- Jul 15, 2006
- 11
- 0
- 0
First of all, thanks in advance for any possible help...I'm completely lost at this point.
My 99 GT is just over 100k. I got it at about 60k almost 5 years ago and its been great...no real problems ever, just routine stuff like brakes/tune up/radiator flushes. I even took it cross country and back last year.
Anyway, this past Saturday the car started having some trouble. When I would start it up, right after the growl...like when I would be turning the ignition back to the on position...I started hearing a loud scratching sound. It would only last 1-2 seconds and then everything would be back to normal. Nothing out of the ordinary when driving...this was just on start up. It did that a couple of more times when I ran some errands on Saturday. On Sunday morning, it was even louder and lasted a LITTLE longer when I started it...but then it went back to normal. Sunday night, when I started it the sound was a LOT louder and would not go away. It was a really loud scratching/groaning...anyone in my apartment complex heard it loud and clear. I turned the engine off but the noise kept going for about another 10-15 seconds until it finally died. I tried starting the car again a few hours later and the same thing happened...it seemed like it might have been coming from the passenger side (not sure though) and when I turned the engine off it it kept running for another 10 seconds or so. After I turned the engine off (while the noise was still going on) it felt like there was something bumping or thumping under the hood and under the car.
I didn't drive/start the car on Monday. Today I had the car towed to a shop. They called me a little while ago to say that the car wasn't making any noise when they started it. It was "running like a top". They said something smelled a tad off in the exhaust and they had checked the catalytic converter and everything was fine. The mechanic seemed to think I may have just had some bad fuel. He said the exhaust was fine. He said they would keep it overnight and see if it does anything in the morning.
I'm completely lost here...this wasn't some minor noise and it doesn't seem like it would be something caused by gasoline (I use unleaded btw). It sounded horrible. I'm going to be taking a 3-4 hour trip this weekend and don't want any car trouble while I'm out of town..
Does anyone have ANY idea what this could be? I did search the forums extensively on Sunday and it seemed like people who had (kind of) similar issues mentioned the spark plugs..but those people never had any noises that got worse like mine did...they just had the little scratching sound.
Again, I really appreciate any insight. I'm supposed to call the mechanic tomorrow morning to see what's going on.
Thanks!
My 99 GT is just over 100k. I got it at about 60k almost 5 years ago and its been great...no real problems ever, just routine stuff like brakes/tune up/radiator flushes. I even took it cross country and back last year.
Anyway, this past Saturday the car started having some trouble. When I would start it up, right after the growl...like when I would be turning the ignition back to the on position...I started hearing a loud scratching sound. It would only last 1-2 seconds and then everything would be back to normal. Nothing out of the ordinary when driving...this was just on start up. It did that a couple of more times when I ran some errands on Saturday. On Sunday morning, it was even louder and lasted a LITTLE longer when I started it...but then it went back to normal. Sunday night, when I started it the sound was a LOT louder and would not go away. It was a really loud scratching/groaning...anyone in my apartment complex heard it loud and clear. I turned the engine off but the noise kept going for about another 10-15 seconds until it finally died. I tried starting the car again a few hours later and the same thing happened...it seemed like it might have been coming from the passenger side (not sure though) and when I turned the engine off it it kept running for another 10 seconds or so. After I turned the engine off (while the noise was still going on) it felt like there was something bumping or thumping under the hood and under the car.
I didn't drive/start the car on Monday. Today I had the car towed to a shop. They called me a little while ago to say that the car wasn't making any noise when they started it. It was "running like a top". They said something smelled a tad off in the exhaust and they had checked the catalytic converter and everything was fine. The mechanic seemed to think I may have just had some bad fuel. He said the exhaust was fine. He said they would keep it overnight and see if it does anything in the morning.
I'm completely lost here...this wasn't some minor noise and it doesn't seem like it would be something caused by gasoline (I use unleaded btw). It sounded horrible. I'm going to be taking a 3-4 hour trip this weekend and don't want any car trouble while I'm out of town..
Does anyone have ANY idea what this could be? I did search the forums extensively on Sunday and it seemed like people who had (kind of) similar issues mentioned the spark plugs..but those people never had any noises that got worse like mine did...they just had the little scratching sound.
Again, I really appreciate any insight. I'm supposed to call the mechanic tomorrow morning to see what's going on.
Thanks!