Nissan Pulsar N16 2001 Model Rattling Noise Under Acceleration

It might be a brake caliper rattling, I would check that....it's a known problem on the early ones....

You can find pretty much any problem here ↓↓↓

http://forum.pulsar.org.au/archive/index.php/f-17-p-15.html

Check the heat shields and brackets on the exhaust system. Sometimes the bolts/welds will come loose. At some RPM's they will vibrate. It could even be the baffles in the muffler if everything else checks out. And yes it may not do it sitting still. Revving the motor does not put the drive train, engine mounts and exhaust system under stress and deflection the same way as when the vehicle is moving. Like you said: "noise starts when I cross a certain rpm and when under load or climbing a hill."

I would check everything when the vehicle is cold then after it has been run for a period of time to warm everything up good and the noise starts. Wear gloves and use a small hammer or something similar and tap through the whole system.

Let us know what you find out.

If its Pinging, the OP could try a full tank of the highest quality petrol/gas. One without ethanol if possible. If that fixes or reduces the problem, it is to do with timing and/or ignition system.

Usually that will be some sort of sensor and/or computer or motor management system error.

I have tried this and there is a great inmprvement,I was on 91octave then tried 95 is was a very little improvement now I tried 98 and it was much more better,I will stick to this and see,thanks a lot

This great test you made simply means that your ignition is off in some way, usually timing is too soon and it needs to be retarded.

Pinking, as it is often called, starts BEFORE it is audible, yours is audible. Damage is happening. Modern engines have a special sensor to "hear" this far earlier and then the motor management automatically adjusts the timing to stop it happening.

In a gas/petrol engine, the fuel MUST BURN, Pinking shows that it is exploding, not burning. It will damage the bearings in the engine as the abrupt explosion may cause severe contact to the various bearing surfaces in the small end, big end and crankshaft.

Diesel engines, where the explosion is considered as part of the deal, are designed with wider bearing surfaces to handle this, though nowadays, to reduce noise, many modern diesels inject many times instead of just once, this reduces the loads on such bearings as well as being quieter.

The cause could be that your car has bad wiring, a bad knock sensor or a bad motor management system or even a firmware error that might have to be updated to work correctly. There could even be other problems that I do not know of.....

Adjustment as in older engines is simply not available on most modern engines, it went the same way as contacts did, about the same time too......

BUT! the problem SHOULD be fixable by a good garage.....I would venture to say......best of luck and again, well done.

So it has nothing to do with the pea-gravel some punk has placed inside the hub-caps, then?

It may well be your ABS kicking in. I have a 98 Saturn 5 spd and I hear this God awful noise every time I start to take off and it is the ABS doing it's thing.

The other thing it may be is "Ping". Something that I have not experienced in years.

When the oil companies were forced by no real reason other than the agri world with over corn production to put ethanol into gas for some god forsaken stupid reasons "that is another book".

Our cars developed a ping with combustion, timing when piston hit TDC and was off causing this different noise we were not used to. A rattling under acceleration that was more prone to climbing hills. In the old days we used to add lead to our fuel to eliminate this. I don't know if this is even available now. Been over 30+ years since I last added lead to my fuel for my 69 Mach 1 Stang. Sadly it became junk. If I would have had a clue, it would have been garaged and not driven in winter.

The only major issue with the stang, if you were gonna hit over 130, you had to kick off the PS belt or you could not control it. Kick off the belt , hey 160 and not topped out. No idea what it could do, always running out of highway.

As for your condition, check out your timing. If off you will get the Ping. Rattling noise.

Keep us updated.

"When the oil companies were forced by no real reason other than the agri world with over corn production to put ethanol into gas for some god forsaken stupid reasons "that is another book"."

There was actually a really good reason we fought for this.... when the use of lead in gasoline was outlawed due to the fact that the entire population was showing increasing levels of lead in their blood, ethanol was the recommended replacement....However the oil companies came up with MTBE as an oxygenator because it was a waste product from the refining process and cost them nothing....The problem with MTBE is that when it gets into the ground water from rusting storage tanks, spills and what have you, it takes only about 1 part per million to render the taste so nasty as to make it undrinkable(and even less to just taste bad)....whole towns have been abandoned for this reason....This spawned two things, improved storage technology(you may have noticed the tanks being replaced at your local gas station over the last several years)and the move to ethanol for oxygenation, as was originally suggested...

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/iteam&id=7286029

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methyl_tert-butyl_ether

A must read....

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/01/lead-crime-connection

You imply that ethanol was the replacement for lead, sorry, completely untrue.

There was a long period, at least in Europe, between the "end of lead", before the start of ethanol.....lead was a required lubricant for the old, cheap and primitive valves previously used. Hardened valves and seats meant that the engines did not need lead anymore, though petrol had its Octane level raised by the lead as well.....

Octane was raised by some other nasty chemicals which were eventually banned, how they achieve it today I cannot say....that will be the next nasty surprise I expect....

Ethanol is only there to replace some fossil fuel with a more green fuel that can be "regrown"......I do believe that in S.America, they use an even higher percentage of bio fuel in their cars and have done for many years, as true petrol is simply too expensive.

Lead was replaced with MTBE, which was replaced with ethanol....these were all used as an oxygenate to raise octane number and relieve engine knocking....If you had taken the time to read the reference links I provided, this would be clear....

Here it was sold as a cleaner, greener additive to replace some fossil fuel usage.

Hello gents there is one possibility that you are all forgetting about that when under load the noise happens. Is this auto equipped with an automatic transmission, there is the possibility that the flywheel is cracked and only making noise when under load. We had a early pinto that had this problem for years and could not find the problem until we removed the engine to replace it with a V-8 for a little more fun. It had rubbed so long that it was wearing a hole through the backing plate of the torque converter. don't know how much longer it would have lasted but when we probed the torque converter we pushed a hole in it and it leaked from the hole until we took it to a friends trans repair shop and had it welded closed. that trans is still running in a early falcon with a fresh flywheel and the original 1600. After that we now check the flywheel with a metal hammer and check for a solid ring or a dull thud as well as flexing the flywheel with a big pry bar. have found a few bad flywheels that way since. Duke

I appreciate everyone's contribution,I have learned a lot from you all, I checked on youtube and found my condition matched the pigging or detonation theory and so I bought 98 octave yesterdayand it was a great improvement noise has reduce from big rattle to very little noise, very grateful to everyone cheers.

It still needs proper fixing to save the bearings....

Thanks Andy, please can you advise on how this can be fixed?

I do not have access to the car, so its not easy to say what is defective, that only the representative of the car company can.

What have they done/replaced up to now? Can you post details please?

I want to thank everyone that contributed to this topic, I am indeed enjoying my car again after using octane booster with the fuel, and I am now using premium unleaded 98, it is only a few cent more that the premium unleaded 91 I was using before with a brilliant outcome.