Is anyone noticing that pinging engines seem to becoming more noticeable these days?

We live on a hill and cars that are going past our house (especially little jap cars) seem to be always doing the metallic hokepoke on their way up the hill. The sound to me is like running fingernails down a black board. I hate it and it seems to becoming the norm. I've noticed pinging becoming more noticeable with my car as well in the last year or so. (2nd gen Verada). Recently I advanced my timing a bit and this has made a big difference although I can't get rid of it completely unless I run PULP. My conspiracy theory is petrol companies are slowly dulling down our standard ULP. It's a stealth way of raising the price of petrol. Eventually everyone will run their car on PULP because your car will run so CRAP on supposed the 91RON petrol.

Can someone tell me if a pinging engine is actually as damaging as they say it is? Because it seems to be so common!!

try using unleaded e10:think:

stick a sign outside your yard

does your car ping or rattle up these hills
$$$ for engine tuneing here

Prolonged detonation (pinging) is definately bad for yur engine.

Aussie ULP is filthy, I cleaned the manifold when I put the engine into the TR, today (a couple of weeks later) I got round to putting the good manifold on the car and frankly the inside was disgusting. The amount of orange brown goo was unreal after about 3 tankfulls ( and my tank is clean, I had it out a while back for a sender issue..... mmkay).

I only use LPG and PULP in the falcon and last time I opened the intake up for a look it was spotless........after 300,000 K.

Do the math ..... aussie ULP is poxy and the fuel co's should be ashamed

Im Ye Oldy Farty and thats my 2 cents worth :)

Hear it all the time and it makes me cringe (not my car i know how to drive it so it DOESNT ping)

I don't think I've ever heard a car ping....... mine or anyone elses.

this is why i run my car on PULP and only from one of the big name suppliers... i no i dont get an increase of power but atleast it should be cleaner...

Recently I advanced my timing a bit and this has made a big difference although I can't get rid of it completely unless I run PULP
to get rid of pinging you retard the timing, not advance it.


Can someone tell me if a pinging engine is actually as damaging as they say it is? Because it seems to be so common!!
if your engine is pinging all the time it will do things like melt your spark plugs (if it is pinging really bad and you don't do any maintainance), damage your ringlands, and just generally damage your motor. a lot of the import cars, etc are running large exhausts that sit lower to the ground, so they get hit with stones being thrown up by the tyres, so they may sound like they are pinging when they aren't. more often than not you will barely be able to hear the car pinging.

the most comon cause is just crappy fuel. and places like woolies servo's make it worse. but not everyone can afford to run premium. my last car was a r33 and i got really sick of paying $1.40 a litre for ultimate, and then getting 250kms from about 45L (yes i'm a lead foot). also letting your car sit for periods of time with fuel going stale in it doesn't help. the cheap fuel will go stale quicker than the better stuff, and then you end up with goo in your fuel lines, so the engine can't get as much fuel as it needs and runs lean, and then pings.

I don't think I've ever heard a car ping....... mine or anyone elses.
ditto..

Wouldnt you have to advance the timing? As the air/fuel mixture is being detonated before its reaching TDC?
I doubt its ALLLL these cars pinging, Its a very noticable conastant metal on metal knock.

Also it will have no power from about 2000RPM upwards, No matter how flat your foot it to the ground.

not everyone can afford to run premium. my last car was a r33 and i got really sick of paying $1.40 a litre for ultimate

Premium is usually no more than 10c/litre dearer than unleaded, in a 50 litre tank thats 5 dollars dearer - not exactly unaffordable for people already paying for unleaded..that's one or two less stubbies a week.

I'll continue to pay for premium, in the hope that the claims are true and it is cleaner.

Can someone tell me if a pinging engine is actually as damaging as they say it is? Because it seems to be so common!!Perhaps you (or someone) could help me out and post an audio of this 'pinging', please.:)

I know what backfiring sounds like, but pinging has got me stumped.:redface:

*edit* Is it like the 'rattle' in this vid? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_R10Dfg7E
You know I'm going to go around identifying every engine I hear 'pinging' now, like I know what it actually means and drive everyone mad!:D

Perhaps you (or someone) could help me out and post an audio of this 'pinging', please.:)

I know what backfiring sounds like, but pinging has got me stumped.:redface:

*edit* Is it like the 'rattle' in this vid? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_R10Dfg7E
You know I'm going to go around identifying every engine I hear 'pinging' now, like I know what it actually means and drive everyone mad!:D

Get in a manual and try and drive off in 3rd gear, its like a high pitched tink tink tink noise and you'll have no power at all. I hear it all the time in carparks when people crawl over speed bumps in 2nd and then try and drive off from basically a standstill.

You have to be really stupid to get a car to ping up a hill... you lose all power before you get close to it.

Get in a manual and try and drive off in 3rd gear, its like a high pitched tink tink tink noise and you'll have no power at all.

