Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

[OneEightSeven]

So I've been driving a 99 Camaro with the 3800 V6 and today when I started her up there was a clicking noice coming from the driver's side of the engine compartment (as far as i could tell from inside the car.) Also you could hear the clicks amplified as booms out of the exhaust. Before i could look under the hood to see where the sound was coming from it stoped happening.

To make matters worse for the last few weeks when i have been driving and adding just a little gas there has been a whining noise coming from the back of the car. It sounds like feedback coming out of speakers but it's not.

I'm not sure what either of the sounds mean as I've never experienced them before. Any ideas? I'm going to take the car into the shop as soon as possible of course but it would still be nice to have some idea.

[bah]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

the whine is your fuel pump, perfectly normal, dont give it a second thought, and what kind of clicking, you might have some lifters ticking or something

[vanbibber]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

could be valve tap or a sticky lifter.

[OneEightSeven]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

The clicking is comparable with the sound you might hear when your battery is bad and you hear a relay clicking sound but a bit louder and rythmic with the rpms. And you hear the click out of the exhaust amplified really loud. I'm in florida and not used to all the humiditiy I was thinking maybe its just water/humidity in the exhaust or something, but that doesent make much sense as that **** should just blow out when you crank it.

Good to know that the whine is the fuel pump. Does it mean it's going bad or is it really just normal? I dont really remember hearing it before but I just got this car recently so I may have not noticed.

[Tech]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

My motor used to make a hell of a lot of racket. Then I changed the oil and put a quart of lucas oil additive in. All noise and rough start/idle went away...I am expecting to get owned by members because none of them like lucas....but it works great for me.

[OneEightSeven]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

Well it happened again today when I started her up. This time i had the hood opoen so I could listen to it.

The clicking is not as loud as I thought, but it's coming directly from the engine block as far as I can tell. It is definetly a clicking that perfectly matches the rpm's. As you increase the throttle the clicking increases. The exhaust is very loud at the same time. It stopped almost as soon as I started driving the car.

Does this sound like a sticky lifter? Its at 100k on the nose and I'm not sure if it has ever had them replaced yet. If so any idea what that may cost to replace the lifters? I'm going to take the car in asap and if this is what they say it is I want to have some idea as to the cost. If the damage is not too bad I may have some other work done while it's in.

Thanks for all of your help guys!

[OneEightSeven]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

Well I changed the oil about 4 days ago and have not had the sound repeat. I think I'm going to change it again in about a thousand miles just to flush it out a bit. If it ends up coming back I will take it in and see what they recommend.

Thanks for all the advice!

[kuttman]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

It might have been low on oil also but I use the lucas oil additive also works great and seafoam it now and then.

[OneEightSeven]

Re: Whats that sound? AKA: Damn is my car falling appart?

I did check the oil when it was making the noise and it was slightly lower than full, less than an 1/8th of an inch. As far as I know I have no leaks, because there are never any spots under the car and I dont see any leaking burnt oil under the car. It may have not been perfectly topped off at the previous change. I did add just a tiny bit of clean oil which seemed to have helped a bit (it only clicked a few times on startup.) After the full change it has not clicked once.

The previous driver drove the car like an old lady, babied it and the car sat for about a month. My theory is that the change in driving style stirred up tons of junk as the oil was fairly dirty before the change. I figgure a few quick oil changes should clean it up a bit. I thought about a "engine flush", however I just cant see that as a good idea (stir up too much junk too fast...) Any ideas are welcome.