I drive a 2001 Chevy Prizm with 90,000 miles on it. Lately, when I'm accelerating over about 30 to 40 mph, my engine starts to make a grinding noise, that gets worse the faster I go, or the more pressure I apply. The noise also happens when I'm going up hill. What's causing this noise, so I don't look like an idiot when I take it in to my mechanic?
View 1 RepliesAbout 5 years ago, my air conditioner started making a metallic-sounding grinding noise, when it is turned OFF. This noise goes away if the A/C is on. My mechanic said some part was slightly bent, bent it back, and this fixed it for a while. Eventually the noise came back but was intermittent. I drove the car for years hoping it would go away, leaving the A/C on most of the time. The noise is no longer intermittent, and my new mechanic says that it seems louder than before and if I don't get it fixed, it might cause the car to stall out. He offered to bypass it with a belt or replace the unit. What this could be? I drive with the A/C on now. 1998 geo prizm
View 3 RepliesI took my 2002 Chevy Prizm to a Firestone shop to have the tires rotated, battery and serpentine belt replaced, oil changed, and brakes adjusted. Yesterday, I noticed a chirping sound when I accelerate. Yesterday was also the first time since the maintenance work that I was driving without any music playing. So, it's possible that the chirping sound was happening before.
View 5 RepliesHave a 2001 Prizm with 120k miles on it. Just had the recommended 120k service done a month or two ago (local shop that has been reliable to me) and they commented on how mechanically solid my car was.
Thursday drove to work like normal. When it was time to leave, car wouldn't start. No dash lights, nothing at all when I turned the key. Got a ride, came back later that night and jumped it and it started right up (didn't wait at all, but I also didn't check it before hooking up the cables - it might have started without a jump). Radio had reset and so forth, but it was running.
Drove Friday, it was fine. Car sat all weekend. Monday morning, dead as could be again. No dash lights when I put the key in, nothing when I turned it. Maybe a single click, but nothing more (can't remember for sure).
Drove wife's car to work. Came home Monday afternoon and the car started right up with no problem. Was curious if the battery voltage was low or anything, so I turned the car off, hooked up my bluetooth OBD reader (generic ELM 327 off ebay), and tried to start. Car was dead. Unplugged the reader, still nothing.
Took the battery out and ran to the store, assuming a bad or weak battery. They tested and said it's completely fine. Went back home, hooked it back up, car started right up. So now I'm suspecting something's up with the ELM327... I just got it last week, a few days before this all started. Had it hooked up all week long and didn't unplug it till the first time the car wouldn't start. Didn't plug it back in till Monday afternoon's issues.
Could a flaky OBD reader cause these kinds of issues? Anything else I should be checking, or do you think I'm ok as long as I toss out that reader? When I was using the reader last week, it seemed to be reading everything fine and sending the data over to my phone. When the car was dead each time, it acted like the battery was completely disconnected - radio reset, NO lights, etc. Could something with the OBD reader mess up the computer and make it act like that, and then a little time lets the computer reset or something?
I've owned a 2001 Chevy Prizm LSi for about 12 years and it's been burning oil at a rate of about 1 quart every 200 miles or so. No tail pipe emissions or noticeable smoke and no OBDC codes.
View 19 RepliesI've got a 2001 Chevy Prizm (160,000 miles) Starts right up-after I drive for awhile and turn the engine off. It won't restart at times - I have to wait anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes till the engine will start again. The engine cranks - so it's not the starter or the battery.
View 4 RepliesI have a 1999 Chevy Geo Prizm a.k.a. Toyota Corolla. I am new to car ownership and don't know much about maintenance yet.
Recently, the back right wheel has started making a soft "wumm wumm wumm" noise when the car is in motion. The faster I drive, the more the noise speeds up, so it seems like something is coming loose or out of alignment. I've driven over a fair number of potholes in the last couple of months, and while I don't remember any particularly gnarly ones, I imagine that's what has caused the problem.
Any guesses as to what might be going wrong, how dire it is, and what I should expect to hear from the mechanic when I take it in?
When my vent is on the face setting, a grating/whistling noise emanates when the fan is on.This does not happen on the floor or defrost positions. The noise diminishes when it is in the face and partial floor or defrost setting. What may be causing the noise and how I could fix it.
View 1 RepliesI have a 2001 Chevrolet Prizm with check engine light showing PO420 and PO446 codes, what could be the problem?
View 1 RepliesI have a 2001 Chevy Prizm that I just had the front pipe replaced on. It was not accelerating well and making noise. New front pipe and it feels like a new car. The check engine light came on. i cleared the code, drove it for a day or so, and the light is back on. My exhaust mechanic says we don't really need to worry about the cat con hurting our engine unless we see a decrease in performance. Are there any mechanics out there who would say that is true. The car has 160,000 miles and we want to see it go another 100,000 or so, and not do anything to damage the engine.
View 4 RepliesI have a very weird thing going on with my car. It all started about 3 month ago. The car will not accelerate and it left me broke down on the side of the road. It will start but it will not move fwd. So i took it to a mechanic, he told me it was the ignition coils, so he replaced them with some used ones that he got from the car junk yard. It worked for a like 2 months. About a month ago its stared doing it again! So i thought that since the mechanic replaced the ignition coils last time with some used one, i out to try some new ones. so i went ahead and bought some new one and the spark plugs and replaced them, $100 later it still doing it.
