GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hi All,I have a 2003 Vibe, Automatic with 90000km. I have started to notice a low rumbling noise under the hood on the passenger side when I start the car up. It seems to last only about a minute and then goes away. It is not present when the car is in park, only when I shift to drive or reverse.I was looking through the forums and think it could possibly be a loose heat shield. I also read something about engine mounts and engine lifting. While listening to this noise with the hood up, I noticed that the front of the engine lifts up on an angle when shifting into gear from park. It this a normal phenomenon?Thanks,Jason

The engine mounts have rubber or some similar material inserts to allow some amount of movement, otherwise every engine vibration would be tranferred directly to the car frame and shake the hell out of it. Some amount of movement will happen as the engine is torqued under load, but I have never noticed how much mine moves.How much does yours move?and welcome to genvibe

If it only happens when cold started then it could be the extra stress on the tranny by the RPMs being at doulbe the normal idle speed. It would go away as soon as normal idle was achieved.

can you tell me the final result on this noise-did it get worse or what was it that fixed it. My base "03 auto does the same now at 47000 miles. thanks

Our base vibe does the same now at about 80,000 miles. I bought a new belt and tensioner to see if this affects it since it appears the noise is coming from that area. What gives? I haven't checked the engine mounts yet..but soon.What else could this possibly be? I might add that it seems to impart a strange noise to the exhaust note as well, like sometimes in traffic when starting from a stop. Not a sputter..but if you have this noise you'll know what I'm talking about. Thankfully someone else seems to have the same problem I do!

Hi did you figure out your problem? I have the same thing happening. Started around 30k miles maybe....at 36 now.