Just recently I have noticed a really awful sound coming from my roadrunner's drive train. All has been well and the car has been running perfectly for months. Just last week I noticed when I accelerate I get an awful noise like nuts and bolts falling off the car. I stopped and checked on the road and all was well. This has happened a few times as of late and I thought maybe the fan was loose and hitting the radiator as that is what it sounds like, but all is tight and no problems there. Yesterday it made that same noise right at start up too, but only for a second and went right away

The car runs perfect and drives fine so it's a very intermittent noise at best. I have crawled underneath and checked and retightend everything I can think of. I thought something might be loose and rattling around.

The noise is like rocks being thrown in the fan.

So any ideas on what to look for next?

Like I said the car operates perfectly except for once in awhile when it makes that ugly noise only on hard acceleration or at startup.


Thanks for any ideas.

Check your torque converter bolts. Did you take down the driveshaft and check the u joints??

I've had cat. converters get noisy when they die, I wonder if mufflers do the same thing?

Torque converter bolts for sure, had the same thing once! Make sure you loc-tite them down too or it will keep coming back!

can you narrow it down a bit for the location? youve got the fan torque converter all the way back to the muffler so far. i need a smaller area.

so lets see, bad clutch fan? detonation??? hd mufflers come apart- rap on it and see if you hear a tinny sound). exhaust pipe rattling against the frame? torque converter bolts loos (although when they are loose, you usually have that noise all the time at the same conditions).

does the noise speed up as you accelerate? you said you have it under hard acceleration- does it always do it? open the windows and drive by those concrete barriers and theyll reflect the noise back at you (but its hard to tell where its coming from.

You need to get it on jackstand and see if you can get it to do it while standing still (rap on things, look around) and then start it and accellerate (be careful)

Really sounds like Torque converter bolts to me too.
Time to get the car in the air and "nut and bolt it" end to end. Throw a wrench or socket on everything under there. It was all put together in the past couple years, and with different parts. You may find only a few, or you may find a lot of stuff, but it's worth it for peace of mind.

If you are running stock manifolds- check the "flapper" in the passenger side one. I have had 2 cars where they were loose- and made some crazy sounds that were initially hard to locate.

Another vote for torque convertor bolts, but stu it is more likely that some pig who has found about Baconfest has sabotaged your car in an attempt to keep from the festivities........

Broken Motor Mount...When you hit the throttle the driver side of the engine will lift & the fan will hit the shroud.... Lift the hood, start the car, keep your foot on the brake, put the car in gear & watch te engine as you give it some gas... You'll know immediately...

Ok i took off the Torque Converer inspection plate and found these parts rattling around in there. What are they??

That round piece looks like the torque converter hub. I have no idea about that other piece.

Muffler bearing.

Looks like the nose off a Mini-starter...

Whatever it is, it doesn't look good!

Well, you have found the cause of the noise, now to FIX it!