People often talk about pinging or knocking what is it exactly how can you tell if your engine is pinging or knocking?

 

The short answer is that pinging/knocking is predetonation. What that means is that the fuel/air is combusting before the spark. Higher compression engines such as the VQ are more prone to this and that is why you should use high octane gasoline. The number of octane actually refers to the "anti-knock index."

Knocking is bad because is causes stress on the engine. Our knock sensor is supposed to pick up any of these knocks and adjust the timing accordingly. The trouble is, low octane gas/bad knock sensor, results in retarded timing which is bad for both performance and fuel economy.

Moral of the story: make sure you knock sensor is good and put in premium gas like the owner's manuel recommends.

Hope this helps.

 

So how do you know if your engine is knocking or pinging do you hear it, do you feel it?

 

Predetonation sounds like a "ping" or a "knock." To tell you the truth, I have never heard it on these motors. I think it is rare to happen because the ECU adjusts for this. FI guys have a problem with knock because they are putting much more air/fuel into the combustion chamber.

I have only heard it on a big V8, when you put in bad gas and it idles rough and you hear the tell tale ping. Really doesn't seem to be a pervasive problem with our cars. Of course, that is just my take on it.

 

chances are you'll never hear it, you might be hearing your injectors

 

Is this when you turn your car off and you start to hear pings and knocks like lil rocks falling in a can ? CUZ my car dose this everytime i turn it off?

 

little rocks in a can.....hahaha. i dont know man. i think most cars do that, cept it sometimes make pinging noises when i turn on the car and that might be a problem. or maybe im just hearing imaginary sounds

 

thats normal, its when the engine is running u need to worry about it.

 

Just the exhaust piping contracting as it cools down. Nothing to worry about.

 

Hahaha Thanks Guys!!!!!

 

I could hear mine knocking for sure when I ran regular in it for two tanks. I have a new knock sensor too. It sounded like a really bad timing chain rattling. Once I switched back to premium, the sound stopped.