Banging noise from under hood

yaman

Monday morning when I started up my car ( 92 LeBaron V-6)I heard what sounded like a banging noise emanating from the front passenger side of my hood.I drove away and the noise disappeared.Today while waiting to cross a traffic light I heard it again.At first I thought it must be a jackhammer doing construction work in the field across from where I was idling.Again when the light turned green I pulled away and the noise stopped.Any thoughts on what this might be?I'll get the car to my mechanic on Saturday but I am wondering if I might be doing some long term damage by driving it til then.

ryanbab

My gf just had a problem like this on her escort

Her idler tensioner was going bad and making a knocking noise (unrelated to the banging)

Well he had to take the belt off and it seemed to be coming apart. It was very fraied (sp?). A big chunk was disconnected from the belt itself and on idle it would bang against the top of the hood

Replaced belt noise gone

Mr_Shiftright

This is very strange and I think a warning....I don't think you should drive this car anymore until it is repaired.

bushone

opened the hood to have a look-see? A visual inspection of the engine compartment might be in order.

lbthedog

Maybe it's a cat?

bushone

or a skwerl hiding his nuts. ;-)

yaman

Thanks for the ideas.It was fine last night and this morning.The hoses,belts all appear okay.I'll try and get it over to my mechanic on Saturday and ask him to take a look.Again thx

lbthedog

HOPEFULLY it's cat. (see name)

C'mon. it's a joke

bushone

Those intermittent noises are the hardest to diagnose. Did you find anything out Sat?

yaman

I never got it over to my mechanic on Saturday.He was booked so I made an appt for next Saturday.As I am more aware of it -the noise only happens when I hit the brakes and am idling at a light.Furthermore, if I put the car in neutral while idling the noise goes away.
I suspect some gadget is loose though why I only hear it when I am idling beats me.Of course when I take the car in on Saturday it will be quiet as a lamb

swschrad

couldn't be a warped drive plate between the flywheel and an auto tranny, could it? sounds like a blast from my past. had to put something like 4 of them into a Dodge slant-6 after I put a nicely rebuilt motor in... albeit not really the same block that the 1964 came with, so they had to grind down the tranny shaft to make it all fit. an "aha!" moment, yes, thank you, but I got 140,000 out of that mill and the rest of the car fell apart first.

could also be a clutch bearing screwup if you've got a manual.

yaman

Had the car in last saturday and they said it was some type of plate that was bent-said they banged it straight and the noise has disappeared.(I think they said it was a heat plate but my memory is getting bad as I get older )
Anyway cost me $ 30 to get it fixed so I am certainly not complaining