Hi everyone,

My wife started noticing a weird chattering noise tonight as she was driving home. After getting home, I decided to investigate a little further on the source of the chattering. Unfortunately, it was already dark out and I didn't get a chance to go underneath my car. The chattering can be heard whether the car is in idle or when I press on the throttle. It sounds like the rotor blades from a helicopter. It seems to be coming from right under the car near the oil pan. I shot a short video of the sound. Hopefully someone can identify the source of the chattering and shed some light for me. I will try and get underneath the car this weekend and investigate a little further.


thanks

 

Tough to pinpoint from your recording, but it almost sounds like elevated (loud) clutch throw-out bearing chatter.

An easy way to test this is while at idle, not in gear, car running and noise present, slowly depress the clutch pedal fully and see if the noise stops. If the noise stops, it's the throw-out bearing, and to some degree is normal on these cars. Usually, upon slow release of the pedal, the noise is no longer present until it's noticed sometime in the future.

If the noise stops, but returns immediately upon slow release of the pedal, the T/O bearing is probably not long for this world...