Hi-remember the sound of a bad odometer or tach cable?
That sort of tick/whir is happening from somewhere behind the dash and/or footwell on the driver's side- but at a constant approx.8-Hz. Not associated with road/engine/fan speeds or under the hood. Not all the time-off and on every few minutes-sometimes on for 10 minutes.
??

 

what year is your car?
there is an emmisions part (I forget what it is called) that when it comes on can be heard best from inside the car on the drivers side, mine does clicking heard even a little better with drivers door open and you are sitting on car. Mine has never been on for 10 min though.

 

That might by the evap. purge valve located behind the fender liner at the back of the wheel well.

 

thanks! the evap valve location does pinpoint the sound. Car is 03 w/50k and the "on for 10min" was more like a few minutes (just seemed like forever when it first started!) How can this be fixed?

 

Replace the valve. Available through many forum sponsors or used on ebay.

 

Didn't I upload TSBs?????
All that info is in the large file download area (That no one knows where).

bob gauff

 

May not be broken. First time I heard mine I was like NOW what. Most here told me it was normal to happen. I don't hear it much now.

 

Reading the repair bulletin it seems that what is suggested to do is wrapping the valve in an insulation pad to deaden the noise. WTF?

 

Once I knew it was not broke is when I stopped hearing it. Really.

 

yep-turning up the Springsteen CD solved the problem entirely