Right then, around october time my car was totally fine..... then one day my fuel feed hose suddenly blew off while trying to start the car.

i went and got new braided hoses made so they are a lot stronger (i ditched the stock pipes years ago when i binned my AC) at the same time my tubular rear control arms turned up so i fitted those too while i was in the garage. happy days ! or so i thought.....

I started the car to check for leaks and that was all good, so i thought i would jump in and take it for a spin to see if it felt any different with these UMI rear arms fitted, thats when i noticed this horrible knocking noise from inside the car which was going in time with the engine, so it went faster if i reved the engine.

Here is a video of the noise which is clear as day


So after a few weeks of not being able to find this noise, a mechanic friend put the car on his ramp and said he thought it was the new fuel hoses vibrating right down the chassis. i think i sort of kidded myself he was right and drove the car for its yearly test we need here in the UK, the car ran and drove absolutely fine but this noise is just horrible, it sort of disappears when going down the road but when you stop at lights or something it sounds like the engine is gonna blow up.

On my way to the test i stopped for fuel, filled up, got back in the car, car wouldnt start........ just kept cranking, F***K! after the 5 try it started up and was totally fine ! passed the test, drove all the way home no problems and parked it in the garage.

i had been tinkering with the car on and off for a while after that, then a couple of weeks ago i went to start it up and it just cranks again, ive tried it several times over a few days and it will not fire at all.

Next step was going to be unhooking the fuel line and putting it in a bottle to see if it shoots fuel when i turn the ignition on.

I was just wondering if my fuel pump has given up, it primes as always when the ignition is on but im not sure if its actually sending fuel to the rail. annoyingly on my old fuel hoses i had a pressure gauge but i couldnt fit it on my braided lines.

the only other possibility is that something has moved slightly when fitting these UMI tubular arms ? someone said because they are a tiny bit shorter than stock and you have to move the wheel to bring the hole into line something is now catching around the torque convertor area, but im not sure how that could happen ?

Flywheel appears to be fine, bolts holding the torque convertor to the flywheel are fine too.

 

Could put the stock arms back on and see what happens but I guarantee the control arms have nothing to do with this noise.

Is the trans low on fluid?

I would get the car in the air on a lift and listen for where the noise is coming from.

 

I did swap the old arms back on but it made no difference. All the fluids are spot on. I did think to myself there was suddenly no oil and the bottom end was knocking but its all fine.

at the yearly test the mechanic put his stethescope on and said the engine sounded fine and the noise was round the torque convertor area somewhere

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Spray some carb cleaner into the intake while cranking the engine. If it starts ( and dies when you stop spraying) then your problem is fuel delivery. If it still won't start with carb spray then your problem is ignition or mechanical.

 

That noise really sounds like the Flywheel.

 

Where the flexplate typically cracks is around the crankshaft mounting bolts, the cracks will go from bolt hole to bolt hole until the flexplate is cracked all the way around and it will sound exactly like that at idle and go away at higher rpms.

 

i'd have to guess flexplate or torque converter bolts.
put some light color paint on the torque converter bolts, then start it up for a few minutes. turn it off and see if the paint got rubbed off. they might be rubbing the back of the block?

when i've had cracked flexplates, usually i start getting bad starter sounds.

 

Pulled the fuel feed line and directed it into a jerry can. Switched ignition on and fuel went in. Not a lot but im not sure how much the pump puts in when you just prime it.

so fuel is getting to the front so even if it werent enough the car would still try to start instead of just cranking.

​​​​​​​so i guess i better check for spark etc now

 

Fixed. Well one problem anyway. It was the distributor. No spark at all so put the new dizzy in and it fired up

​​​​​​​now i can get back to investigating the original problem in the first place !