QuestionI'm in northern Ohio, its my first winter with this car, '98 Sidekick 1.6 automatic 4-wheel drive
45k miles, starts promptly, idles smooth, its below freezing most mornings here, when I put it in gear and on very mild acceleration it sounds like there is no oil in the engine...had 10-30 oil with an STP filter...thought maybe oil circulation was bad, so put in CD-2 Oil detergent (supposed to clean and quiet lifters, etc)... made no difference, then drained and went to 5-30 synthetic blend with another STP filter... not much better result. I have to get on a 55 mph freeway less than a mile from my home both to and from work and I'm half afraid to accelerate... now within a couple miles that noise reduces to half, and once the motor warms up the noise is 80% gone. Sounds like metal on metal tapping.
It increases with RPM's and when the engine is fully warm, you dont hear it at the low RPM of each shift range - - - even as an automatic, when fully warm, from a stop, as you accelerate normally, the noise comes on as the you approach the shift to second, then quiet at the bottom RPM of second, and again it increases as you approach the shift to third,
then quiet at the bottom end of third, etc.
But to just start, even let it run a minute while
scraping the ice/snow/frost off the windows, and put it in gear and go sounds like the motor has
no oil.... your advice please... Thanks, JOE
AnswerCould be piston slap. This is something a technician will have to hear to evaluate. You can try the shopfinder on the homepage of iatn.net.
The difficulty technicians encounter with this kind of problem is that the manner in which one tech would describe the noise to another is defined by very specific and precise terminology that takes a decade or two to learn to apply properly.
I need to know whether it sounds like rod knock, piston slap, valve train noise, or what.
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, but this is frequently referred to as internet mystery number 1a.
