E36 ping sound

ballisticz466

///Member
Hello manne.

I'm posting on behalf of a lady friend that owns a M325i auto. This is a rather vague description of the fault, I never heard it for myself, just going on what she says. She says it makes a ping ping sound when the engine gets hot. I'm not sure if it makes that sound when it gets to normal operating temp or when it goes above that.

Any ideas as to where she could start looking?

Thanx
 

Peter@AEW

BMWFanatics Advertiser
Official Advertiser
Pre ignition or pinging as commonly referred to.
Could be a number of things quickest is to pour in some 95 octane and hear the results.
 

Loom

Member
a1exander said:
Pre ignition or pinging as commonly referred to.
Could be a number of things quickest is to pour in some 95 octane and hear the results.

Would that increase the ping?
 

Peter@AEW

BMWFanatics Advertiser
Official Advertiser
Loom said:
a1exander said:
Pre ignition or pinging as commonly referred to.
Could be a number of things quickest is to pour in some 95 octane and hear the results.

Would that increase the ping?
If it does a clear indication that the fault lies elsewhere
e.g knock sensor error
 

Maljan

Active member
Ping in the car guy sense of the word means faulty knock sensor, but the lady might mean an actual ping sound. That covers a lot of ground. Which model 325i is it?

Old school pinging as I remember it is more of a knocking death rattle. Back then you got out the timing light, mixture analyzer and tools. And fiddled with weirdly named things like carburettors and distributors.
 

danieljames

Active member
Maljan said:
Ping in the car guy sense of the word means faulty knock sensor, but the lady might mean an actual ping sound. That covers a lot of ground. Which model 325i is it?

Old school pinging as I remember it is more of a knocking death rattle. Back then you got out the timing light, mixture analyzer and tools. And fiddled with weirdly named things like carburettors and distributors.
My thoughts exactly
 

Maljan

Active member
Oh yes, the hourly reminder that one could never be bothered to turn off. Now that brings back some fond memories. :rollsmile:
 

Doomsdaya

///Member
LoL for years my car use to ping and it only happens in winter, never figured it out until last year when I realised it does that when temp drops below 0°C :)
 

Maljan

Active member
Doomsdaya said:
LoL for years my car use to ping and it only happens in winter, never figured it out until last year when I realised it does that when temp drops below 0°C

I think the threshold is about 2 or 3°C but that almost never happens in Pretoria. :rollsmile:
 

Doomsdaya

///Member
Maljan said:
Doomsdaya said:
LoL for years my car use to ping and it only happens in winter, never figured it out until last year when I realised it does that when temp drops below 0°C

I think the threshold is about 2 or 3°C but that almost never happens in Pretoria. :rollsmile:

Actually you are right, the 1st ping happens at 3°C and anything below. Lucky you, here in Mpumalanga temps frequently go below -1°C.
 
Top