so my starter went out a few weeks ago, and after dealing with backordered parts and such i finally got a new one and put it in and cranked up the car. problem is, when i put it in reverse/drive and hit the gas i hear a knocking type sound. the sound increases in frequency as the rpm's go up, but the sound is not there if im in park and rev it up.

to me it sounds more lilke metal knocking on metal but idk really. i dont think its coming from the engine, however, the sound increases as you stick your head toward the rear center of the engine bay. i pulled the window thing on the transmission and checked to see how tight the bolts were on the flywheel where the torque converter bolts on, and i also checked all the teeth on the flywheel.

if you stick your head under the car (while pushing the brake and the gas at the same time to initiate load on the engine) the sound sounds like it is coming from the front of the transmission kinda

when i took it for a drive it seemed to shift fine, there was just that noise. i just put putted around barely giving it gas, but the sound came in at ~1700 and kept going till i let off. it also sometimes came in at as low at 1000 rpms


ive checked just about everything i can think of, but today i got to thinking, what if my torque converter is going bad? i got it from a crappy transmission shop and he may have screwed me. any other ideas or things to check? or questions?

 

Sounds like you could possible have a cracked flexplate (flywheel) or perhaps your new starter is barely hitting the flexplate under load.

 

how about the egr tube or maybe a piston

 

something wrong with the starter makes the most sense, but i pulled the window on the transmission and there were no scratches or crackes on the flexplate as far as i could tell, and there were almost no metal shavings at the bottom, and the teeth didnt show any wear, so i guess i dont know what to look for

and i actually took egr off awhile ago, youre saying if i developed a leak it would make sounds only when the engine was under load? thats definitely a new place to start looking. and how would i troubleshoot it if it was the piston?

 

as far as the egr tube, a friend had that happen to his one time. His was still hooked up. A header leak will make noise under load.

For the piston, you could put it on a rack and use a stethoscope.

Mine made noise under load for a long time. I started boosting on it and the piston started to slap. It does it all the time now. It doesn't sound like a rod knocking with the deep knock. More of a chirpy knock.

My car is a 93 without forged pistons. One drop in fuel pressure under boost started the noise under load.

 

The 94 has a unique shape to the starter head, while the engine is running and one bolt holding the starter, remove the starter and let it hang, see if the noise dissipates.

If not, and you hear it in drive, the converter makes knocking sounds in drive when the internal clutches are bad.

 

the noise doesnt happen unless it is in gear under load though, how would i test that unless i completely removed the starter

is there an easy way to see if it is in fact the converter, or would i just need to drop the tranny and take it to a transmission shop

 

you could try putting the car under load with someone listening. Like put it on stands and pull the e-brake or power brake it to give it load.

I have heard an exhaust leak can be found by stuffing the tailpipes. Never tried it.

If it is a rattle sounding knock, it is probably the converter. The car I had that had one go bad, gradually got bad over time. It started out only doing it when I hammered on it. Then eventually got worse and it did it under any acceleration.

 

you can start the car with one bolt holding the starter, then while running, just pull that one bolt out pull the starter away and see if the noise is gone.