out bearing.

 

Hey guys new to the forums have same problem replaced coils plugs wires then started hearing a knocking noise that seems to come from the engine sound like its close to the alternator help would be appreciated thanks

 

It's also 2004 rx8

 

common sense tests.. figure out more closely where the noise is originating from and try to eliminate that area. if the knocking sound is coming from the front of the engine then remove the belts and run it for a minute with none of the accessories spinning.

if the noise is still there then it's obviously not an accessory on the engine, move on to physically checking the catalytic converter by removing it and inspecting it and shaking it to hear if the brick has delaminated or is breaking up.

if it's not that then there's only the clutch, engine, transmission and the intake valves to try and rule out. if the noise changes with the clutch in then it is either the transmission or clutch itself.

if the noise doesn't change with the clutch then you have the intake valves, the SSV is the only common intake tuning valve that rattles, as i mentioned hold the valve open by hand and see if the noise goes away.

if all else fails drain the oil and inspect it for metal debris. it is possible for a rotor bearing to wear enough for a rotor to contact the rotor housing and cause a "rotor knock", i have one currently here with that failure. running an engine without oil is catastrophic even if for only 10 seconds or so, with the amount of oil these cars burn it is easy to run below safe levels.

 

It sound like it close to the alternator did the seafoam thing didn't really smoke too much think I'm going to take a chance and take it apart and clean it as well as replace gaskets heard it may help also saw some thing about the evap valve you think that could be the problem ... Thanks for previous advise

 

Noise seems to be around the intake car still revs good always been on top of the oil change bc I heard they burn oil like crazy thinking of cleaning ssv valve and also checking out the evap but the strange part is my check engine isn't on does that mean it's catastrophic

 

Noise seems to be around the intake car still revs good always been on top of the oil change bc I heard they burn oil like crazy thinking of cleaning ssv valve and also checking out the evap but the strange part is my check engine isn't on does that mean it's catastrophic

 

put your hand down onto the SSV shaft and see if it goes away ...............

 

I think it could be the air pump. Mine had the same ticking and i have now removed the airpump and the noise is completely gone. I'm positive that the noise was coming from it..

 

Ssv valve saw a video on YouTube where the guy holds it in spot and noise goes away did that and noise was gone awaiting for replacement part had another ? If you guys don't mind if the light on dash come on and of at time for the temp would I need to replace the reserve container bc the sensor is the or the sensor behind thermostat thanks again for all you're help

 

the coolant level sensor(looks like a radiator, or roman structure) is for coolant level, if the coolant level is fine then you probably need to replace the whole reservoir.

 

Not to hi jack/revive this post but i cant post for some reason. i recently (about a month) got my rebuild running but im getting a ticking noise. Most people say its there ssv sticking but all my stuff is clean like new. i work at a garage and have the ability to work all the valves in the intake as the car idles via computer scanner. This tick is comming from the intake but goes away sometimes. but when i move the aux valve it stops every time. just wanted to see if anyone has run into this before cuz i dont see anyone mention it. its like the tubes are moving/ clicking as the engine goes around. Some times moving the ssv by hand makes it go away to but i dont feel any clicking. Other than the noise everything works good, runs good so its just annoying as of now. I got 600 miles on it. Thanks