Hello All,

New member to your forum but I've read countless threads over the past six months. Thanks to many members here I've gleaned a lot of useful information.

I do have one problem that persists; a “strange” noise from the engine.

The car is a one owner 2004 X-Type 3.0 with automatic that I acquired about six months ago. It has about 175,000 miles (mostly highway). I acquired the car from the former owner's widow and with it came much information concerning repairs and maintenance. The car sat indoors without being started for a little over a year after his death. When offered to me I trailored it home, checked fluids before replacing the battery and put in fresh gas with conditioner. I turned the key to accessory a few times with the thought of “waking” before actually starting it and then fired it off with no problems.

After running for a few minutes I noticed the strange sound. I was going to film it running and start youtube account to post but after much searching found a video with the sound though maybe it's more pronounced in the video and I'll include a link to that video.

What I checked:
-Removed water pump belt and briefly ran. No change.
-Removed serpentine belt and briefly ran. No change.
-Ran with various loads from accessories. No change.
-Ran with transmission in park, neutral, reverse and drive. No significant change; perhaps a slight change at first and then levels out.
-The noise becomes more pronounced when hitting throttle and remains at a drive.
-The noise has been present through summer and winter temps in Connecticut.
-I looked for any disconnected vacuum line and such but did not find anything.

I have not spent much on doing various minor repairs as I've been waiting for Probate Court to run the estate and provide the proper document for CT so that I may register the car. As such I've only driven it about a quarter mile at a time; back and forth to work on the car or just to start it occasionally.

I came to believe that it may be timing chain guides (documentation does not include any info regarding possible timing chain work performed) but the videos I have found have a different sound for that problem. The odd thing about this situation is that a few days ago, after getting Probate info, I started really working on the car and had it running for the longest period yet; approx half hour. The noise was gone but came back the following day but to a lesser extent.

I have oil and filters on order and will service the car when those arrive. I'm not in a rush as I have another two week wait for the specific document I need.

Curious to any thoughts on what this noise may be.

Do I just need to change the oil and go out speeding to “get the gunk out”? Thanks in advance!

 

Sounds like a bad bearing (somewhere - not sure which).

 

Thanks for your response. Bad bearing is a consideration but, in person anyway, it really doesn't sound like one. Though i am running out of options. :/

I'm going try to video and post my car tomorrow. I have a few mechanically inclined friends that have looked at it too and we did discuss a bearing after ruling out other options. One friend said it sounded like a vacuum but no lights are on and another thought perhaps a loose shield of sorts but nothing was found in that vein either. The oil change may yield some info but for now I'll video and do another inspection for loose/off lines/shields throughout the engine bay; I certainly could have missed something.

 

Sounds like a dry bearing to me but not from inside the engine, more likely one of the belt driven auxiliaries or an idler or tensioning pulley You could try removing the serpentine belt and giving the engine a run. Then if no change put it back and remove the water pump belt for a short engine run to see if that's it. Got to narrow it down logically somehow.

 

Best to read again the OPs first posts. Otherwise excellent advice!

 

Both good ideas but I did try them..

I may have somewhat erroneously fixed it this evening. Earlier I read and saw video of a Ford Duratec engine with the same sort of noise and that one had the PCV valve go bad; also the tube to same is known to crack and cause the problem. So when I got home I went to film my car to post actual video of it. For good or bad prior to starting I checked the tube going to PCV and heard a small pop or click sound. When I started the car it ran flawlessly. I'm not totally convinced the issue is fixed as the noise was intermittent earlier this week but time will tell.

 

I am definitely getting too old for this game!!!