Engine making a TON of noise. emergency 911 dead SVX.
 

OK. my exhaust has been getting progressively worse and worse, missing gasket, and resonator trashed completely. but tonight, something definantly went wrong BIG TIME with engine, its just hard to tell WHAT.

The best way to describe it is a 'clack' looking in from the passengerside of the engine, underneith the plastic BOXER cover, above the differencial dipstick, there is this very large blue gear of sorts. infront of the gear(towards front of car) is this metal disc shaped thing. it APPEARS to have wear marks on it. I THINK thats where the noise is coming from. its INCREDIBLY loud. rev the engine, it goes away. its only at idle and low speeds, but its insanely loud. suggestions?

J

more info
 

there is no check engine light. the car still shifts fine. if you were deaf, you would not know there was a problem, the car seems to perform fine(obviously didnt do anything major with it sounding like this though, just had the 6 mile run home like this). Please tell me this isn't insanely major, I have no money...

noise
 

Can you post a picture, or a clip, or a drawing of the problem area? But DO NOT RUN IT UNNECESSARILY!

I can't....but maybe I can describe it better.
 

its late at night, have no camera available. or anything else..Talking with mike on AIM, he says its the flexplate. so uncool.

Blue Gear
 

James,

That sounds like the only thing it could be. Maybe the nuts just loosened up, or the flex plate cracked. The flywheel/flex plate is about 14" in diameter and located between the engine and the transmission. You can only see it through an access hole on the top of the bell housing a little to the passenger side. This hole is usually covered up with a black rubber plug. (2 1/2 " wide X 1 1/2" tall)

Tom

P.S. Feel free to call me on my cell phone (301) 707-3437.

okk....plug?
 

my car has no plug to hide that from view. never has to my knowledge. its open also to the bottom of the car (you can see the blue gear while changing tranny fluid and such). would this of caused crud to get in and damage it?

No - they are all exposed at the bottom.

pretty certain you cracked your flexplate. I did it on all 4 bolts once...and it sounded just like you describe. Sounds like all hell broke lose when mine broke but kinda disappeared in the engine noise when you reved it. My car was able to continue moving w/ only 1 part of the flex plate accutally caught on the 1 bolt that remained. I broke it good! 6.5k neutral drop....an absolute accident...but I got 1 hell of a AWD burnout.