Scraping noise coming from car engine while accelerating.

This started happening to me last week. Whenever I started my car and accelerated, I could hear a scraping noise coming from inside the engine.

As soon as I put my foot on the accelerator, the noise would start again. It sounded awful, like something inside the engine was being worn down.

It is worth noting that this noise was only apparent for about five minutes or so, and that it would disappear after the engine had heated itself up.

After searching around, I came across a number of potential causes.

  • The transmission is going.
  • The clutch is bad.
  • Break pads are going.
  • The timing belt is going.
  • The flywheel is causing it.
  • One of the bearings in your front wheel has gone.

At one stage, I was half expecting to see a comment about wiper blades or something. Seemingly, it’s just one of those things that can have a million different causes.

For me, the cause was discovered by chance when the oil warning light flashed up on my dashboard while I was turning a corner.

My previous car had done the exact same thing when it was low on oil, so I knew that it was time to check my oil levels.

Anyway, I topped up my oil and waited until the next day to see if the issue had been resolved (the scraping noise could only be heard after a cold start, so I had to wait until the following day to see if I had been successful).

Sure enough, the next morning, the sound had gone and everything was back to normal.

This article was posted in Cars on May 11, 2014.