So, I've been experiencing a noise when accelerating in my 1.2. It seems more prominent when the revs are below 2500rpm and kind of fades out after. Once the car is heated up and I've been driving for a while it becomes very noisy and will occur most of the time.

I took it to my local garage, and after them trying to identify it for 20 odd minutes and then taking a test drive, the mechanics stated that it was my engine radiator fan (most likely a bearing as it sounded like that). This explained why it became louder and more prominent when the car had been on for longer as the engine heated up and it kicked it. However, surely the fan stays on to cool the engine and doesn't just turn on when I'm accelerating and turns off when I'm not? Because it only occurs when my foots on the accelerator. It won't occur when breaking, dipping the clutch or letting the car roll.

I'm hoping someone can identify it as potentially being something else as the repair was pricey to say the least.
I uploaded the noise recording to YouTube but I can't seem to post the link here.
All contributions are greatly appreciated.

Here's the link;
[ame]https://youtu.be/G5m-KB2e_Aw[/ame]

I can't access your recording, what sort of noise is it, can you pinpoint where is comes from on the engine and does it go up and down with Engine revs?

DGPunto said:

I can't access your recording, what sort of noise is it, can you pinpoint where is comes from on the engine and does it go up and down with Engine revs?

Click to expand...

It's a sort of scraping noise and is somewhere in the engine bay. The noise occurs when accelerating, it's more to do with my foot being on the accelerator as no matter the revs, if I'm not accelerating it won't occur.

DGPunto said:

I can't access your recording, what sort of noise is it, can you pinpoint where is comes from on the engine and does it go up and down with Engine revs?

Click to expand...

Is there any way I can make the link available to you?

Should be home soon I'll try with my phone and see if I can hear through an earphone

With a cold engine, unplug the fan.. does it still make the noise?... i don't think it's the fan, but try this. BE VERY careful not to overheat the engine.

To me it sounds more like a serious exhaust leak (possibly a broken exhaust manifold stud, or the exhaust is loose and hitting some other thing, a heat shield or cross-member.
It can also be a brake disc shield touching the disk, under load... a fraction of a mm will make a difference under load.
Does it only make noise?
Does it also vibrate in correlation with the noise?
Does speed affect the noise?
Does gearing affect the noise?

In all seriousness video's will not help, we can't really tell what the sound is, or where it's coming from.

aurick86 said:

With a cold engine, unplug the fan.. does it still make the noise?... i don't think it's the fan, but try this. BE VERY careful not to overheat the engine.

To me it sounds more like a serious exhaust leak (possibly a broken exhaust manifold stud, or the exhaust is loose and hitting some other thing, a heat shield or cross-member.
It can also be a brake disc shield touching the disk, under load... a fraction of a mm will make a difference under load.
Does it only make noise?
Does it also vibrate in correlation with the noise?
Does speed affect the noise?
Does gearing affect the noise?

In all seriousness video's will not help, we can't really tell what the sound is, or where it's coming from.

Click to expand...

The problem is it usually occurs when the engine hot so I can't unplug the fan.

I just had a new exhaust fitted and it occurred prior to it. The mechanics took that into consideration and said it's not anything to do with the exhaust.
I can't feel any vibration due to the noise.
It seems as though it happens when the engine is trying to get up to speed.
Changing gear stops the noise, putting my foot on the clutch stops the noise and not accelerating also stops the noise.

Cheers.

Any update on your situation?
I have a similar noise happening around 2000 rpm and under load only when I'm pressing the throttle pedal. It sounds like something is worned out because this rpm is used a lot when cruising at different gears.

I looked everywhere on the intake side, found some problems but after repair this whooosh sound remained. Cold or warm engine doesn't make any difference. The heat shield around the exhaust manifold was dodgy but fixed it. I cleaned the throttle body. The oil breather pipe on the valve cover was cracked, but after fitting a new pipe only the idle smoothed out (no air leaks now). A/C compressor was busted befeore, it was replaced recently.

What's left: both belts (timing, aux) are in need of replacement because of age (5 years), alternator bearing acting funny perhaps.

It's a 2006 Fiat Grande Punto 1.4 16V, 70kW, manual 6-gear transmission

I'll try to record mine to be clear.