Also it will have no power from about 2000RPM upwards, No matter how flat your foot it to the ground.

these couldn't be a more untrue statements. you will still have plenty of power when your car is pinging. you won't have 100% power, but i'd say it would be close to 80-90% power. it is basically like retarding the timing. the fuel is still being burnt, so the piston is still being forced down with pressure.

on a stock car you shouldn't hear any pinging unless there is a problem. on a car with a sports exhaust you shouldn't hear any pinging unless there is a problem.
if you hear it all the time in carparks from random cars, you might not be wrong in what you think the sound of pinging is. pinging is hard to hear. often the car can be pinging and you won't even hear it. the more mufflers a car has, the less chance of hearing it.



Wouldnt you have to advance the timing? As the air/fuel mixture is being detonated before its reaching TDC?no. advancing the timing means that you are burning more fuel before TDC. this raises the cylinder temp, which means there is more chance of it pinging the next time fuel comes into the cylinder. by retarding the timing you keep the temps down, and you end up with some unburnt fuel. this keeps the cylinder cooler.

for more understanding of how timing advance and retarding works, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignition_timing and read the section on setting the ignition timing.

*edit* Is it like the 'rattle' in this vid? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT_R10Dfg7E


I've been looking around the net for an example of an engine pinging, but can't seem to find anything. The example in that video is not of an engine pinging. That's just a sound of rattly old bucket of bolts :)

I think it's a case of once you know what your listening for, you'll hear it often.

I've been trying to think of a way to imitate the sound and the best I can come up with is to take your kitchen toaster then grab a spoon or knife, put it down the bread slot and rattle it around in there. (make sure it's not plugged in of course :nuts:) That is the noise of pinging and you'll hear it in the background of the normal engine noise.

It's got nothing to do with how good or bad your driving is, auto or manual, 0kph or 100kph, your car will just do it if the conditions are right.

i was talking to a mte last night who is a mechanic and tuner. he said that camry's are the worst for it. they will ping at low speed/low load in first gear. it is to do with how they run the timing on them.

he also said that a car will make it's max power when it is pinging a bit.

More info about pinging:

Engine Pinging
by David Schwarze


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"...The piston can overheat and knocking can and will occur. This knocking is caused by ignition of the gas/air mix in your cylinder before the spark of the spark plug. This causes temperature and pressure peaks that will melt your piston, crack your cylinder head, and drop one of your exhaust valves. You have heard about those abrupt deaths of air cooled engines..."
Pinging sounds like rocks being thrown around inside your engine. It will never happen at idle, may happen at part throttle, but is most likely to happen at full throttle. It is usually accompanied by a small amount of smoke out of the tailpipe, but don't rely on that.

Pinging is like... taking a cutting torch to your combustion chamber. Your engine can stand anywhere from less than one second to perhaps minute of pinging before it suffers permanent and serious damage, depending on conditions.

The hotter your engine is, the more likely your engine is to ping. The farther your timing is advanced, the more likely your engine is to ping. The higher your compression ratio is, the more likely your engine is to ping. The lower the octane of gas you use, the more likely your engine is to ping.

If it's the 'knocking' sound...then...ummm...yep...the camry used to do it all the time when I went 'round a roundabout in 3rd.:redface:

Sometimes used to do it uphill, but going over speed humps in 2nd never caused a problem. The suspension was good. lol

ive noticed that my magna ( 2.6 tr automatic ) pings terribly depending on which petrol i use, i feel that unleaded has been downgraded so that you have to buy premium petrol so that oil companies make even more money at our expense.

it sounds like some sort of conspiracy between oil companies and governments of all persuations.

i always buy 95 in the least. as tempting as it is to save 6c or 7c per litre for ULP

The more you advance your timing the more prone to detonation you are too. Detonation is where the mix combusts before it is suppsed to, eg, on the compression stroke (When the piston is coming back up to compress the fuel) and explodes from a leaner mixture and temp, Detonation is a big cause of death in tuned turbo/scharged engines that are tuned on the limit. Both pinging and detonation is bad kids.

both also don't go well with their older sister, the piston-slap that comes from worn chamber walls, which is why in an old car that is reco'd they usually bore it out or hone it, to make this surface even again.

If your car is pinging on 91, get 95 or 98, if your in the middle of no-where, buy some additive and add it before you fill up with the country 91. Remember all fuel still has to pass standards and the fuel companies get audited to make sure they're not pumping out bad fuel (as much as the gov can).

Why is it bad fuel - why isn't it the fact that our engines these days are just a lot more sophisticated therefore the old standard of fuel just isn't up to the task? Also, 2nd gen 6G72's have a knock sensor so it can retard timing or advance it to use 91 to 95 octane fuels.

Other things that cause pinging is also dead O2 sensors, that are leaning the car out by incorrectly feeding bad air/fuel ratio redaings back to the vehicle, dead spark plugs, blocked fuel filters and over advanced engines.

Pinging sounds like someone is shaking a tin can full of pennies in your engine bay like a very light tinny rattle. Once you hear it you will know what it sounds like. If its actually knocking heavy then its probably not pinging as such and probably other bad things instead.

I recomend running an injector cleaner at least every 4 - 5th tank of gas. This helps to keep everything clean and running properly. Cheap insurance.