[asso]

Ok, I am royally confused. But without draggin myself to a mechanic just yet, I was wondering if anybody might know what this is. When I start my car, there is a noise that sort sounds like 2 metal pieces scraping together. It goes away at around 2500-3000 RPM, but comes back when the tach drops again. Recently, when I first start up, it sqeelches really loud, and gets worse when I accelerate, but eventually goes away, but that weird scraping noise is still there. When I bought my car, the guy told me the water pump and timing belt were just replaced. Anyway, if anybody knows what this could be, and how serious it is, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JPMX6GT]

it's probably one of your accessory belts. Check them for cracks or breaks. If so, replace them, if not just tighten those babies up.

 

[asso]

alright..thanks, I'll check them tonight. Are they expensive to replace and can I do it myself?

 

[asso]

well, i checked the belts...i couldn't tell if there's something wrong, but now it's affecting the way the car drives...when i leave from first, it sputters, the idle rpm has dropped, and the engine's whining....oh god oh no please no...

 

[JPMX6GT]

Have you replaced your time belt an pulley yet? As far as I know, the only belt that will cause your car to sputter would be the time belt (Not sure). I do know that the time belt pulley can go as well causing the time belt to become loose and skip a few teeth here and there causing the car to be sluggish or sputter or not even crank at all.

I don't know, I would wait until you get someone else's opinion as to what it may be or just take it to a mechanic and have them check everything. Who knows, it might not be a belt after all...

 

[macchew2]

oh my god u have what i got. my car bitches when i start it up to till 2 rmp.now its starting to lurch and the check engin light is on. im bringing it in tommrow ill keep u posted. hey i just got new belts and water pump.maybe my belts loose

 

[n4te33]

same problem......

fortunately for me the drive-belt was very dry and had to be replaced, but i sprayed some wd40 around on on it and it doesn't make that noise anymore...although you may want to change it if you have the dough....

 

[macchew2]

did u put the wd40 on the belt or around it. is the belt on the left side of the engin.its the serpentine belt right? did the engin light turn off after the lube. does it lurch?

 

[DedlineNJ]

just a chance, but similar sound was in a friends car. turns out his a/c pulley was frozen or busted, so perhaps it's one of the pulleys gone bad? it was slowing down his drive belt until it got enough rpm to keep the thing going momentum wise, then just slowed down again when he let the rpms drop.
good luck.

 

[asso]

hey guys, thanks for all the help. I brought my car in friday and got some work done. I got both belts replaced, and a bearing for the a/c tensioner. It's now running nice and quiet. I also got the fuel filter and cap replaced, and I put some new plugs in. My car is running a lot better now. As far as the sputtering goes, it was probably from the car wash...take it easy.

 

[Ruubstr94Ls]

Koolness. How much did they charge you to have the belts replaced?

 

[asso]

i think it was like $55 for the belts, and the labour for everything was like 1 1/2 hours..maybe $40 for the belts labour