Rattle Somewhere Under Car - TD4

hi fellers,

got a quick question about a rattle under the car somewhere. basically, it happens when under acceleration, usually only for a short while - i have no continuous noise, or whine, or anything - just a rattle. there sometimes, gone the next.

i've looked underneath and can't see anything loose, there seems to be no effect on the way the car drives / handles / accelerates - does anyone have any idea what i could check?

thought it might be heat shield, but not sure the TD4 has them? (couldn't find it in RAVE)

i do however have something that is an unrelated problem, has been happening a lot recently and started waaaay after the rattle - the car jerks a little when driving...ie like a hiccup...sort of very brief and then fine - again, power is good, drive is good - not sure what it could be (but both fuel pumps are new).

any help appreciated

heat shield on exhaust in engine bay ?

hi, thanks for the tip - had a quick look under and cant see it - anyidea where i can see it on RAVE or a photo? rattle is really intermittent (seems to speak up when going over tram tracks in the road quickly though.)


as for the jerking engine during driving - seems very intermittent too - much less now ive started using VIF (certified Czech diesel additive for cleaning / maintennace) into every tank - time for a new fuel filter? Whats the procedure for changing that?

Hello

Daft idea but have you checked theres nothing on the engine shield under the car.I dropped a socket head on mine and forgot about it. Took me ages to realise what the rattle was:doh:

As for the hiccup. I drive a new ford transit connect diesel (the small one) for work, it's 7 months old and yes it hiccups. Not all the time but every now and then, sent it back to ford and they sent it straight back, no fault found. The other one we have at work doesn't hiccup but drives like a pig compared to mine!?! Would'nt worry to much.

Nothing to do with me .

The Mad Hat Man said:

Nothing to do with me .

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hello teflon flop man

hi ya Ming - yu good?

The Mad Hat Man said:

hi ya Ming - yu good?

Click to expand...

gota sore bum. . . . .other than that i'm a super sonic man

cheers for the tips will look at the engine shield asap (im sure at some point ive dropped something down there - but thought it would have started rattling much sooner / fallen out from all the off-road days)

As for the hiccup - could it be an intermittent injector fault? not had it before....it seems to just jerk the power on-off for a split second. As i said, the idle is perfect, sounds ok, gearbox seems great, not problems as far as i can tell with IRD or VCU or Diffs.

hi fellas still suffering from the rattle - seems to get worse / get better, but now its mostly present.

Have looked underneath and can't see anything amiss.

However, with the car in neutral (Auto box) and with me revving, i can get the rattle to come on - would this rule out IRD / drive problems if its happening when at a standstill?

Cant seem to find ANY heat shields underneath - so i would welcome any tips on what to look for - since its really getting to be a bit crap driving around sounding like one of those old football supporter rattles.

PS. after replacing 2 intercooler hoses, im still getting quite a bit more smoke out the back then im used to, could it be related to rattle?

as i said, any help welcome - ive been searching for "rattle" on the forum, but don't think ive found something that matches this.

Just so you know, a dying center diff causes a rattle at about 1200rpm during acceleration. Replacing mine now...

Thanks Patrick - can you reproduce the rattle when the car is standing still and in neutral and you are just revving the engine? or is it only under load?

been rading up on the forum - how would i go about checking whether the rattle is caused by the crank pulley?

Right, this issue, for now, seems to be resolved - in fact, all are resolved: the rattle, the smoking exhaust and the intermittent jerks in power.

What i did to fix it? I honestly don't know The last repairs i did before the problems started were replacing both intercooler hoses. This weekend, i took it all apart, took off the hoses, the engine acoustic cover, the air filter, etc - sprayed contact cleaner on all contacts i could find (injectors and sensors), reseated all the hoses and tightened them properly, cleaned what i could (vacuumed out the crap in the air filter box etc).

Result is a car that no longer jerks, no longer smokes and no longer rattles - 3 days trouble free so far....confused, but happy

Hi. I am something of a L/R virgin but my Freelander had an annoying metallic rattle/knocking that was intermittent. I found it at the weekend, it was a clip that had come loose behind the engine. It was a clip over a hose fixed to the rear of the engine by a single 6mm screw and it had come loose, was hanging around the hose and was banging against the metal plate in the middle of the steering rack. I replaced it and no more noise.........may not be of much use, but every little helps, as they say......

So, my rattle is back again - this time however with no smoke / power issues - so, ill write those things off to the inter-cooler hoses which i re-seated and re-tightened. The rattle isn't so bad this time.

What i've deduced so far:

1) Rattle is present when in neutral, therefore not likely to be a drivetrain issue?

2) Rattle stopped when i did a quick clean of air ducting / intercooler hoses at top of engine AND got some crap out from under the underbody panel by banging it out with the palm of my hand (technical, i know)

3)Rattle does not seem to affect driving performance (car pulls well, no obvious over-smoking)

4) Rattle sounds quite loud and metal on metal

5) Rattle started after off-roading (isn't the exhaust, i've looked)

Going to have a look at those metal hoses behind the engine, not sure where to go from there. Any other pointers appreciated.

The rattle could be from the crankshaft auxiliary drive pulley which makes quite a noise when it is shot. Since it is a harmonic damper the noise does vary with engine speed.
In normal operation the pulley shows polishing marks on the depressed outer sector of the rim extending over an arc of approximately 5mm. When worn this increases to 12~15mm and there were also signs of swarf/wear debris along the edge of the sector. The rubber section didn't show any serious signs of disbonding.
You can get a good view of it if you remove the plastic mud shield in the wheel arch. It takes some serious torque to retighten the new one and is a bit of a struggle without a lift.

Thanks a lot, will check it out asap. If i need to use the car before sat, but cant get under until sat, is it ok to use till then if it is the Crankshaft Pulley?

Secondly - would it be an intermittent rattle? there sometime, gone the next?

UPDATE: i've had a quick look at RAVE / my TD4 (just from the top of engine bay) - when talking about Ancillary Drive Belt / Crankshaft Pulley etc they talk about a splash shield - i can't seem to find one on my car, where would i be looking, since the image in Rave is a bit of a mystery to me and there isn't a specific section about the shield?

Cheers.

Looking under the OSF wheelarch, the shield bridges the gap between the inner wing/chassis rail and the undertray frame.

3 bolts up into chassis rail to remove and then with the shield off you get a better view of the pulleys/belts.

Thanks for the replies, will investigate.

Went for a drive - the rattle was gone.
Went for another later on, was there, but just a little.
So, it seems rather intermittent :-S

Need to do about 100Km tomorrow, so hope it will be ok