Knock questions
 

As I mentioned in my thread about possibly getting a different alero, on saturday morning when I first started it, it was on for about 10 seconds and was heavily knocking, I shut it off, it started a little hard but the knock was gone and for a couple days ran with no knock at all...tonite when I got back to my apartment I noticed that while not even half as bad as the first time there is a little bit of knock again...This is where I have two questions.

The first is that I read that for the ecotec you could end up with an oil filter that has a faulty o ring on the base and it won't hold proper oil pressure. The case of this that I read their knock started a few hundred miles after an oil change, I changed my oil 200-250 miles ago.I plan to try and replace the filter tomorrow and see what that does, but I was wondering if anybody had heard of that or if it made any sense. I have never liked the ecotec oil filter system as it seems like they took something that was simple and has worked forever and made it more complicated and prone to failure.

The second thing is how long should it take for the knock sensor to be triggered. While there were about 10 seconds of major knock on saturday and while I only listened for about 30 seconds, a little longer than that of knock today, shouldn't the knock sensor have triggered the ses light...While I am not sure about saturdays, todays definitely sounded mild enough for the knock sensor to be able to correct, but major enough to do something. Any input on what I should do other than say screw it and drive it til it blows would be much appreciated, because I am getting close to that on my own.

how many miles on the car?

never heard about that for an oil filter. i know the 3.4's have noisy valvetrains and piston slap when cold, but thats normal. i dont know if your motor has that same thing, and also you say it was a "loud" knock, we dont really know how loud it was.... compare it to something, or describe how loud it was?

sorry i mean heavy knock.

Don't bother replacing the filter....the chances that's the problem are slim. Sure, people prob had that issue but what are the chances you get a faulty filter like them? I know how it is though....you always hope it's an easy/cheap fix but usually that's not the case.

I have to agree that it's probably not the filter. But if your concerned then pull the filter and look at it. I do oil changes on the ecotech and etechs all the time and its a pretty reliable system. If you do it right its less of a mess then a can style filter.

What r u running for oil? Try using a tad thicker oil or add an additive like Lucas oil stabilizer and see what happens.

is it down on power?

Mileage is 157k

For how loud it was the first time, it was just an much knock as when the 454 in our dump truck spun 2 rod bearings only it went away and the dump trucks didn't.

It currently has 5w-30 as the factory suggests, I have used this since I got it, the only reason I agree it could be the filter is they said they only had the issue with cheaper filters and I have the o'rielly brand microguard filter in it. This is where I really wish our car had oil pressure gauges.

It is usually fine on power however through saturday it has been a little sluggish until it was warmed up, so I have been letting it warm up a tad and driving gentle until it is warmed up then returning to normal driving...after the major knock on saturday it ran smooth, all response from cold was great, and then, while I have been starting the car with the door open to make sure there wasn't that heavy knock on startup, when I started to drive it was a little sluggish again. But after about a quarter of a mile on the road it warmed up a hair and response was good again.

I don't know why it would cause that but could the fact that in the 134k before I got it I only know of it having about 5 oil changes, and then in the 23k that I have put on it I have tried to take car of it so it has had 5 oil changes since I have gotten it...My question is, since the oil is actually changed regularly now are the detergents starting to break sludge and stuff loose, and that could be an issue.

Before anybody says tensioner both the timing and balance assemblies were replaced 4k ago

I would like to get this figured out and hope that it can be resolved between part store loner tools and what little tools I have...Regardless of if it is fixed or not I am going home next wednesday which is a 150 mile trip...If I can't figure out the problem and it goes then so be it, however I am not wanting to do anymore major repairs on this one...When my uncle gets the title together and I give him the rest of the money, if I include the timing chain repair, replacing the fuel pump, and the cost of the vehicle I will be in it around $2100 and I have got almost 23k out of it so it still averages out to be a good deal and regardless of what happens I still plan to own an alero. I will try some of these suggestions and see what happens.

Now is where I start placing blame...checking things out more it is mostly coming from the left side of the motor where the chains are, and there is a definite sound of one of the chains scraping...i am going to call the installing shop today and say something and then hopefully she makes it back home fine and I will take it back and have them fix it...there is no way that it should have failed in that short of a time period and it would be that either they got faulty parts or they didn't put them on right

EDIT: I guess blame is the wrong word here unless it was improperly installed...bad parts are made all the time and if that wasn't the case there would be no need for a warranty...I called him and he said the parts should be under warranty and I will talk to him about labor when I get it there in a couple days...I am willing to possibly pay part of the labor because it does have some use, however I don't think it has been long enough for the full burden to be on me yet...While I am a little bit leary he said that it would be fine to drive it the rest of this week and what I need to next week and then drive it back and the first stop other than maybe to get my friend to follow me to the shop (he lives along the way in one of the routes to it), will be the shop. I am not really mad about the situation as long as he takes care of his part of it.

Not driving her all day already makes me miss it some and I don't even go back home and take it to the shop until next Wednesday...I have decided that I will just walk the 1.5 miles to and from class to keep from all the cold driving with it like it is...Hopefully she will make the 200 mile trip to the shop back home good, and the shop can get her taken care of and I won't have to get a different one right now...I really don't feel most comfortable driving it that far knowing the issue, but the shop told me that that is what I should do, so I will go ahead and do it...If not I have to get my truck and trailer to take my friends car to the shop, I guess I will have to pick up an extra vehicle with it. Hope they don't have it as long this time.