noise when climbing hills, accelerating it

[VanLifeCrisis]

Went to get propane today, and to my horror, on the way back my van was making an alarming, grinding sort of noise when i was trying to go up hills or get up to speed. it would stop when i let off or just cruised. Is this thing, and my plans to escape winter done for? I had just filled the tank, noticed it had a hard time starting right after, but was fine next two starts. 'Service engine soon 'light came on too and stayed after last start. Not sure if related. I thought it might be somethin loose under but i couldnt find anything (i pulled over and looked, gased it but no sound then). Is it a goner? :/

 

[Patrick46]

Gosh*...that's a pretty open ended question.


All I could suggest is take it to a mechanic that you trust, and have him check it out.

When that silly red "Service Engine" dash light comes on, that means its time to shut it down...not keep going because it not convenient to stop!

Hope you didn't do anything lethal to it.

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

yea i know, im just a little worried and its making me pessimistic. those 'i told you you'd fail and you havent even left yet' looks get to me. Even if they are in my head.

 

[SoulRaven]

Fan into the radiator from an engine or transmission mount failure?

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

I will look at the radiator in the morning. Im guessing you mean it could be scraping it right?

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

2 days ago someone mentioned i might have a worn u joint because he heard it thump when i took it out of park on the driveway (hill). Could this be the culprit? I should have remembered that sooner..

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

just watched a couple youtubes on it, it does sound kinda similar. I will check it tomorrow as well.

Sorry for self replies lol

 

[SoulRaven]

A clunking U-Joint can also be a sign of bad engine/tranny mount.

Correct, the fan hitting the radiator under certain conditions.

If one mount goes bad, it can quickly lead to the failure of the others, and then even bigger problems. My personal preference is that if any single mount goes bad, replace them all, both engine and trans. Then it should be good for many years.

If that doesn't solve the U-Joint clunk, I would be replacing those as well.

The good news is that none of these are very expensive repairs provided it didn't do too much damage to the radiator.

Good Luck & keep us posted!

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

A bad u-joint shouldn't cause the "service engine" light to come on.  You need to get someone to read the codes for you.

Regards
John

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

yea i know, im just a little worried and its making me pessimistic.   those 'i told you you'd fail and you havent even left yet' looks get to me.  Even if they are in my head.

Take a deep breath.  Relax.  This too shall pass . . .

Regards
John

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

ok. Might be 2 simultaneous problems then. I know the auto parts place will, but 13 miles down the road. i know a guy who works there, maybe he has one at home too. He lives closer but hes hard to pin down.

 

[GypsyDogs]

and many of us (like me..) feel your frustration/pain. We are rooting for you.

Ignore the nay-sayers. They are just jealous...

 

[Patrick46]

don't talk to the guys at the auto parts stores...

they're just gonna start selling you parts, whether they fix anything or not...doesn't matter to them. that's their job.


get serious, and get it to a mechanic who can read your codes.

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

the radiator is undamaged. The motor mounts dont seem to be broken. The engine cut out when i first started it to test motor mounts. I wonder if i got bad gas, as i filled up right before all this. I might be able to wrangle a mechanic over on sat.

 

[GotSmart]

Can you describe the noise?

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

i had a quarter in there, not quite empty. :/
The noise is like a metal rattle/grindy noise.

 

[SoulRaven]

Okay, glad to hear it's not the radiator or mounts.

How about the water pump or anything else that is belt driven and may have a bad bearing?

It's the grindy part that concerns me...

Where are you located?

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

im in central wv at a relatives house, so im okay, my travel plans just delayed. If this mechanic shows up sat, hell be able to figure it out. hes installing the motor and tranny in my brothers truck. Ill ask him to bring his code scanner. Hes kind of bad at keeping appointments tho (hes a nice guy, which is why i think he over commits).

 

[highdesertranger]

well I am kinda late to this but by your original description of the noise under power I was going to suggest checking your U-joints. do you know how to check them?
1. park on a level surface.
2. block your wheels, both sides so that the vehicle can't move front or back.(you only have to do one wheel, but block it good).
3. put the e-brake on and the trans in neutral.
4. crawl underneath grab the drive shaft close to one of the u-joints and try to twist the drive shaft back and forth in it's normal range of motion. you are looking for play in the U-joint. sometimes it helps to twist the shaft with one hand and hold the other half of the yoke with your other hand.
5. do this at all U-joints. any play in a u-joint and the joint is bad.
note at the first stages of a joint going bad you might just have a dry u-joint. to find a dry joint you must take the shaft off once you do that try to more it in the full range of motion any binding and the joint is bad. on the rear joint once it's off you can pull 2 of the caps off but be careful not to loose any of the needle bearings. if you pull a cap of and it's dry it's very easy to loose bearings. also if a joint is dry you just can't lube it, it's to late for that replace it.
all this has nothing to do with the check engine light that's a different problem. highdesertranger

 

[VanLifeCrisis]

thanks, very informative! do i need to jack it up first?