What the heck is this noise?

[zeke1985]

Alright, started up my car today and noticed this grinding and rubbing sound coming from the engine.
1995 Nissan Altima GXE
QS Defy with MoS2 additive
P1 filter

here is a video of it, I know the timing chain is clanking but what is that squealing and rubbing noise? Thanks. Sorry about the video being taken at night.

Noise

 

[Barkleymut]

no idea what the noise is but it sure sounds bad. How many miles are on the engine?

 

[javacontour]

It's hard to tell. Can you remove the serpentine belt and see if the noise is still present? If so, it's likely in the engine. If not, it's something driven by the belt.

 

[salv]

those wires look pretty new. have you recently done plugs and wires? if so, I would go back to oem plugs and wires, see if the noise goes away.

 

[SaturnIonVue]

Sounds like an idler pulley. Maybe an alternator or water pulley bearing. Try using a dowel rod or yardstick carefully touched near where what you suspect the noise is coming from and put the other end to your ear--that might isolate where the sound is coming from.

 

[tig1]

Check out the water pump and idler pulleys. I had a WP that sounded much like that last year on the Fusion, but it never leaked a drop.

 

[OneEyeJack]

Sounds like the timing chain rubbing on something. It's something you should consider looking into, that is inside the front of the engine. This is assuming that you're run the engine for a minute or so with the serpentine belt completely disconnected. I used to rebuild Datsun 510 engines from about 76 to 79 (before the internet and just at the beginning of time when they invented the light bulb) and they made exactly that same noise when something went wrong with the timing chain.

 

[Rick in PA]

Just an idea. You could try removing the oil fill cap (might be a bit messy) and see if the noise is coming out of the valve train area...

 

[hemitom]

Hard to tell from video, but to me it sounds like an internal problem , somethings not right inside that engine.

 

[Fleetmon]

My guess is the water pump also as tig1 mentioned....I just replaced the WP on my Dakota and the noise is a VERY close match. I had recently replaced the idler pulley, belt tensioner and alternator on this truck and thought one of them was defective.....tried to rock the fan back and forth and no play UNTIL I took the belt off and whoa.....close to 1/2" play!

I couldn't exactly pinpoint the noise with a stethoscope either. The only other symptom that was occuring is the truck was running just a bit warmer than normal in heavy traffic that I attributed to a dirty radiator.....not overheating by any means but the gauge slightly higher than it typically runs during the past 18 years.....replacing the pump brought the gauge back to "normal".

 

[Virtuoso]

The squeaks at first sound like belt/idlers to me.

The metallic clacking a little later on sounds like valvetrain.

But that's just some internet guessing. I agree with most of the rest, remove the belt and see what happens.

 

[KrisZ]

Try eliminating possibilities. Like some already mentioned, remove the accessory belt and see what noises remain.

 

[javacontour]

So what have you learned since we last heard from you?