1997 Pontiac GrandAm SE Rattling Noise

  • Thread starter Thread starter kuderville
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kuderville

We recently purchased a 1997 Grand Am SE for our teenager. When you first start the car, it sound fine and relatively quiet. After it starts to heat up or has been driven for a while, the engine area gets pretty noisy at idle. At first, it sounded like lifter noise. The other day, we had it in the driveway and idling as I was recharging the A/C. It was extremely noisy. My son turned the steering wheel just a tad and the noise virtually went away. As soon as he let go of the wheel the noise returned. It does not seem to be coming from where the power steering pump it. Has anyone experienced this? What would make the the almost lifter type noise go way and return based on whether or not you turn the wheel. He has one of this noisier mufflers and you can hear the engine noise over that! It sounds like it is going to fall apart when the noise is present. Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks
 
Why would the steering affect the noise if it was that? I guess it could make sense from the perspective that it is quiet when the car is cold but gets noisy when the car heats up.
 
kuderville said:
Why would the steering affect the noise if it was that?...
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That's what I was thinking too. Cats have nothing to do with steering & ac. I know nothing about that model/year, but if the noise goes away when turning the wheel I would be looking at whatever else is along the same belt. This is just a guess, but it sounds to me like maybe a bearing or pulley that's shimmying until it's under load.
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Check to see if your belt tensioner is getting worn. I had a similar problem on our 96 Lumina APV. Turn out that the the belt tensioner got worn and then it would rattle against the timing cover. HTH
 
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