Has anyone expierenced the pinging popping noise when accelarating? I have done a search and cannot find anything where anyone has a fix for it. I hear it whenever I give it gas at the light or just accelarting. When I lay off the gas I dont hear it. I use noting but 91 or 93 octane gas. I took it to the dealership and they said the only thing they can thing of is the Catalytic Converter. I took it to Meineke and they are telling me my cat is fine. I am having a hard time believing its the cat ,since the car only has 77k miles on it and the car has no rust from underneath and looks brand new. Meineke did a thorough inspection and they dont think it is the cat. Should I take the word of Meineke since they do mufflers and exhausts all day ,or should I believe the dealership where they dont do much of exhaust work? The noise is getting on my nerves.

 

longo lexus is pretty good at fixing things tho. i remember talking to verrone there and he told me that GS4WILL had a pinging problem and was fixed with an engine decarb. not sure, you should ask Will.

 

I will have to pm gs4will. Thanks!!

 

Is your engine missing a little bit when this happens? If you have a marginal spark plug it can miss under load, the gas flows through to the hot catalytic converter, and it sounds like you are popping popcorn!

 

I dont think I have a misfire or the car running sluggish. I did replace the spark plugs at 68k with denso iridium plugs. The dealership told me it was the catalytic converter. I am gonna live with the noise. My mechanic at the lexus dealership told me the noise is not gonna get any worse. I cannot justify 500$ for a small noise .