Need Help: Vibe Engine Makes Grinding Noise At Start

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2010VibeRed
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2022 2:58 pm

Need Help: Vibe Engine Makes Grinding Noise At Start

Post by 2010VibeRed »

Hi all,

I was hoping I might get some advice/instructions here about a problem I'm noticing when I start the car. I have a 2010 Vibe and I love it still with 230,000 miles! Gotta help keep my baby running! (with your help)

When the car has been sitting for a while, when I turn the ignition...it makes a "grinding" sound. The sound seems to be coming from the engine. The link below is to a video I took in which you can hear the grinding sound right after the ignition is turned. This grinding/spinning sound only happens after the first start-up of the day (basically a "cold start'). If the car sits for a bunch of hours, and I try to start it again though...the grinding will happen again. But the car has to sit for quite some time.

https://vimeo.com/764764630

Anyone familiar with this sound? I googled but didn't come up with anything concrete. I'm no mechanic, but I'd love to be able to fix this myself. And is this a dangerous sound for the car?

After searching, my "best guess" is it might have something to do with a camshaft VTC actuator. And to be honest, I don't know what those are? I searched and found few different "actuators" and definitions, so it's a bit confusing.

Thanks my friends very much for reading, listening to the video to diagnose this...and for any help/advice you can offer!
tpollauf
Posts: 4027
Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:37 am
Location: Toledo/Oregon, Port Clinton Ohio
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Re: Need Help: Vibe Engine Makes Grinding Noise At Start

Post by tpollauf »

Welcome to GenVibe. Video is not much help as it is only 2 seconds long. Need more info to better help you. Engine size ??? How long have you owned the car? Climate you live/drive in (update profile for us)? Initially I was going to say it could be your starter on it's way out but need more input. Help us out so we can help you out! Thanks ;)
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2009 Vibe GT (manual), 2009 G8Gt, 2009 Vibe GT (auto)
2014 Silverado, 2004 Vibe GT

"everything is modifiable"
2010VibeRed
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Oct 27, 2022 2:58 pm

Re: Need Help: Vibe Engine Makes Grinding Noise At Start

Post by 2010VibeRed »

It's been some wild weeks since I posted. Apologies to you, tpollauf for not responding. Thank you for your reply and help. It's a 1.8L engine. I "think" it requires a new VTC Camshaft actuator. I found a few videos, one of which is below. I'm not sure if I'm going to attempt to do the job or just leave it as is though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9YIWxi92gM
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