Aveo makes a racket

So, I've had an '07 Aveo5 for about 6ish months and I have liked it so far other then the fact the gas mileage and HP are not what I expected(I honestly think there's a problem). When the engine is just idling, it rattles a bit I guess you could say. It's also a little sluggish in 4th/5th gear, putting the pedal to the floor does nothing. The previous owner had customized it a bit and I'm worried he busted the timing belt on it and it might of scared a piston or something. I might go and record the sound and post it up so it can explain it better then I can lol...

It gets about 28-30mpg tops. Has an aftermarket K&N filter on it. Also the tires and rims are not stock, they are P195 R15 65? The last number i'm not sure about. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

28-30mpg is not too bad depending on the conditions, and the car does not have much power, but it has enough (your acceleration times would be good to know if you can get them). Timing belt breakage does not usually touch the pistons, a video or recording would be good to have. 65 is the width, though I have 195-15-55's and they are much better than the stock rim/tire size.

The tires should be 185/55r15. Or 185/60r14 crappy us installers will always tell you they are hard to find etc, but in reality more cars use that size than they ever admit (the 14at least) the 15 switch toa 195/50r15 it's cheaper, better options etc

As for running if the piston was damaged enough to not run correctly, then it wouldn't run at all, or at least not for long.


Things to check: coil, wires plugs, compression, timing marks. If those all are ok post back.

Well, I've changed the plugs and wires already, did it when I got the car. I might check the timing marks this weekend and see if they might be a tooth off somewhere(it was a pain in the a** to get the timing belt on right), I have nothing to check the compression though, unless there is a way I can do it without any special tools.

I might look into the those tires, the rims the prev owner put on here are racing rims and the tire places hate them lol...A pain to balance them I guess?


Edit: adding onto my original post, when reved to about 2k rpm, I can hear the engine pulsate, it's not a steady noise.

Edit2:Just recorded it running, should be uploaded in 20 min or so...


here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGW1ulNi5kM

its hard to say because its a video, but that sounds like lots of valve noise/issues. You say the timing belt broke? did you ever check for bent valves? spend the $30 on a compression tester.

well I don't know if it broke from the previous owner, but yea it def is alota noise :(. I'll see if I can find someone around here who can lend me one.

Autozone has one in their loan a tool, http://www.autozone.com/autozone/acc...er=424906_0_0_ if that's what I need how would I go about getting that to screw into the spark plug hole since it's so deep.

the black hose should be lone enough to get down to thread into the spark plug hole.

It does sound awefully "valvey" to me. I'm not a professional mechanic but I know that mine even with 151K is much quieter.

Well I did a compression test and got between 130-150(if I did it right it was hard to hear each revolution lol). All the cylinders got the same amount of compression though. So it sounds to me that I might be a tooth or so off in my timing :/...and possibly need to tighten my timing belt a bit, sounds like that's what is making some of the noise. Thing is I don't know just how "tight" I need it, I thought I had that sucker pretty tight before. Could also be the reason for the "valveyness" is the timing being off, but i'm not 100% sure if that would cause it.