Mind you that this time around, the car will take a bit to accelerate once i get enough speed the car will only go 70mph, then the car starts to feel like its going shut off but it doesn't. Also it feels like the car is being held back, and every now n again will have a little burst of energy. I also see the gas consumption its a bit faster, i guess since I'm pressing the gas pedal all the in but can not go more than 70mph.
I'm very happy with the car. the last posting I made was about a pulley, the mechanic said is was a $26 bracket causing drag.
View 2 RepliesMy car just started making a grinding noise when accelerating. It does not make it while maintaining a constant speed or revving the engine in neutral. I never had this problem before and I am at a loss to explain it. Car is 1995 Camry for what that is worth.
View 4 Repliesi have done mechanic work most of my life and can't figure out whats happening with this car. it'll idle fine but when u give it fuel it's like it cuts out. have changed fuel pump,timing,and checked most sensors?! 2000 chevy prizm twin cam toyota motor same as corolla.
View 2 RepliesI drive a '98 Chevrolet Prizm with 205K miles on it. It drives perfectly fine except in heavy rain/snow. In those cases, I've noticed that as soon as I drive through a big puddle (i.e., get the undercarriage wet, it seems), my car won't accelerate above 35 or 40 mph. If I attempt to push it faster, the engine (?) makes a terrible roaring sound, frankly like it's going to die on me. Interestingly, if I pull over, turn off the car, let it "dry out" for a couple of minutes, and then restart it, it drives fine once again (assuming, of course, that I don't hit anymore wet patches).
I first noticed this problem about 2 years ago during the winter when, on one occasion, it had just snowed heavily and I drove through a particularly sludgy patch on the highway. Since then, I've only had the problem recur a few times, typically during monsoon-like rains. However, more recently, I've noticed the problem wanting to occur even during medium-to-heavy rains. The car will start making growling noises in those wet conditions; however, if I keep pushing the car at highway speeds, eventually the sound goes away rather than crescendo-ing to the really scary roaring noise. I'm going to hazard a guess that by continuing to drive my car at highway speeds, even when it starts growling, it dries out whatever part is getting wet and thus getting "irritated".
In sum, it sounds like my car is becoming more sensitive to and/or more exposed to moisture.
the car has 180,000 and last month i noticed a slight hum during acceleration. the car also has a slight whine when the weather is cold. i checked the serpentine belt, and it's good. Could it be the power steering fluid? Is this normal or am I a knob?
View 12 Repliesit's really a 1987 Nova, but the drop down menu didn't list that option. I have been working on trying to figure out the cause of this problem for a pretty long time. During the last several years it had been running deteriatingly worse until I did an ignition tune up and replaced the spark plugs, plug wires, and the distributor cap (and rotor). That restored operation back to just the original problem of random but often poor or inability to idle. I have spent a lot of time on the carburetor and think that isn't the cause of the trouble. I'm pretty shy about doing this post, but here goes.
View 7 RepliesI'm experiencing an unusual grinding noise when accelerating from a dead stop but only in this specific situation.
1. When battery is at a low state of charge and the AC is on, therefore, whenever I slightly step on the gas the engine will immediately start.
2. Only under this condition, when I slightly press on the gas and the engine will start to charge the battery and propel the car at the same, there is a slight grinding noise coming from the front of the car. I don't know what this noise is, it sounds like gears grinding, it's very light though.
I know it's not the brake accumulator noise, because that's a whole different sound, and also this only happens under the condition I described above. When battery is low and ac is on, and the engine will need to start right away even when gas peddle is slightly depressed.
The best way to describe the sound is if you were to take a soda can and cut it in half and rub the two halves together (the edges) it sounds like that.
Also, there are no lights on the dash. It's a 2009 with about 73,400 miles.
The transaxle oil has already been changed maybe 10,000 miles ago.
The noise started recently, at least I only noticed it recently since it's summer and I have the ac on much more. There are no drivability issues, but the thing is, this noise was not there before, I know I'm not hearing things. You know when you drove a car for quite some time you will naturally know what sounds are normal and what sounds are new.
Just started the other day. Ecuador codes at p030p035p0411. The noise only happens while accelerating past 10% throttle in any gear.
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My 2007 Hyundai Elantra SE (Automatic, 69,400 miles) makes a grinding noise when I start to accelerate from 40 mph. I sometimes hear a noise that sounds like an airplane wheel being activated when I'm driving at lower speeds driving around town. Could this be the transmission? Who should I take the car to?
View 7 Replies2000 Nissan Xterra. 3.3LV6 Automatic. 185,000. When I push on the gas pedal while accelerating there comes a grinding noise, but only when I have the pedal in at just the right spot/angle. It shifts fine, and accelerates fine. It runs like normal. However, there is this obnoxious grinding noise. I noticed it a couple of weeks ago, and a few weeks before that, the check engine light was on for TPS/ICV. I had the sensors/valves replaced and it still gives me the grinding noise.
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