2001 Lumina Engine Noise

[gizmogreer]

My 2001 Lumina 3.1 has a lot of engine noise (rattling & cladering) , this started after I had the spark plugs changed, the person had the firing order wrong and then they correted it. This noise is very loud and can be heard very well when decelearating. In the morning when I first start the car for the first few min. i do not hear the noise, it starts as the car warms up. Any Ideas?

[maxwedge]

Welcome to AF, very difficult to diagnose noises from this environment someone familiar with this type of diagnosis has to listen to this on site, many things can cause what you describe.

[jeffcoslacker]

Yeah I can think of at least 6-8 things that might have happened.

First make SURE the firing order is correct now. The coilpacks are numbered, next to the towers it says which cylinder it fires, it's pretty hard to mess the order up unless you are assuming cylinder numbering incorrectly.

Was it just missing when wired wrong or did it backfire? If so through the intake or exhaust?

[gizmogreer]

The car runs great, it does not miss at all, the oil and water looks good. I have been told by several people that it is the lifters and will not hurt anything, however, why would it have just started making that noise after we change the spark plugs and wires, if the firing order is not correct, could this cause the noise and not cause any missing?

[richtazz]

What brand plugs did you install, and did you replace the wires too. Since it doesn't do it at cold start, I would say what you're hearing is spark knock/ preignition. This can be caused by having the wrong heat range plugs (or a junk brand plug <----read Bosch) or from bad wires cross-firing once they get warmed up and resistance increases. I would definitely suggest changing the wires if you haven't already. you can test for cross-firing at night by misting the wires with water and watching for a light show.