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rattle, w/video

Z

Zetetic

New CEG'er
Joined
Sep 26, 2004
Messages
22
I've done a lot of searching on this, best advice seems to be post a video/audio clip and go from there. The rattle comes from the passenger side engine compartment. Doesn't sound like it's inside the engine itself.

It's been getting worse, first started about a week ago. Initially it was really quiet and sounded different, like belt whine, so I used some belt lube; this initially quieted things a bit at idle, but on a rev the sound was still there (and worse now.)

http://download.yousendit.com/342090084D9CD9E2
(let me know if that links stops working please, I could use another host in a pinch)

Putting my ear up closely the noise seems to be coming from the largest wheel/pulley both highest in the engine compartment and closest to the front of the vehicle. I wish I had a higher quality mic, a ton gets lost in the video above.

Other notes:
- No change in power whatsoever.
- Doesn't matter whether I'm accelerating or not.
- No warning lights.
- I've had issues for several months now with the AC system. Wonder if there is any additional stress induced because of this? My compressor engages/disengages the belt normally, as far as I can tell from looking at it.
http://contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=11384&page=2
- Not a belt noise, this is way too metallic.
- Doesn't go away with time or change in relation to temp.
- 00 SVT, driven hard but I try to take great care of it

Thanks for any help this is driving me nuts! Really worried about my car.
 
sounds like one of your pulleys is going bad, which one really is hard to determine based upon the vid alone.

do you ever hear it while you are crusing, because the tappeting type of noise sounds a lot like bagged's car when he had a bad lifter.
 
Put some kind of a tube or hose to your ear. Funnel with a long tube works too. You should be able to pin point the location of the sound easier by moving the other end around.

I can't tell from your vid. Probably a bearing for one the pulleys.
 
In case it'll help others, it turned out to be the water pump. FWIW the sound tricked the mechanic too for a little while, he had the serpentine belt off (which took him a while to get back on properly) and inspected the pulleys and everything.

Before he even started he said "sounds like it could be the water pump." heh, hour+ later...

(just read your post My_black99svt, that's what he used to pinpoint it. Basically a car stethoscope.)
 
AliasJerk said:
so it ended up actually being on the driver side of the engine then?
Click to expand...
:eek: yes..... I think what really threw me was that because of using engine degreaser a while ago, using lube on the serpentine belt made things quieter at first. So I was focused on that side. I did put my ear up to various bits of the driver's side but I thought I was hearing sounds from the other side because of reflections. Never claimed to be a pro, that's for sure! (it did comfort me that it confused a pro in the same way, though)

I know water pumps are extremely prone to failure on Contours, but for some reason I always thought they were more dramatic failures. /shrug

Gonna order up a metal impeller based water pump from BAT. From the how-to articles and other bits and pieces I've found here, looks like a replacement even I could do.
 
Zetetic said:
:eek: yes..... I think what really threw me was that because of using engine degreaser a while ago, using lube on the serpentine belt made things quieter at first. So I was focused on that side. I did put my ear up to various bits of the driver's side but I thought I was hearing sounds from the other side because of reflections. Never claimed to be a pro, that's for sure! (it did comfort me that it confused a pro in the same way, though)

I know water pumps are extremely prone to failure on Contours, but for some reason I always thought they were more dramatic failures. /shrug

Gonna order up a metal impeller based water pump from BAT. From the how-to articles and other bits and pieces I've found here, looks like a replacement even I could do.
Click to expand...

I think what you are referring to is a little thing in psychology we call "Classical Conditioning" because you believe it would make the noise less audible you technically tricked yourself into believe that it was an actual reality.

As for the water pump, it just fails, shattering really is worst case scenario, of course is definitely is possible and has happened numerous times before.
 
Not sure that was exactly it, since the noise wasn't as loud at first, and the real decrease in noise from the lube did make things quieter. As the days went by it got louder and subsequent applications of grease didn't change the volume at all.
 
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