I'm no car junkie, but I have a question about my Mazda's engine gaskets.

About 4 months ago, my Mazda blew some engine gaskets (the tech said it was the ones near the crankshaft?) but they said it was due to lack of maintenance and I couldn't provide receipts so they wouldn't cover it. So for about 3 1/2 months, I spent my time trying to fight it and get it taken care of. We looked into a different option since Mazda said it would be $5000 to replace the engine. Now we took it to another mechanic and he said the gaskets we're completely shot (and they were, I looked at them and they were completely brown and the such and literally cracked in half). He ordered new gaskets and they fit in perfectly.

Before he did this, there was a knocking noise before it died and eventually it got louder and louder to where I was afraid to run the car and took it into the dealer. Now that I have it back and it's all nice and clean in the engine (he said there was no damage anywhere else in the engine, and no sludge like Mazda claimed), but it still seems to make that noise on accelerating and slowing down. It'll make it for a few clicks and then stop once it gets used to the speed it's at.

Now I'm wondering, will it always make the sound from this point on? Or do the new gaskets have to get used to the temperatures of the engine before they finally set themselves in?

Maybe a silly question, but I'm concerned as to if it would last or not.

 

AJ,if you accelerate sitting still in park or neutral does it make the knocking noise while the engine is reving up.Does it make the same noise after you deaccelerate and the engine is idling back down.Not always but normally if it is a rod you will hear the knocking as you accelerate( and again this is sitting in your driveway and in neutral or park)and may not hear the noise when you let off the gas and the engine starts idling back down.

 

Thanks for the response!

Dgordon, it's an occasional thing now. Yesterday seemed to be a great day for it as it didn't make the sound as much. It made the same sound before it died and I'll tell you now that it was INCREDIBLY loud, and brought my car to a hault. Now it does it like you said starting up, reving up, and deaccelerating just a little bit. It's now almost faint.

I'll try it on my lunch break today and see what I really hear when it's idle and the such. I'll post a response again when I give it a go.

 

Well I checked it at lunch, the sound is really going away a little bit. I ran it idle and accelerated it and it made the sound for about 3 seconds then stopped, and when it deaccelerated it didn't make it at all. So I took it for a spin and the knocking sound didn't even happen.

I guess it was a temporary thing until the gaskets started to fit into place?