My 99 Camry began to have this pinging sound from the engine. Sound becomes stronger when I press gas. And frequency seems to be the same as engine rotation speed.
What could be wrong? I am thinking that one of the sparks went bad. In this case I can just buy a new one and try replacing them one by one till I find a faulty one. Is this likely to be a problem?
Engine lite is off.
Thank you in advance for any response.
Maybe due to the colder weather nowadays, try switching fuel brands or higher octane first.
So if spark went bad will engine light go up? If there is no engine light in such case does this mean that this is most likely not very important problem?
How many miles are on the engine? How many miles since the spark plugs were changed? If the spark plugs were changed, what brand spark plugs were installed?
Where are you located and what is the octane rating of the fuel you are using?
In my experience a bad sparkplug will not cause CEL go up. How you define important problem?, if you are thinking the car will suddenly not start or keep you stranded in the freeway, then pinging will not do that to you. It is an indicator that some are not functioning well, engine is warmer than intended, timing is wrong, low octane fuel, worn out ignition parts. Wrong timing may indicate a wornout timing belt, A broken timing belt WILL be bad as your car will not start and thus leaving you stranded.
140 miles. Spark plugs were never changed. Located in California, Bay Area. Octane -- 87.
Assuming that by "140" miles, you mean 140,000 miles, I would start by replacing the spark plugs with OEM spark plugs. I believe that the replacement interval is supposed to be every 60,000 miles.
Actually my car died today, stopped in the middle of the road. I didn't drive it much recently, turned out oil wasn't changed there for too long and engine died. I just forgot about oil :-(
First auto shop quoted me $3000 to replace the engine. They say: used engine is ~$1500. + they should order many other parts around the engine + labor.
Is this a reasonable estimate? Is there a way to fix it w/out replacing the engine?
Temperature indicator was always in the middle, never overheated.
Have they actually tried adding new oil and trying to make it start or just said you need a new engine? Best thing to do is to actually try if it still works.
I think the temp indicator is the coolants temp and not the engine temp. I have not actually experience driving a car that ran out of oil and dont know if the temp gauge will go up. There is an oil pressure warning light on the dashboard that should have alerted you earlier.
$3,000 sounds reasonable to replace the engine, and follow the maintenance schedule in the owner's manual to help prevent a repeat occurrence.
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