In the last 2 weeks, I have started my car(2002 camaro ss 33,000miles) and I have heard a howling noise. I put the car in neutral, and get out and can hear the noise loud and clear through the exhaust. The last time that it did it, I heard a psssssst noise from the engine, then the howling stopped. Ant help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

i hope your not talking about the air pump. that makes more of a air ruching sound, but it could be considered howling...

 

Its you AIR pump. Mine does it too. At first it freaked me out (Ithought it was power steering) because it had not done it before, but now it does it everytime I cold start my car. Nothing is wrong, it just makes a loud *** howl now.

 

You could hear my pump through the exhaust with my old loaumouth. I scared me until I found where it was coming from.

 

Sounds like air pump. When I clicked on this I totally forgot about it, seeing as how mine is long gone.

It is located beneath the driver's side headlight. You can follow a rubber hose to it that comes along the fender from the back of the engine bay. Next time you hear the noise listen closely in that area. It is accessible from the flap in front of the tire under the car.

 

throw that thing in the garbage...

 

My car at 23k miles had its passenger side AIR pump hose cracked big time and was so brittle it wasn't even funny. It was driving me crazy for a while because my exhaust note was worse, I could smell more exhaust than normal, and there was a noticeable exhaust leak at WOT. A pair of AIR block off plates put an end to that problem.

 

How do I know that it is the air pump, when it make sthat noise?

 

Go back up to post five. Locate the air pump itself and listen to it when you hear the noise. Should be a good place to start.

 

What does the air pump do?

 

Its supposed to help the emiisions pass thru the exhaust, it just cuts on and off as needed, doesnt run all the time. If it is going bad like mine was it will probably throw the SES light if it stops pushing enough air thru- the only place I could find one at the time was the dealership and it seems like they were wanting 2 or 3 hundred dollars for it- if you look thru the parts for sale section, guys are parting out cars or going to drag only set ups and they usually only want 30 or 40 bucks for them. only takes about 15 minutes to replace one. good luck

 

In the driver's side under hood fuse box there's the AIR fuse that you can pull out to disable that thing while you throubleshoot the problem. Yank it out and listen for the noise you're hearing. If it's still there then it's got to be something else.