I'm having problems with what I believe is pinking with my 214 SEI.

It makes the pinking noise under medium throttle up. If you use the throttle lightly you can get up to 70 with no noise at all.

I've got a full running SLi for spares, and so far have changed : Plugs, Leads, Dizzy cap, Rotor Arm, ECU, Coolant Temp Sender, Crank Angle Sensor, Checked all vacuum hoses for splits, leaks, and blockages & Air Intake Sensor.

I'm quickly running out of ideas. It's got the alloy manifold, and my wife reckons it's injector noise. But if you lift the bonnet, and rev it unloaded, the injectors can't really be heard.

I'm thinking of swapping the IM for the plastic one of the SLi (at least it'll eliminate the TPS, IAC,).

After that there's only the O2 sensor I can think of. The car runs as sweet as a nut, and idles as smooth as silk, and doesn't use oil or coolant.

Any ideas will be greatly appreciated

The O2 sensor is ignored on hard acceleration. You can also unplug to check too (it'll run rich but it'll run).

Are you sure it isn't a sticky tappet?

Thanks for the reply. I'll try unplugging the O2 sensor.

Don't think it's a tappet. My other car is a 24v Probe, so I'm familiar with noisey HLAs:crying: This sounds different. Just like in the good old days of points and distributors, when the ignition timing was out, or the advance mechanism wasn't working right.

Thought about the cam belt being out, but it would run like a bag of spanners all the time.

I tried unplugging the O2 sensor, with no change.

So swapped the entire IM/TB for a plastic one. Again no change. The IAC seemed to be sticking, as the car was idling at 2000 rpm :(

So this morning, refitted the alloy IM. While I was at it, I noticed loads of gunge in the water, so I flushed the cooling system.

Went for a spin, and no pinking!!!:smug_git:

I'm chuffed it's sorted, but hate it not knowing what it actually was. I assume it's something to do with the IM. Either a dodgy TPS or IAC connection, or a leaking IM gasket.