Pinking

[Elannewbie]

Hi there good people, i hope you can help.
I think my 94 s2 is pinking - i only know this because i used to own an rs turbo and blew a hole in a piston due to pinking. I get the dreaded sound when accelerating at full throttle and as you would expect if i let my foot off the pedal a little the noise stops. I'm not sure if the knock sensor comes into play but, the acceleration pull does seem to drop a little. Would moving the CAS sort this out? I have changed the plugs and leads but, that was to sort out a slight misfire on one cylinder. The old plugs i took out were light brown in colour (and quite new) so thought this was a good indication to things being o.k. Any help would be greatfully received.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Best thing to do is reset the base timing first. Then drive it and see. If the power is way down, you might have to tweak it a bit. There are several discussions on tweaking the timing on LEC and the base timing process is in the WikiLEC - look at the top of the page.

The next thing to do is get an elanscan interface and download the software to a laptop and check for other issues including spark knocks. See geoffsmith for the interface and look at the elanscan area for download info.

[Elannewbie]

Thank you for your quick response, I will follow your advice and reset the base timing but, i should of added in my original post that the CAS sensor was replaced by the previous owner, well his mechanic did but, to be honest with you - as i sort through the little problems that i have with the car i am beginning to realise that the guy wasn't much of a mechanic after all...

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Base timing is adjusted by rotating the CAS so setting it should clear that from your list. It needs to be set in "service" mode, so follow the WikiLEC distructions and you should be able to see if there is any problems at that level. Some have bumped the timing to get some more performance but then you have to moderate it by watching for knock (or pinking). Only try to road tune it after getting back to the stock setup.

[Elannewbie]

Thanks for your reply John, i just need to wait for it to stop raining here and i,m on it...

[Brit-Car-Nut]

Won't that require moving to a new country?

[rip]

Won't that require moving to a new country?

Yep.

I'll second all John's comments though. Mine is one where the timing is way off the mark but I did this with the aid of Elanscan checking for knock.

[steve matthews]

don't forget good gas
Steve -w- 100 octane