Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Interesting turbine/swooshing noise....

i use dto get a turbine sound from my zetec with a failing alternator....just some food for thought.

It is possible that the steering column boot came loose at the firewall, allowing engine noise into the cabin. That could do it. I've seen it first hand a couple times, and each time teh complaint is either whooshing noise while accelerating, or that the engine is noisier. Check it out.

Just another possibility...

I have that sound come from my car all the time. it doesnt worry me though. Sounds kinda neat actually, lol. I've been hearing it since I bought my car in october with 11K miles and still hear it when i accelerate heavily and goes away when not accelerating or coasting.

Definitly. That's what mine did. My take is that it is only under acceleration that additional air is trying to enter and thus escape the engine. The whooshing sound is the air trying to find another escape path. Once you let of the accelerator pedel (which is of course really more of an "air" pedal than a "gas" pedal) you reduce the air that is trying to be forced out of the system and thus reduce the pressure and the noise subsides.

Davin,

I can't detect anything out of the ordinary when I'm parked, sitting with my door open and revving hard - sounds awesome as usual.

When I throw it into third and hit around 40mph, the sound is at its most pronounced. It's really bothering me.

This is why I'm not sure its the cat. Would there be less air coming in when I'm at 3000rpm standing still than when I'm accelerating?

It sort of sounds like I can hear the spinning of parts somewhere in the drive because it makes that "turbiny" whine accompanied by the same sound you get when you drive on wet roads.

Again, I assure all that this is completely independent of the beautiful yet noisy trademark 2.5 growls.

That's a very good point BnB that it does not happen on Neutral is a good test. However, the engine is doing a great deal more work when it is under the load of the transaxle moving your car down the road than it is just sitting there in neutral. Unfortunaly if it is the cats (and it might not be since there are a bazillion freak things that go on with this car) but if it is, there is no real good test for it.. at first. One ofthe tell tale signs is that the noise will eventually be followed by a loss of power. If you start expiriencing a building loss of power, it's nearly certain. My cat went caput during a 425 mile drive from FL to NC. On the way home it was undrivable untill I removed the main cat and pipe that's right after the y-pipe and there was literally a big chunck of honeycomb cat lodged in there. I removed it by crushing it and was able to get the car home.

Here is a test that may work for you. The noise is the air trying to find some place to escape because of the back pressure of the cats. I found that when I had them failing and my car was around 30% of it's original power, that loosening the bolts on the exhaust flange just after the y-pipe and cracking it open about 1/4-1/2" returned the car to about 75% power. While the main problem was in the pre-cats of the exhaust manifold, the back pressure was still the sum of that pressure and the pressure of the main cat (mine was pretty clogged) as well as the muffler and other pipes. What this means to you is that if you crack it open, they whooshing sound very well should go away b/c the escape pressure would be relieved (unless the cats are really really bad and it doesn't sound like yours are). The tricky thing is that your exhaust tone would of course be very loud at this point so you would have to differentiate but I think it's doable. I hope this helps, and I hope that it isn't the cats but someting else that is simple. The cats problem is not fun.

I think it must be a police officer trapped under your car smoking dope from an incredibly long bong he crafted from your exhaust pipe, but only when you hit the throttle, the pot won't light unless the exhaust manifolds are hot enough.

Is this sort of thing covered under my Extended Service Plan?

LOL

It's the damn Blizzaks! Went driving with another Blizzak owner last night and we found that we both had this strange noise - and only since the new tires.

I've never heard tires making added noise under acceleration, but I'm convinced that's what it is.

Funny thing is, this makes the KDW's from which I switched look super quiet in comparison.

Thanks to all who posted.