Camry 2004, Wierd rattle at acceleration...

[Faramir68]

I have a 2004 Camry with what is the most odd noise I've ever heard.

The noise sounds like a cross between water trickling over stones and maybe bearings rolling around in a tube, or maybe someone crinkling paper. It sounds like it is coming from inside the dashboard, or maybe just beyond the firewall in the engine compartment.

It tends to occur when the vehicle is stopped and is just starting to accelerate from a stop. It can also occur when the vehicle is breaking to a stop. It doesn't sound like break pads (not grinding metal-on-metal sound).

At a stop, I can shift the automatic transmission into neutral and rev the engine a little and the sound will occur, but it doesn't seem to be dependent on any specific RPM nor does it co-vary based on increases or decreases in RPM. Basically, when I rev, the sound simply occurs. It is of variable intensity and duration, and is very random in peak of volume and sequence of noises. If I didn't know better, I'd swear there was a chipmunk under the hood (I looked, there isn't.)

I drive the car daily, but my regular trip to work is very short so the car runs for no more than 5 minutes each morning. In a five minute drive, with 4 stop sign/lights, the noise will occur basically every time I accelerate.

Any idea what this is?

[somick]

How many miles do you have on the car?

I still would check brake pads.

Did you check your coolant level?

Good luck,

Sam

[Schuy]

I would check the sheilds on the exhaust system, especially on the cat converter. The noise occurs only for a short time a on early acceleration? Over the years I've heard them make some of the wierdest noises.

[njerald]

Noobs.............SEARCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

03 Camry Engine Noise at 2k rpm

[Faramir68]

To Semyomlibman, the car has 56k miles, and I'm having the breaks done soon, since I believe they are due. Coolant was topped off recently, and I'm not seeing overheat problems at all (no temp gauge issues nor any performance problems), but I'll look again just be sure.

To Schuy, this doesn't sound like a heat shield issue as the noise is not a rev vibration nor heat related (at least as far as I can tell), but I'll check both.

To Njerald, thanks for calling me a noob, even though you clearly didn't read my post. The link you shared is for a roaring sound that is not what I am hearing. I checked that entire thread, twice, including the wave file example. I wouldn't have posted a new thread if I thought that one was even half-relevant.


One thing I noticed today is that the sound seems "inertia" related, in that it gets slightly louder (and more complex) when the vehicle accelerates from a stop, but will also produce a bit of sound when in neutral and a bit more gas is applied than at idle. So, while it appears rev-neutral in terms of involving the transmission, it does have some relationship to more gas going into the cylinders. However, that is only in terms of whether the sound starts; the sound itself does not seem to react to the amount of rev-ing at all. That is, if I get off the gas quickly, that has no effect on the sound at all, it just keeps making the sound until it dissipates.

Its almost as if some bearings are loose someplace and roll to the back of the vehicle when it accelerates, and then somewhat (but not as much) to the front when it decelerates. But it also happens when standing still.

I'll post more once about the details suggested here,

Thanks for your time, everyone. And if you hang with this thread, I'd appreciate any advice you can give.

[warpedrotor]

Well, if it isn,t the intake manifold issue (piece of loose plastic rattling around) could it be that you are low on coolant and you're getting air bubbles pumped through your heater?

[SHIFTY23]

I have heard of this complaint before and I think it relates to the water pump leaking causing air pockets in the cooling system which sounds like water moving back and forth. But also the noise was heard more when making turns. Not a 100% sure
Check the water pump for leakage, check the head gasket for leakage-especially on back side.

And about njerald's reponse is that you described everything in the tsb except for water noise. So, its not off the wall to think that is the intake rattle tsb causing the noise. You even titled the thread "rattle" not water noise.

hope this help

[njerald]

Originally Posted by SHIFTY23

I have heard of this complaint before and I think it relates to the water pump leaking causing air pockets in the cooling system which sounds like water moving back and forth. But also the noise was heard more when making turns. Not a 100% sure
Check the water pump for leakage, check the head gasket for leakage-especially on back side.

And about njerald's reponse is that you described everything in the tsb except for water noise. So, its not off the wall to think that is the intake rattle tsb causing the noise. You even titled the thread "rattle" not water noise.

hope this help

+1