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Ecotec Rattling Noise SOLVED!

tavrin

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Hey guys / girls

Some of you might have been aware that my ecotec had been making a really bad rattling noise about a month and a half ago.
I wasn't too bothered if the motor let go because I have a brand new L67 ready to be dropped in.

Over the past month the rattling became really bad ... to the point that it was making a really harsh knocking noise when in gear... which brings me to what happened on Friday.

Friday morning... I hopped in the car to head off to work. Fired er' up. However the Ecotec had plans of its own.
The moment it fired up, I heard a massive metal grinding noise, followed by a little bang.
I quickly turned it off and left it for the weekend.

Started it up again today and to my amasement the rattling noise dissapeared!
Thinking it was all good, I put it into gear. After fiddling with R & D, It turns out I lost all gears LOL!

Which led me to believe... Either the Torque Converter or the Torque converter bolts are broken....

Put it up on jackstands and immediately saw a gaping hole in the dust cover... LOL
Dust cover.jpg

After removing the dust cover, I found 1 bolt at the bottom of it. Looks like its seen better days. On the left is an L67 Bolt.
Bolt.jpg

I took a look to see if the converter would spin freely... As predicted... the converter spun with barely any force.
Its body looks farily damn mangled with dings and cuts all over it.
Dented Converter.jpg

Looking at the thread holes, turns out 1 of the bolts snapped cleanly inside... Flywheel bolt holes look fairly damaged too...
Snapped Bolt.jpg

I inspected the Harmonic Balancer... It too seems like it has seen better days! I think all that vibration caused it to fall to pieces fairly damn quick!
Harmonic Balancer.jpg

My explination for the snapped bolts is: the insane shift kit... that thing shifts so damn hard every single time and always slams 1-2 *Not a bad thing, such a fun daily*.
The extra stress from the chrip must have put extra stress on the bolts causing them to fracture.

After putting thread locker on 2 of the L67 bolts and re-fitting them, the car runs smoothly and rattle free!
There is however some engine vibration at around 3000rpm+; but I would think thats due to the busted harmonic balancer which I plan on replacing tomorrow afternoon.

I hope this helps anyone with similar issues.
Cheers.
 

Brett_jjj

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The bolt hole looks all flared out and worn from movement,(pic4), to me, it looks like the converter bolts were loose and its been moving around in the hole for a fair while before it actually let go completely..
 
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