BBYZED

Hi,

My 01 Grand Prix (N/A 3800) has developed an unnerving "rattle". It basically sounds like someone dropped a handful of rocks into a food processor. The car drives like normal. No electrical problems, no heating problems. Steering, brakes all normal. It started intermittent, but is becoming more common.

It seems to be coming from the driver's side, but the fan is near the front (though I'm not ruling that out yet). The noise does change with engine speed, but sometimes it gets louder, sometimes quieter, sometimes disappears. I was just out to pick my daughter up from school and it wasn't there when I left, but while the car was idling while I got her from the school, the sound started up again, and it was clearly audible outside the car. It seems loudest in the driver seat (inside) or outside the driver front door (outside), so might be something loose on the exhaust system? I just have no idea where to start looking.

The car did have an impact with a deer in early December on the front driver side and was repaired 1.5 months ago and was fine since then, but could something have been knocked loose that wasn't noticed?

Suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Latch

iTrader: (8)

I would guess a broken catalytic converter.

patSS/00

iTrader: (6)

If it's a bad cat, GM will replace for free if it's less than 10 yrs old, it's a known defective batch from that year (and from other years around then). I have the same car/year as you, just had the cat replaced 6 months ago. It may set a code but no SES if that's the problem.

BBYZED

The problem made itself very apparent last night - the accessory belt got chewed up and spit out. Which kind of ticks me off since I just replaced it in the spring last year. However, the reason behind that happening was the tensioner pulley bearing pretty much disintegrated. Fortunately, less than $100 fix (pulley and new belt).

Just gotta hold together a couple more months, then getting a new car....*crossing fingers*.