Pinking?

[jonboy]

Please excuse my ignorance, but just developed an all new annoying noise on my '97 elise......

Noise is a sort of quiet ticking which occurs if the throttle is opened at all, at any revs (as far as I can tell).
It only starts doing this after about 5 minutes driving, then gradually gets quieter till it stops after about 15 minutes driving. What's that all about?

My car is standard except for chris neil exhaust and K&N induction kit.

Ta

Jon

[Spooky]

jonboy, I can't offer any help, but I might have the same problem on my '99 standard S1. The ticking doesn't get more rapid as I speed up, and I only hear it when accelerating. It happens in all gears too.

Anyone help us?

[stove]

jonboy, spooky

I have the same noise on my '98 elise. I seem to remember somebody mentioning this before and that it is someting to do with a fuel flap valve in the injector rail. In any case, I dont think its anything to worry about and is quite common. In mine, it is noiseiest(sp?) on very cold days, which probably correlates with it deissapearing after 15 mins as the engine and ancillaries warm up.

[fergusd]

From your descrption it sounds like the fuel vapour charcoal canister purge valve operating.

Normal operation.

Fd

[ronj]

could be cams.

Ron.

[jonboy]

Thanks to all, think I am reassured its not a problem. Spooky, Stove, your descrptions of the phenomenon are bang-on.
The solenoid on the purge line kinda makes sense to me, but I'm still a bit puzzled...

Cheers
JonBoy

[fergusd]

jonboy said:
The solenoid on the purge line kinda makes sense to me, but I'm still a bit puzzled...

The purge valve is only operated after startup with an open throttle within a time limit, that's why it only makes the noise under the circumstances you mention . . . assuming it's the same noise.

It's using inlet manifold vacuum to clean out the fuel vapour charcoal trap.

This is both a well known elise noise (all cars do it, not everybody hears it) and a common design feature in many cars . . .

Fd

[clanger]

Use Shell Optimax rather than unleaded - it eliminates any pinking and significantly improves performance.