I've noticed a strange clicking sound when I'm going up any steep hill and trying to accelerate. I had both front axles recently replaced b/c the boots tore and all the grease was gone so the mechanics thought that was the clicking I heard.

Low and behold, I go for a test run and it's still clicking up hills. It is still definitely a clicking (not a knocking) sound so I'm sorta stupmed. One guy said I may have a collapsed lifter but it sure doesn't feel like it when I drive as far as power goes. If anybody's had this problem or knows what it even is I'd be grateful. BTW I'm up at a very dry 5000-6000 feet.

 

It is more throttle sensitive than it is with RPMs. My regular mechanic thought it was just trying to ping a little since it 's only really up hill that it happens. He said it's caused by the motor not getting enough fuel and recommended stepping up to premium (91 oct. where I am). It made a little bit of a difference. I think that my velocity intake is giving the car too much air- do you think a high flow fuel pump would help balance out the flow of fuel and air? Maybe the stock pump cant keep up with the high flow air intake so the ECU thinks there's too much air, not enough gas.....those are my most recent ideas. Just for reference my 1993 1.8L is the first year for Imprezas so there's no knock sensor.

 

I talked around some more and a few sources agree that a fuel pump will help keep up with the airflow. I did notice that the pinging faded once I switched to 91 octane but have only ran a tank and a half full so I'm not too worried about it- hasn't affected performance yet anyway. Higher octane definitely helps out and give a bit more power too. Thanks for tryin to help though 'cause nobody else had replied for a while...

 

maybe your car thinks its a roller coaster, with clicking of the chain going up to the top

 

It IS a rollercoaster the way I drive it....if you want to reply, it would be nice if you had something at least HALF knowledgable to say otherwise I don't give a ****!