Popping Noise in the Engine When Starting

by Heather
(Cleburne ,TX)

Car was working fine the day before, went to take my husband to work in the morning and it started popping when I started it. Checked the oil, it had oil, did not drive it. Husband come home later and only had a quart of oil in the engine. Put two quarts in it and ran it for a few minutes and it was still popping and engine light came on. Husband has changed out the spark plugs and it is still popping. What is causing this problem?



Steve Says,

Hi, Heather. Thanks for checking out my website. The first thing that you need to do is have your check engine light codes checked. When that warning light comes on it means that the computer has detected a malfunction in one of the systems on your car.

You cars computer constantly monitors all of the important systems on your car and when it notices something that needs to be fixed it will set the check engine light. There will also be a check engine code (sometimes called obd2 codes). It will be something like p0301. This code will tell you what system the problem is in. It will not tell you what is wrong, but it will tell you where to start. Some engine codes are very specific and others are very general.

You need to figure out what code is set in your cars computer. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to go to an auto parts store and have them check your codes. They will usually do this for free. If you have a repair shop that you usually use then you could have them check your check engine light codes too. After you know what the code is you can look up what the causes are on my website. It is important to remember that you need to have your code diagnosed. Sometimes the auto parts stores will try to tell you what the problem is just by the code number. It is very rare that you will know the exact problem just by the code number. If you read about the code on my website you will see some of the possibilities of what might be causing the problem, but you will need to do further testing to know for sure what the problem is.

As far as the popping noise that your car is making that is very hard to know because I can't hear it. Most of the time a popping noise is caused by a problem with the timing. This would mean that maybe your crankshaft sensor or camshaft sensor is faulty. It is also possible that you just have an engine misfire that is causing this problem as well. Sometimes that can cause a noise like you are having.

I hope this has helped. Please leave a comment if you need more help.