On cold mornings, my engine has decided it's a carpenter.

[BigBeans]

At about 2600-2800rpm when the car is cold, it has suddenly decided to make a noise that can best be described as plywood going through a table saw. It comes on suddenly, and gets louder/higher pitched as the rpms increase.

This is a recent thing, and it only happens when the temp is below 30. It is RPM dependent, so i'm guessing one of my accessories is going to die. Clutch in/out has no effect, so not a throwout bearing either.

Once the car comes up to temp everything is normal.

After a few mornings of this, I gently wound it up to about 6k (as high as i dared to go before the car was up to temp) hoping whatever it was would just fail catastrophically so i wouldn't have to play the guessing game, but no luck.

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem, and what it turned out to be?

Thanks guys,

 

[torquetaster]

Wait, you mean that's not a normal thing to hear? I have a similar "knock", not quite sawing noise, when it gets super cold and I attempt to ignite, which goes away when things get warm. If you figure out what's causing yours, maybe it'll help with mine. So far, haven't been able to figure it out and it's just become another dsm crack bam boom. As long as it goes away without catastrophic effects, it's not a big deal, right?

 

[blkgst97]

Well this might be unrelated but ill throw in my experiences. On super cold days my car would make a similar noise only on start up and just for a few seconds and would go away. After checking a few things i found my power steering resevoir to be quite low. Filled it up and noise went away. Hope this helps.

 

[torquetaster]

Realllllly? Hmm, will definitely check that out. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[BIRDCLAWTSi]

At about 2600-2800rpm when the car is cold, it has suddenly decided to make a noise that can best be described as plywood going through a table saw. It comes on suddenly, and gets louder/higher pitched as the rpms increase.

This is a recent thing, and it only happens when the temp is below 30. It is RPM dependent, so i'm guessing one of my accessories is going to die. Clutch in/out has no effect, so not a throwout bearing either.

Once the car comes up to temp everything is normal.

After a few mornings of this, I gently wound it up to about 6k (as high as i dared to go before the car was up to temp) hoping whatever it was would just fail catastrophically so i wouldn't have to play the guessing game, but no luck.

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem, and what it turned out to be?

Thanks guys,

Sounds like maybe a vibrational noise, If vibrational is a word... Can you try to make a video of the noise? That would help alot. I have heard similar noises from my car too, Sounds like a belt driven sound, maybe timing cover or pulley, Try to record it.

Wait, you mean that's not a normal thing to hear? I have a similar "knock", not quite sawing noise, when it gets super cold and I attempt to ignite, which goes away when things get warm. If you figure out what's causing yours, maybe it'll help with mine. So far, haven't been able to figure it out and it's just become another dsm crack bam boom. As long as it goes away without catastrophic effects, it's not a big deal, right?

Is the sound you are hearing lifter tick? Maybe you can record your noise too and post the video.

 

[blkgst97]

Realllllly? Hmm, will definitely check that out. Thanks for the heads up!

I was resonding more along the lines of the saw like noise. Yours may be lifter tick by the sounds of it. Like stated above a video might be helpful

 

[BigBeans]

Well this might be unrelated but ill throw in my experiences. On super cold days my car would make a similar noise only on start up and just for a few seconds and would go away. After checking a few things i found my power steering resevoir to be quite low. Filled it up and noise went away. Hope this helps.

Everything is fine below 26-2800, then all of a sudden it's like someone flipped a switch and this loud noise comes out of nowhere.

I will recheck the PS reservoir (it was fine 2k miles ago) and on the next very cold start-up i will take a vid. I keep a camera in the car anyway

 

[torquetaster]

You say lifter tick and bingo, youtube does the work for me (no camera crew necessary). The noise is basically identical to this: YouTube - 2G DSM Lifter TICK

So, where to go with this new knowledge...Autozone?

 

[Kaotic_red]

if it gets louder as the rpms increase it could be that you timing belt tensioner is failing and the belt is slapping things. Mine did the same thing. I tore the whole motor apart looking for unusual wear on everything but when I started putting it together I noticed that when we were compressing the tensioner it took almost no effort at all.

one of those simple things that can be checked quickly

 

[BigBeans]

if it gets louder as the rpms increase it could be that you timing belt tensioner is failing and the belt is slapping things. Mine did the same thing. I tore the whole motor apart looking for unusual wear on everything but when I started putting it together I noticed that when we were compressing the tensioner it took almost no effort at all.

one of those simple things that can be checked quickly

That's scary as hell.

If i lose a fully built engine with 8K miles on it over a defective tensioner i will kill the nearest person.

 

[dsmfreak1984]

Maybe this will help, I had the same sound on my car, drove me nuts. Turned out to be the A/C idler pulley. just an idea.

