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Why do most new vehicles sound like shit? 

1981K20

1981K20

Up North
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
369
Messages
219
Loc
North of MT but south of AK
They all tick/ knock or make other strange sounds. Whether it's the hemi tick or the Kia that sounded like it was going to implode on start up, it's annoying and no one seems to care.

Was at the dealership yesterday- looked at a 2018 Kia Optima, a 2019 GMC 5.3L, a 2018 Cadillac CTS, a 2017 F150 and a 2019 ram 1500. All except the caddy ticked or knocked, although I'm sure the caddy probably just had some sort of noise cancelling device to hide it and I actually thought the F150 was a diesel when he started it up. No joke lol

Dealer was upset when I told him I'd stick with my 03 because his vehicles sounded like shit but I meant it, I'll drop $5k into the 03 and just keep driving it until she dies before I drop 20-40k on one of these pieces of shit (although the AWD caddy was tempting)

I daily drive an 03 Silverado 5.3L and the acreage truck is a 2000 Silverado 6.0L- both quiet as fuck @ idle. Almost everything else sounds like my 12 valve, why? Is it an engineering thing? poor tolerance in valvetrain? Why do new vehicles sound so bad? Especially on start up.

Honest questions- there's gotta be an online certified engineer on here that can scientifically explain this to me :flipoff2:
 
Back when I was in my late teens/early 20's I had a Cherokee that had a knock/rattle at cold startup. The bottom end bearings were worn, but it ran awesome and I probably put close to 50k on it before my Dad taught me about plasti-gauge and oversized bearings. :laughing:

Fast forward many years, and I start hearing friends' 3.6 powered JK's doing the same thing. I guess worn out cam phasers make the same sound.

The Hemi in my LJ has 100k on it and has the "Hemi Tick" that comes and goes. I found that motor is a lot happier with 5w30 instead of the 5w20 the oil cap recommends. Its weird.

I had an 05 WRX that the Wife and I bought brand new and maintained religiously. I started it up one cold morning and the thing was knocking like crazy. I shut it down immediately, checked the oil/coolant/etc, and fired it back up. It ran great/quiet, but that moment stuck in the back of my head until I sold the car after 150k trouble free miles.

Funny side note: I sold the WRX to a buddy of mine for a smokin' deal because frankly, I hate selling used shit, I'm terrible at selling used shit, and I told my buddy that was the reason he was getting such a good deal on my used shit. He drove the car for a couple weeks before he thought he'd be slick and make another grand on it. The kid he sold it to promptly blew the thing up less than a week later and came back blaming my buddy for selling him a junk car. The kid's Dad threatened litigation and everything. My buddy later admitted he should have just driven the thing into the ground and scrapped it because it wasn't worth the headache.
 
My work van is a 2017 Savanna with the 4.8, it's had a very noticeable tick at idle since new. Its sitting at 58k now and it sure seems to have progressively gotten louder.
 
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Yup. Pyleit got it. Direct Injection and cam phasers make noise at startup. The Direct Injectors tick like loose valves on an old 22R- perfectly normal. If you cant hear it from the drivers seat with the hood closed, run it!
 
More moving pieces = more (potential) for noise. I can't make it any simpler to understand. :smokin:
 
Pyleit said:
Direct injection is loud. All i got
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Yup.... this.

had a Saturn sky redline for a bit. The manual and the messaging to the techs was the ticking noise is the direct injection, not an issue... or however it was phrased.

My PSD sounds like it has a rod knock if standing in the right spot outside the vehicle... seems like a complaint amongst new Ford and GM diesels
 
reklund5 said:
Yup. Pyleit got it. Direct Injection and cam phasers make noise at startup. The Direct Injectors tick like loose valves on an old 22R- perfectly normal. If you cant hear it from the drivers seat with the hood closed, run it!
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best explanation ever...
 
I like my 4.0L Frontier. No ticks or clatter, decent sounding exhaust and intake.

My 4.0L Tacoma was atrocious.
 
1981K20 said:
I daily drive an 03 Silverado 5.3L and the acreage truck is a 2000 Silverado 6.0L- both quiet as fuck @ idle.
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That's odd. Chevy 6.0 motors are notorious for piston slap. 5.3s get them too, just not as bad.
 
Right, 99, 2k and maybe later 6.0, piston slap like a mofo :laughing: Still drove mine to a quarter million then sold. It still drives around town
 
HPFP go takatakataka

who fuckin cares
are you the sort of person that brings in the brand new korean soccermommobile with the sound of some piece of plastic trim flapping but only in a specific speed headwind below 30mph because faster than that the road noise drowns it out
and I spend 18 hours removing or securing shit trying to get it to go away, eventually getting fuckin' nowhere
I mean it's your $140/hr, I tell myself that I don't mind, but it does really feel like a waste of fucking life
 
45acp said:
Actually, that motor is happier-est with 5w40 Rotella. ;)
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The now parking lot ornament sometimes national forest firewood rig has survived 200k to 300k on T6 It's a 05? 07? 2500. Damn cops confiscated the tags :laughing: It might tick, all I can hear is the manifold leak.

might give it some love this summer and hang a plow off the front.
 
