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Recently I've noticed the engine's making an odd rattling sound when I ask it to pull a bit - for instance, going uphill at a steady speed with a wall to the left and the window open it sounds fine, but as soon as I push the accelerator just a little bit harder I get an odd tinny rattle.

It's not a dead (at least not yet!) turbo as I ran out of coolant again yesterday and had to drive down the M6 in limp-home mode which was fun. Makes you miss the turbo that does :/ Also the sound starts happening *immediately* after you put more pressure on the accelerator, no lag.

Any ideas?

Possibly anything to do with the hideously loud ticking from "somewhere" around the engine head (ain't worked out where yet) which has developed over the past 6 months or so?

One possibility is pre-ignition, or pinking... what grade of fuel do you use? How much boost are you using?

I use the 95RON standard BP petrol because it gives me a lot better fuel economy than anything else (except the premium BP stuff, but that works out as more expensive)

As for boost, the car's running completely standard, and I can experience this when running completely off the boost; just the slightest hint of wanting to accelerate will cause the noise

Pinking, Fill up with Optimax or Vpower or super unleaded, also stick a bottle of injector cleaner in there.

Also check that the air cleaner element is clean and not clogged with dirt.

Many many cars that 'pink' are cured with better quality fuel.

Tried some injector cleaner, didn't make any difference unfortunately

Interesting about the fuel. I think it may have actually started showing these symptoms around when I switched to BP from Tesco for the massive economy boost. But wouldn't the improved economy suggest things are working a lot better instead of worse?

I've also noticed (forgot to mention before) that the engine will often miss a beat and nearly stall if it's idling and you open up the throttle fairly quickly - I keep thinking it's going to die before the revs jump back up as the rev counter also shows a *very* visible drop for half a second or so until it recovers. Would this be more a symptom of my timing or something being to pot?

Or am I talking out of my backside and my car is just on its last legs at 146k?

sounds like myne tbh with you mate, if it keeps getting worse, myne ended being the cat, get some one to rev the engine for you, and put your hand over the exhaust to feel if it is blocked!

hmmm funny you should say that. Just a couple of hours ago I was lying in the road next to the car with my hand stretched up pushing the accelerator. Sounds like I have a mild leak roughly before the centre section... How much was it to to get yours fixed?

92 pound for the part, will get it tomo mornin now, will change it on my self.