G'day all. I'm looking to buy a car, and yesterday went to look at a 1996 TE with a little over 150ks on it. Everything appeared in good condition, service history was there and mostly filled, no major issues I could discern. The only thing that gave me a bit of pause was that under firm acceleration, a noise that I can only describe as 'tinkling' occurred, and I could feel the vibrations from it through the pedal. Wasn't loud enough to be heard with the windows up, didn't produce any oddness from the engine or tacho, but was enough to make me come here and ask if anyone had a good guess as to what it could be, and if so whether it was likely to be serious.

Thanks.

Welcome to the site first of all mate.

I will take a couple stabs, first of all maybe pinging? Was it hot? Secondly, maybe dirty leads or plugs, or a dirty throttle body. I always go with my gut on things like this - if it doesn't feel right, steer well clear.

Wondering what the condition of the engine mounts are like too on the off chance they might be causing hassle somehow... Magnas and engine mounts I tells ya... Tinkling sound makes engine pinging spring to mind, happened on my old Astron, sounded like a popcorn machine :)

Car wasn't hot no, had been sitting in the sun but hadn't been out any time recently, and it wasn't a long test drive. As I said, no noticeable effect on the vehicle, but odd sounds give me pause... Didn't check the engine mounts whilst I was there. You hear a lot of cars driving around that sound a helluva lot worse, just wondering if it was likely to be anything serious. On my budget though, getting a perfect car could be quite the trick >_>

Thanks for the welcome guys.

Car wasn't hot no, had been sitting in the sun but hadn't been out any time recently, and it wasn't a long test drive. As I said, no noticeable effect on the vehicle, but odd sounds give me pause... Didn't check the engine mounts whilst I was there. You hear a lot of cars driving around that sound a helluva lot worse, just wondering if it was likely to be anything serious. On my budget though, getting a perfect car could be quite the trick >_>

Thanks for the welcome guys.
Understandable if you're on a tight budget, but don't buy the first thing you see either. Check for leaking rocker covers (pretty common thing for Magnas) and leaking power steering rack (behind the rear bank of cylinders near the firewall, rubber looking bit of hose half way down the engine bay right against the firewall - look for black soot type build up) If you're really concerned, you could always get a pressure test done by a trusted mechanic. Don't use RAC or NRMA or anything, those guys are about as useless as tits on a bull.

Yeah if you're really keen on that mag get it looked at by a trusted pro, i'm sure someone around here may be able to lend a hand if you ask nicely (and maybe wave some green around :) ). I bought the first mag i saw and it wasn't a very smart idea, and i also used RACV for the inspection. They really are useless.

Hi Baron xD

hey mate. I know the noise you are talking about. If its only a soft noise then they all do it, but anything more than a background noise during acceleration then i would be looking at a different vehicle.

hey mate. I know the noise you are talking about. If its only a soft noise then they all do it, but anything more than a background noise during acceleration then i would be looking at a different vehicle.
Unfortunately I think the guy has sold it out from under me, he texted with some BS about getting into a traffic accident and car not being in a tradeable condition now... BL me, eh? Or maybe not, lol.