Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Engine noise

My Zetec has started making a noise that I don't think it used to make in its younger years. It still runs fine, and inside the car you can't hear any strange noises, but outside the car I can hear something that has me very concerned.

Its kind of a rattling sound, like kind of a dieseling, but it's a mechanical sound, and it's intermittent. I hear the noise every time I shut the engine off, or if I rev it lightly at idle, when the rpm's drop back down below where they normally are, I can hear it before the RPM goes back to normal. A light blip of the throttle and you can also hear it sometimes. If you spin up the engine it sounds normal. I noticed lately with the A/C on I can really hear a noise, but Im not sure if it's the same one. It too has a mechanical rattling sound to it.

The engine has 140 K miles on it. As far as I know previous owner changed oil regularly for it's first 98K miles, and I have done the same and am also running Mobil 1 synthetic 5w-30 in it. Did a timing belt/water pump change on it about 10K miles ago.

How can I find out what the noise really is? I don't know what I'm going to do if this thing needs a new engine . I am barely making ends meet right now, but I also need the car to make occasional 100-200 mile trips.

Thanks for any help.

could it be the A/C pulley , my frd had that seize up on her Dakota ! pop the hood & have a look to identify the location of the noise ! i'm sure you will get more opinions from the actual mechanics here , so you will be allright . if it was really bad , you would probably be blowing smoke out the pipe !

Thanks for the idea Alias that could very well be it. The other day I had the car idling in neutral with the a/c on and it seemed like I could hear the noise a little more on the drivers side than the passenger side. From the times I have heard it, it's sounded more like it was in the mid block area, not really up on top, but then it's hard to tell over the abundance of other noises the Zetec makes.

You are right about the drive thru thing as well... that's where I noticed my noise was getting more obvious.

Are there any tests you can do to isolate throw out bearing noises?

I have found throwout bearing noise stops if I push the clutch pedal down.

Alias, thanks again for the info. Today I had the car parked and running and I finally remembered to hang my head out the window and play with the clutch a little. Could hear the TOB for sure due to the difference in noises made when clutch pressed and not pressed.

The engine still makes a weird bucket of bolts coming to rest kind of noise when you shut the engine off, both when clutch pressed and not pressed, but it could still be related to TOB. The nice thing was that with the clutch pedal held in, and light revving, I couldn't hear any noise except the normal Zetec noises. Clutch pedal out with light revving, could clearly hear the TOB.

I wonder when this thing will crap out. I have noticed that the clutch feel is not what it used to be, but it is still working ok. If it goes will it go suddenly or start to slip and become more and more obvious? I don't want the wife getting stranded in it somewhere before I can get around to fixing.

BTW, how much for the clutch kit?