What up guys, long time lurker first time posting. Love all the good info that this forum has to offer! To my problem now, I've had my 2006 5AT for 6 months now and I notice that I have some pinging between 2-3k rpm when it's under load like when going up a slight hill. It's not something that happens all the time but I feel it's definitely something that needs to be looked into. Has anyone had success remeding this situation? I was considering trying a step colder spark plug to see if that works out.

Some info on my car and environment:
*85,000 miles
*only mods is z tube and 5/16" plenium spacer
*sparkplugs have been replaced with OEM NGK's 5000 miles ago.
*I always run 91 octane
*I live in Los Angels so the weather is relatively warm most of the time (usually hear the knock then)

Any help is appreciated thank you!

 

excess carbon buildup can lead to predetonation. try and have a look inside a cylinder to see how black it may be in there. can just pull a plug and have a look down with a flash light, or get fancy and get a little camera. If it is built up, you can try seafoaming it. look up some videos on various seafoam cleaning methods like vacuum line and spray.
if that's not the case, it could be something more serious like mistiming. Unfortunately i don't have experience with that on this engine (yet.. knock on wood), so i can't give you a breakdown on how to do that or where to look for that info.

 

Thank you for the advice, I'll have a look and report back. Gonna switch gas stations also to rule that out.

 

This was discussed recently. I don't remember what the consensus was in that thread though. But I get this too under certain driving conditions like you describe. I typically hear it before the engine has warmed up driving in low speed zones when the car wants to drive in 5th gear. When this happens to me I drive in manual mode in a lower gear and keep the rpm a little higher and the pinging goes away.

 

intersting, I don't really get it in the higher gears, mainly in 2nd and 3rd and only when the car Is completely warmed up in warm weather. I attempted to recreate the ping last night but it was cool outside and didn't happen. Going to Seafoam and pull a plug. Does anyone know if have to change the oil if I sea foam through a vacuum line?