Has anyone had the the dreaded pinging from their 2.4 and were able to figure it out? I figured it was just bad gas and it still could be, I ran that out and refueled and still getting ping. Now I know it could still be from the 1/8 tank that was left but I figured it would prolly spread it out enough to where it wouldn't matter.

My car is an 08 with 98,000 on it and appears to have been taken really good care of. I purchased it over the winter and have not done anything to it yet.. Other than clean it and changed the oil. Can you guys give me any ideas what it might be? I usually just run 87 oct because of things I've read about them running the same on either. Thanks for any help here.

 

Well the first step I'd take would be to have the codes pulled, even though you don't have an illuminated CEL, there may be stored codes.

Then I'd suspect a bad Knock Sensor, pinging is a sign of detonation in the engine, basically the fuel/air charge is exploding instead of burning. The Knock Sensor provides data to the ECM allowing the engine to advance or retard its timing if detonation is detected.

A steady diet of 87 Octane fuel may have also left carbon deposits in the combustion chambers, a dose of Premium and a good fuel system cleaner may alleviate the problem if there are no stored codes related to the Knock Sensor.

 

Thanks for replying back 843, is the knock sensor expensive and is it easy to get to? I'll have the codes pulled if autozone can do it, plus I'll get some good injector cleaner and run 92 octane from now on.

 

Don't forget the SEARCH tool at the top of the page - looking for "knock sensor" got me pointed to this thread with pictures - https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/problems-service-repairs-42/does-anybody-know-where-knock-sensor-2-4-a-29149/

 

Thanks whopper I looked it up and got the info I asked about. Today I went to see if autozone could check for codes and that was a no go! Anyway.. I filled it up and got some injector cleaner. It may only do it when it gets good and warmed up, I did not hear it today after driving 10-12 miles, and it really never loses power when it does do it, doesn't feel like it anyway. We'll see how it does with the shell 93 oct and cleaner.