Thatg9659 said:
The now parking lot ornament sometimes national forest firewood rig has survived 200k to 300k on T6 It's a 05? 07? 2500. Damn cops confiscated the tags :laughing: It might tick, all I can hear is the manifold leak.

might give it some love this summer and hang a plow off the front.
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I had an 03 2500, ran T6 in it from 100k to 250k miles, still ran like a champ when I sold it but I grew tired of the electrical gremlins. If not for that I'd still have that truck. Even had 250k on the stock 47RE. I fixed the cracked manifolds with a nice set of JBA headers scored dirt cheap back when eBay was real people just selling their stuff.

I miss that truck, but I don't miss having to keep a multimeter in the glove box. :laughing:
 
mdmike said:
He drove the car for a couple weeks before he thought he'd be slick and make another grand on it. The kid he sold it to promptly blew the thing up less than a week later and came back blaming my buddy for selling him a junk car. The kid's Dad threatened litigation and everything. My buddy later admitted he should have just driven the thing into the ground and scrapped it because it wasn't worth the headache.
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karma!
 
1981K20 said:
Honest questions- there's gotta be an online certified engineer on here that can scientifically explain this to me :flipoff2:
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Extra thin castings, plasma arc cylinder liners, plastic intakes, plastic valve covers and everything else they can possibly make out of plastic instead of metal, everything lightened up to reduce parasitic losses, parts farmed out to the cheapest supplier, higher compression, super lean factory fuel maps, energy conserving thin oils, VVT mechanisms, and probably many more.
 
FlexyTJ said:
Extra thin castings, plasma arc cylinder liners, plastic intakes, plastic valve covers and everything else they can possibly make out of plastic instead of metal, everything lightened up to reduce parasitic losses, parts farmed out to the cheapest supplier, higher compression, super lean factory fuel maps, energy conserving thin oils, VVT mechanisms, and probably many more.
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I wouldn't be surprised if half of this shit was done because marketing found a buzzword. We had a marketing guy who got stuck on "investment casting" and wanted to see if what we made could be done with investment castings. We had to tell him each time we brought it up we make sheet metal parts GTFO.
 
My 06 5.3 has an idle knock when it feels like it. Seems to be real impressive in the drive through. Other times it’s quite as a mouse. 213k on it.
 
The 19 GMC and Chevys had issues with crimps letting loose on the oil cooler lines. Pretty much what I have seen is dealerships fix the line and refill with oil. Say everything else is ok. Just something to be aware of if the truck was making a lot of noise.
 
If it doesnt sound like a bag of hammers and make whistle noises. I'm not a fan. It amuses me OEM stick foam in every engine crevice to quiet then down.

I thought this was going to be about exhaust. I miss the days of big blocks thumping the ground. Now it's all brap brap. New mustang's are the worst offenders.
 
TRINDU said:
I thought this was going to be about exhaust. I miss the days of big blocks thumping the ground. Now it's all brap brap. New mustang's are the worst offenders.
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I'm ASS-uming you mean V8's and not the eco boost turds. X-pipes make more power than an H or standard factory crossover so many you are probably hearing are sporting X-pipe mid sections. X-pipe = more rasp/harsher sound
 
FlexyTJ said:
I'm ASS-uming you mean V8's and not the eco boost turds. X-pipes make more power than an H or standard factory crossover so many you are probably hearing are sporting X-pipe mid sections. X-pipe = more rasp/harsher sound
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Lets just say I've never heard one and thought "damn, that sounds good."

They all want to rape my ears when speeding off from a stoplight in a 45mph zone.
 
TRINDU said:
If it doesnt sound like a bag of hammers and make whistle noises. I'm not a fan. It amuses me OEM stick foam in every engine crevice to quiet then down.

I thought this was going to be about exhaust. I miss the days of big blocks thumping the ground. Now it's all brap brap. New mustang's are the worst offenders.
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Coyote owners are obsessed with having the loudest, shriekiest exhaust they can find. Then they drive around in first/second gear as much as they can.
 
TrikeKid said:
Coyote owners are obsessed with having the loudest, shriekiest exhaust they can find. Then they drive around in first/second gear as much as they can.
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Better than an Ecoboost guy. Those guys all sound like they're millenial ricers. Met a guy who did his exhaust on his F150 and was proud of it. Sounded like a car on Fast and Furious #1. He didn't appreciate it when I started laughing at his truck.
 
TrikeKid said:
Coyote owners are obsessed with having the loudest, shriekiest exhaust they can find. Then they drive around in first/second gear as much as they can.
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This x1000. FWIW I really dig the cars, but 99% of the owners around here seem to run long tubes, x-pipe with no cats and no mufflers. You get behind one and it's 138dB pointed directly at your face.
 
I can't hate too much on the loud cars, I remember high school.
 
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