850 - rattly, diesel engine type sound when cold

Hi,

My '97 850 has a rattly, almost diesel engine like sound when driven
cold. This lasts for about 2-3 minutes and only occurs when I am
stepping on the accelerator.

Has anyone encountered this?

Han.

 

My first guess would be an exhaust manifold leak.

 

Han, it's more likely to be an exhaust manifold gasket, which has about
a 10-year life, than the exhaust itself. Get a shop to confirm this.
If it is the gasket, the part costs next to nothing. You don't even
have to be very mechanical to fix it. Just remove the nuts to release
the exhaust manifold, remove the old gasket and any remnants (thorough
clean), fit the new gasket and re-fix. You ought to be able to swing
the manifold off the catalytic converter rather than removing both ends
if you can find something to prop it.

The most likely problem to encounter is that you can't release all of
the nuts (because of corrosion), in which case you'll have to re-fix
everything you just took off and take it down to the shop anyway.

Don't be alarmed by the noise if it is the gasket, it's only what a
motor really sounds like.

Cheers

Andrew

<--- Remove The NO and SPAM When Replying --->

 

Thanks everyone, I think you might be spot on as the muffler itself is
showing signs of rust.

Cheers,

Han.

 

I had put 278,000km on my 1993 854 (before someone smashed into *me*), all
with the ORIGINAL exhaust, save for one of these manifold gaskets...... now
*that's* OEM parts....


Kevin

 

I would check the exhaust manifold gaskets first, they usually leak
worse when cold when they go bad.

 

If it's the 10 valve version, it's more likely to be a broken weld on
the exhaust manifold where it meets the front pipe.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)