Injector Rattle

[Gbt]

Can someone explain to me - in fairly simple terms - what injector rattle is, what causes it, and what happens if it is not remedied.

I have the rattle, worst when the ute is cold then tends to quieten down when it warms up, altho I can still hear it quietly under partial load. I am gonna try the liquid moly purge next week when I get the change to get some. I was just wondering about what exactly makes the rattle and what is it indicative of.....

 

[happy john]

Can someone explain to me - in fairly simple terms - what injector rattle is, what causes it, and what happens if it is not remedied.

I have the rattle, worst when the ute is cold then tends to quieten down when it warms up, altho I can still hear it quietly under partial load. I am gonna try the liquid moly purge next week when I get the change to get some. I was just wondering about what exactly makes the rattle and what is it indicative of.....

Your cold rattle is normal for any common rail. Compared to the old mechanical injection such as ZD30 it is much more noticable, considering 26.000psi it's unlike any of my previous oilers. Some claim the purge helps with noise, I have found no difference apart from better running, and a tiny economy improvement.

Unless you have huge smoke or hopeless power just let it be, the little donk does well considering the weight.....

 

[jonney]

yes when cold the engine runs leaner causing the noisy rattle and things get quieter when the engine gets warmer. remember we are running a deisel engine not a petrol job , listen to the truck when he sits beside you at the lights.

 

[happy john]

It's lean from new, with proper tuning you all can have a heap more grunt from the day you have it delivered. The chatter noise is normal to any commom rail oiler.

 

[Stelianos]

try and disconnect the battery, drain any voltage by pumping the brakes once ( i usually leave it disconnect it overnight) that will reset the ecu, and possible make the injector rattle less noticable, at least it worked for me. a liquid moly will also help it a lot.

 

[Old.Tony]

^ and with all that said, it still pays to look for:

* Leaks in the air box. If it's leaking on the side closer to the turbocharger you'll get what sounds like a rattle, it's actually partially-muffled induction noise.

* Leaks around the exhaust manifold and particularly the turbocharger-manifold interface.

* Leaks from the EGR tube

Any of these could present as a rattle sound. In particular, the turbocharger and exhaust manifolds can sort of seal up when they get hot.

Injector cleaner might help. I use Liqui Moly - I've tried others, and nothing compares to this stuff.

 

[bradm84]

I'm halfway through a 7000km road trip in my 2.5l d22 and have been through about 5 or 6 tankfulls of diesel since leaving home and have found that the fuel is playing a big part in the noise of the engine and the economy. I've been mainly filling up at bp's but also a caltex and a shell.

The first BP tank got me 800km's to the tank but fairly noisy injector type noise.
The next tank also from a BP only got me 650km's and was a bit quieter...
Then I went caltex and got 650 again but noisy injector noise.
The most recent tank I am looking like I'll surpass 750km's, probably get 800km's again but its running quieter and smoother than the last few tanks. All of these tanks were run during a similar mixture of highway and town driving.

So its been fairly random but have concluded that fuel quality is having an impact on the noise of the engine. Seems BP's in major towns that have the diesel ultimate has been the best quality making the engine quieter and major improvement in economy.

I don't know a whole lot about the chemistry of diesel and how it affects injectors operation but I know in my car at least, it seems very sensitive to the fuel quality.

 

[Gbt]

Thanks, the air box is good but I will have a look around the exhaust, turbo and EGR return - but I am 99% sure it is the injectors.

I have also done an ECU reset, and put it back into learn mode and done the 20min drive, but may try that again anyway.

I agree with the fuel quality - I had a bad batch last year and had to swap out 3 filters and dropped and cleaned out the tank - which maybe did some damage and is only now showing the symptoms.

 

[Gbt]

I was talking to a guy the other day who said Nissan can do an "Injector Timing Reset" or calibration using their software. Does anyone know anything about this?

I was thinking of maybe pursing that avenue if after the Moly Purge the rattle is still so pronounced. They will probably charge my right testie for it tho! and that is my favorite one.

 

[mike1303]

I use responsive in my fuel. Every third fill up. Helps to reduce the rattle

 

[Barbazor65]

Noisy injectors

Hi guys I have a 2013 navarra d40 about 5000 km ago my injectors start rattle lying every time I go 3000fts above sea level it get stronger the sound with more smoke I tried nissan fuel injectors and not oem products need some help my truck don't have egr valve from factory

 

[Old.Tony]

Mercedessource recommends Liqui Moly Diesel Purge as a first step. It's what I'd do.

There's a movement towards diesels in aviation but their greatest fear is the engine stalling and not restarting. Above 20,000 feet the air is quite thin and while a petrol-powered plane can make it to 30,000 feet, diesels stop due to the lack of oxygen.

The turbocharger is supposed to help - it's an air pump, after all, and if the intake manifold pressure is too low, the ECU should direct the vanes in the turbo to get some more air moving. I think inspecting turbo vac hoses would be valuable. Looking for signs of boost leak (oil escaping from the air hosing between the turbocharger and the intake manifold) is also valuable.

Another possible culprit there is going to be the MAFS. This device (just outside the air filter box in the hose on the way to the turbocharger) is an expensive air motion sensor. It measures temperature and flow rate of the air. It gets dirty - only use a spray electrical contact cleaner, spraying it into the hole in the side. Each time I do mine, I get a little bit of black liquid then it runs clear. Hold it so that it drains, for about 30 seconds, then reinstall.