Engine making a loud cranking noise

[biglarrythree]

This is a very odd issue Im having, because it will come and go. And there are a few things Ive noticed about it lately. First of all, this does not happen all the time. It can be months between happening. It seems anytime I get up to about 45-50 miles per hour, i start to hear a slight rev under the hood. it comes and goes every few seconds. Anytime I am driving slower than 45 mph, it runs perfectly. When I am on the highway, it also makes this noise, but after about 10 minutes of consistantly going about 65-70 mph, the oil light will light up, and my engine will completely sound like it is cranking, very loudly, and when i let off the gas, it stops. when the car is in idle after this, it shakes a little bit. But heres the weird thing, after the vibe does this on me, all I have to do is shut the car off for about 20 minutes, and when I turn it back on, its perfectly fine, no noises, no cranking, no oil light. And it wont start up again until im going over 45-50 mph, and it wont crank uncontrollably until I go back on the highway for a few miles. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am taking the car to a shop soon to be looked at, I just havent had the money the last few months. And like I said, it hasnt done it in a few months. It comes and goes. Its the weirdest thing Ive ever encountered with a car. It may be something simple, and im just not seeing it. And yes, there is oil in it. We actually changed it, and flushed out the entire system 3 times not just to be sure. Thanks again.

[biglarrythree]

One more thing. Some mornings, when I first turn the key on, it will crank really loud when I turn it on, but like a second later, it calms, and sound fine.

[Sublimewind]

Hi and welcome to GV...!!Now, this is odd... When you say "crank" what are you saying exactly? when I think of cranking, I think of the starter turning the motor with that not so much a grind, but that starter sound... Is this similar to what you are hearing? Maybe the starter is getting stuck and not disengaging the flywheel?The oil light, how odd... You need to describe your sounds a little better... or better yet, any chance of a quick digital video? I can show you where and how to put them on the net, if you can capture it... Good luck, let's hope it's not "bad"... Cheers,Aaron

[biglarrythree]

Its pretty much a sound of the engine reving, as it would if you were to hit the gas pedal, but it is very loud and almost a knocking, cranking, sound. think of loud ticking, but it gets louder as you hit the gas. and when you let off the gas, it gets lower. When we changed the oil, it completely stopped. so im wondering if something could be keeping the engine from getting oil at certain times? it was pretty gunked up the first time we changed the oil. which is why we changed it 3 times to clean out the system.

[djkeev]

Hi,Sorry about your noise but I'd get an oil pressure gauge on that puppy ASAP and verify that the oil pump isn't taking a gradual dump on you. Ticking, banging, tapping noises are not good if they are not the normal engine sounds. Sounds like low oil pressure on start up. Check valve may be stuck, oil pump is about to die, any number of issues, non of which you should ignore.IT is NEVER good for the engine to nor get oil sometimes, the engine needs oil pressure ALL of the time..... no exceptions. If it is oil pressure issues, look carefully at your next dump of dirty oil for fine metal deposits, it will look like your oil has a metallic look to it and sparkles.If you have done damage, prepare to spend some serious money.Dave

[biglarrythree]

I took a good hard look last night, and heres what i figured out. When Im at a high RPM for a peroid of time, my oil pressure drops off, leading to the cranking noise. When the RPM is low, it does nothing. It also will drop right as im turning on the egnition. Im really leaning towards this being a bad oil pump. Opinions? I wanna get it changed ASAP. Is this a difficult task on a Vibe? Anyone have directions? Thanks in advance.

[djkeev]

Hi,If you suspect oil pressure problems PARK THE CAR NOW!!!!!Get a gauge or get a person qualified to diagnose if it is an oil problem. You could be doing serious damage on those "occasional" times when the noise happens.Dave

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by djkeev »Hi,If you suspect oil pressure problems PARK THE CAR NOW!!!!!Get a gauge or get a person qualified to diagnose if it is an oil problem. You could be doing serious damage on those "occasional" times when the noise happens.Dave yeah man, I wouldn't mess around... Just looked at the manual, and to remove the oil pump (which is quite easy on this car) you have to remove the timing chain and both the pully and the harmonic damper to get to the pump.. Not a driveway job for the timid... It would scare the crap outta me...

[biglarrythree]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback. Imma park it this weekend as soon as the wifes car is back outta the shop. I have an uncle who is a mechanic, and hes gonna drop the oil pump out and try to resolve the issue. Once I find anything else out, ill be sure to post it on here.

[bad vibrations]

greetings, helping a nieghbor who failed to change oil or that is what apears to have happened ( she not admitting to that) losing engine oil pressure, I dropped the oil pan, removed valve cover, removed all built up (removed). Quite a bit, oil pickup tube screen clogged removed and cleared, changed oil &filter with a fram super gaurd purchased at walmart purchased inexpensive oil 10w40 thinking I would be changing it again very soon. cleaned the easy crud off of the top of the head and vacumed as best as possible, put all back together. Achieved oil presure , engine ran quiet, oil light went out, ran a half qaurt of tranny fluid to help flush out pan, lifters, ... lost oil pressure again after a 20 mile road test, going to drop oil pan again and inspect screen ............has any one had this problem and was able to save engine as I think most of the niose is coming from the top end lifters but I could be wrong, the cam lobes look fine...

[bad vibrations]

I dropped the oil pan and the sump pick up screen was clogged. any ideas on how too remove this (removed), amsoil sells a product but they want 50 dollars a qt...snake oil salesman, where too find an aftermarket gasket instead of the gasket in a tube that the daler sells.

[Sublimewind]

Quote, originally posted by bad vibrations »I dropped the oil pan and the sump pick up screen was clogged. any ideas on how too remove this (removed), amsoil sells a product but they want 50 dollars a qt...snake oil salesman, where too find an aftermarket gasket instead of the gasket in a tube that the daler sells.Wow, so you did all of the above, only to put it back together and have it clog the pickup screen AGAIN?? Wow...!!right now, if there are just globs of burnt oil in the system working their way out, I would clean the screen again, go buy a case of the cheapest oil you can find, and just do 3 oil changes within 5mi of each other... Flush the crud out, at least hopefully to the point of not clogging the pick-up long enough to do something else.. Look up AutoRX, it's not the "snake-oil" you would consider other products.. there is much discussion about it on BITOG.com (Bob is the oil guy, odd name, yes, huge amounts of real information about anything oil, yes)If you can keep the pick-up from clogging long enough to get a full 3kmi oil change out of the car, it could remove a lot of the sludge caught in/on the internals.. if you can get 2 applications through the car (6kmi) even better.. Then I would hope that no serious damage hasn't already been done..

[bad vibrations]

Recleaned oil pump pickup screen, It always is easier the second time around, If I was to do it all over again I would use an aftermarket gasket with high tech adhesive on the oil pan and none on the engine side as I would expect to have to remove it again until all carbon sediment was cleared.I would leave out the difficautl bolts nearest the tranny until the job was completed, I ran some tranny fluah fluid which cleaned it up pretty good just a really messy job, I still do not know if the oil was changed as claimed. does anyone know how to check on the performance of the PCV system as I did clean out the ports and the one way check valve which has vacuum which appears to be right but I do not know about the operation of this particular system. The owner of this car took possesion and was told to drive at low speeds locally and her reaction was can I go the cape, which was a no/no as that would be on the highway to which she responded can I go to Maine instead...........again the highway. I quess can lead a horse to water but you can not make them drink.

[bad vibrations]

this approach worked out well, no more noise, seem to have been a while between oil changes and or PCV system was not working and may have started after I cleaned it out but hard to know as I not in charge.......

[ned23]

I'm wondering what was causing the screen to clog up so badly...