I posted a couple of weeks ago concerning a problem with my 97 TJ (4cyl, auto, 130K) and a lack of power at freeway speeds. I got some good suggestions on here, the general consensus being that it could be a plugged catalytic converter.
After that post, the problem apparently went away - until this past Friday when the car lost almost all power, but I was able to limp it home using very light throttle openings to (eventually) reach about 25/30 mph.
Yesterday, I got it to the shop to have a new cat fitted. This has restored the power but now another (somewhat more serious sounding) problem is evident:
I now have a ticking or tapping sound which gets faster with increased engine speed and louder under wider throttle openings. At idle or when cruising or when revving the engine gently at a standstill, you can't hear the noise. But when any load is applied to the engine, the noise is apparent.
I made a couple of mp3s to document the sound. The first is the vehicle standing - you can hear the noise when I applied rapid throttle (0:01, 0:13,
0:19), but not when applying gentle throttle (0:03, 0:22) to reach the same engine speeds:Any ideas here on what this could be ?
Thanks in advance for any help Keith