 

[GooeyGus]

It could also be oil pump whine. I believe the oil pump gears are straight cut, so when the oil is cold they can whine a bit. Both of my 1990's do this for the first 60 seconds of running while cold, and my brother's 92 did the same thing.

Hard to tell if this is what you're hearing though... sounds like yours is a little bit more intense.

 

[BIRDCLAWTSi]

You say lifter tick and bingo, youtube does the work for me (no camera crew necessary). The noise is basically identical to this: YouTube - 2G DSM Lifter TICK

So, where to go with this new knowledge...Autozone?

You can try different oil, or replace the with the revised lifters.

 

[soulefood]

that sounds like the lifters need to be bled.. or replaced.. how many miles on the motor?

 

[torquetaster]

About to crack through the 100,000 mark, which is a worry in itself sometimes!

 

[BigBeans]

Well this might be unrelated but ill throw in my experiences. On super cold days my car would make a similar noise only on start up and just for a few seconds and would go away. After checking a few things i found my power steering resevoir to be quite low. Filled it up and noise went away. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tip, but i rechecked and PS fluid is good.

if it gets louder as the rpms increase it could be that you timing belt tensioner is failing and the belt is slapping things. Mine did the same thing. I tore the whole motor apart looking for unusual wear on everything but when I started putting it together I noticed that when we were compressing the tensioner it took almost no effort at all.

one of those simple things that can be checked quickly

Unfortunately, i think you might be right. I started playing with the T-belt and it has noticeably less tension when the car is cold than after it has been driven.

I wouldn't call it sloppy, but it's not tight either.

Do you remember specifically what your timing belt was hitting?

I won't have time to tear into it for a couple of weeks, but luckily i have another vehicle, so the car will be parked...i'm not taking any chances.

Maybe this will help, I had the same sound on my car, drove me nuts. Turned out to be the A/C idler pulley. just an idea.

I recently removed my condenser and lines, but i haven't gotten around to the compressor yet. The compressor and A/C idler will be coming out soon, so if this is the problem, it won't be for very long .

It could also be oil pump whine. I believe the oil pump gears are straight cut, so when the oil is cold they can whine a bit. Both of my 1990's do this for the first 60 seconds of running while cold, and my brother's 92 did the same thing.

Hard to tell if this is what you're hearing though... sounds like yours is a little bit more intense.

Thanks for the suggestion, but it's definitely not that.

This is not a slight whine, when it happens it's really loud.

Everything sounds completely normal, and then all of a sudden it comes out of nowhere.

Idle and any rpm below 2600-2800 sounds good.

 

[blackrosenova40]

Check your harmonic dampner, it may be bad, then it rubs against the timing belt cover and can sound horrible.

 

[BigBeans]

Check your harmonic dampner, it may be bad, then it rubs against the timing belt cover and can sound horrible.

Thanks for the suggestion, i'll add that to the list of possibilities.

 

[Greg90TSI]

I think I have this exact same problem, unfortunatley I have no idea what it is. I don't drive my car in the winter but when I was driving it this summer I noticed a similar sound. Mine happens right around the same rpm as well. I always thought it was turbo starting to spool and maybe not having enough oil in it while cold but I'm not sure. To me it sounds like mine is coming from the front drivers side of the engine bay but like I said I'm not exactly sure.

If you do figure out this problem, please post your solution.

Thanks.

 

[BigBeans]

I think I have this exact same problem, unfortunatley I have no idea what it is. I don't drive my car in the winter but when I was driving it this summer I noticed a similar sound. Mine happens right around the same rpm as well. I always thought it was turbo starting to spool and maybe not having enough oil in it while cold but I'm not sure. To me it sounds like mine is coming from the front drivers side of the engine bay but like I said I'm not exactly sure.

If you do figure out this problem, please post your solution.

Thanks.

Mine definitely sounds like it's coming from the same area on the driver's side of the engine bay, and i know it's not turbo related.

EDIT: I made a vid this morning but it wasn't cold enough so you can't hear anything in the vid, pointless to post.

I decided to put the car away. It's mid-winter, and i need to get a lot done to get closer to my power goals (SMIM, 750cc Meth, recalibrate MAF, boost leak test, new AFPR, wideband logger, and figure out this noise).

The car is not going to be driven for awhile, so i can tackle some of these issues. When i find a conclusion, i will PM those in the thread who were having similar issues.

 

[Metalpunk68]

Check all pulleys my car used to make sounds similar it was one of my accesory pulleys eating my belt haha

 

[BigBeans]

It turned out to be the water pump/PS drive pulleys, as well as the A/C idler pulley rubbing on the timing cover. I have no idea why it would only do this on very cold mornings (maybe it was only audible in the cold?), but A/C is now deleted and i'll have a new cover on the way very soon. I might add washers on the bolts behind the water pump pulley to add a few mm just to be sure i don't run into this issue again.

Now i've got to figure out this oil leak

Pics of carnage on oil soaked timing cover: