"CLICK CLICK" in VTII

[tdog]

hey everyone
a mate of mine has just got a genIII vtII and when he first turns the car on and goes to accelerate there is a "click click" noise from the rear of the engine. It only happens on initial acceleration, once the car gets going its fine.
However when you turn it off for a period of time, then turn it back on, it goes "click click" again.

If anyone has any ideas on whats going on it'd be appreciated

cheers

[minux]

It's called piston slap, let the car warm up and use a decent oil in it to minimise it. If it's using oil, i suggest your mate get rid of it

[tdog]

thanks mate
i know the vts are notorius for using oil. its a shame coz i love the shape of them. im hoping my vx is a little bit saferbut i think theres sum gremlins there too

[VZLAD]

Could possibly be tappets ?

Oh hold on no it cant be that because ANY little noise associated with a gen3 HAS to be piston slap and a possible oil issue.. GET OVER IT..

[minux]

Could possibly be tappets ?

Oh hold on no it cant be that because ANY little noise associated with a gen3 HAS to be piston slap and a possible oil issue.. GET OVER IT..

It could be that, but 99/100 times on a cold start it is slap.

[Demons1964]

Minux, hold fire on the piston slap problem!! If you read the symptoms he described it doesn't sound anything like piston slap!! And how do I know? Because I have the same "problem" in my GenIII stato, but I'd say it's more a quirk.

I've had the car 12 months and the noise sounds identical to when I first bought the car so it's clearly not getting worse. It's a one-off "click-click" noise that occurs once drive is fully engaged and I would say it's coming from the front of the transmission. It only occurs once and is not heard the rest of the journey. Cycling it through park/neutral/reverse will not make the noise occur again. I've had the car idling for 10 minutes from a cold start and then put it into drive/reverse and as soon as the foot goes on the accelerator you hear the noise. Doing the same thing in neutral and there is no noise. So it's clearly not engine related.

I've heard piston slap before and this doesn't even sound remotely like it. This sounds more like a transmission problem.

Mark.

[PSK]

It's the abs system...or traction control can't remember which............It does it at every startup as a system check at or about 6km/h

[minux]

It's the abs system...or traction control can't remember which............It does it at every startup as a system check at or about 6km/h

That happens EVERY START, not when you drive then stop for a long period.

His clicking is happening after a long period of stopping, not at every start

[BOXY1]

Its definately not piston slap or the tappets because i have the exact same thing happening in my vx ss and the noise occurs even when the engine isnt on, only need to turn the key to accesories and touch the accelerator and u get the noise. Which makes me think PSK must be right. any other possibilities other than this if it occurs without the engine started?

[minux]

lol are you sure it isnt just relays flicking over?

[BOXY1]

No im not at all sure what it is thats why im on here looking. All i know is that if i turn the car to accesories or actually start up and touch the accelerator i get a click click noise as described by tdog. turn it off and back on and it does it again. The fact that it happens when the engine isnt started tells me that its nothing to with tappets or piston slap

[Demons1964]

lol are you sure it isnt just relays flicking over?

If it was a relay the size of a shoebox maybe, but it's way way louder than a normal relay.

BOXY1, I haven't tried it on accessories with the go pedal down. I'll give it a go tonight. Do you have traction control? I'm thinking PSK is right because I'm struggling to think what else might be running through a check procedure with the engine off.

[minux]

If it was a relay the size of a shoebox maybe, but it's way way louder than a normal relay.

BOXY1, I haven't tried it on accessories with the go pedal down. I'll give it a go tonight. Do you have traction control? I'm thinking PSK is right because I'm struggling to think what else might be running through a check procedure with the engine off.

If it is something like that than it can't be good, i havent heard that noise in any VT onwards :S

Hope you work out what it is, hope more its just a cheap fix

Good Luck

[BOXY1]

yeh i do have traction control, but my parents have a VT series 1 with traction control, and that doesnt make a noise. I may be way out of the ball park with this but is the accelerator hydraulically operated in gen III's? could it be something to do with that?

[hkmonaro68]

I think you are hearing the throttle relaxer clicking. Normal.

[Hurricane]

I recently had a similar problem with a ticking sound when car was cold which would go away after a few minutes. Turned out to be the exhaust manifold. A couple of the headbolts had broken which meant that the exhaust manifold had come away from its position and when it heated up it expanded and stopped the noise. Worth having a look anyway?

[Demons1964]

BOXY1, I can confirm mine also does it in the "ON" key position (the one with all the dash warning lights on).

hkmonaro68, can you explain the role of the throttle relaxer?

[VZLAD]

Perhaps cracked belt ?

[vt62nv]

mine sum times makes a click click noise, its usually the flaps in the air cond vents moving 4 some reason when ignition just on, if that makes sense

[BOXY1]

TigaMite: Na its not a cracked belt when i took my car back to holden they thought it was that so changed all the belts and it was still there.

vt62nv: After i complained at holden that the noise was still there they said it was the aircond flaps werent working properly (which they werent because the directional control didnt work) so they fixed that and told me the noise was gone. But yet again i come back to find the noise still there.