Noise coming from engine area.

There is a intermitant noise coming from my engine area.

It only happens after I start, and only sometimes will it make it.

It lasts for a short period of time, but today it lasted alot longer.

It increases with engine rpm, and isn't steady with idle rpm in the way it sounds. So the loudness of the noise varies.

The sound I really can't desribe other than it sounds like scratching high pitched noise.

Could this have somthing to do with my starter? however, it doesn't have any actual problem starting. starts perfect everytime, this problem just only occurs when I start the engine sometimes.

Someone said it sounded like I was out of oil, but my oil was mabye about 2q low when the noise happened today. I filled it to the top with 1 thing of oil.

I had been driving the car all day with no problems, I go into the store and come back out an hour later and it happened and lasted at least 20min and when it stopped it went away instantly. And the engine proceeded to purr like normal.

I don't have any visable signs of engine trouble, it accelerates fine, and idles fine when the problem occurs.

You can hear it inside the car, so its loud enough, sounds really werid outside.

1999 Honda Passport EX, 140K

a pulley? best would be to pop the hood when it's happening. have at hand a piece of fuel hose of such to stick in your ear and move around the engine area, best if touching something. or a piece of wood or a long screwdriver.

...Someone said it sounded like I was out of oil, but my oil was mabye about 2q low when the noise happened today. I filled it to the top with 1 thing of oil....
1999 Honda Passport EX, 140K this is a bit confusing. you were 2 qts low, but 1 qt filled it up?
plus is this oil consumption something new for you. 2 qts low isn't insignificant. do you have a handle on how much oil this thing uses?

//bc

It uses quite alot of oil, I didn't check to see how big the thing of oil I put in was. So I know I didn't put alot in, it wasn't more then 2q for sure. And I know by the time I filled it, it said full on the line.

My mechcanic mentioned mabye the engine needs some regular maintence that possibly one of the lifters is getting stuck after the car sits for a time period, explaining why i happens only when the car is first started. And the fact that my oil was lower then normal could have helped cause this.

I never can get anywhere quick enough while the problem happens so that someone can diagnose it. I sware it sounded like it was from inside the engine area. I have had some pulleys lock up before, this is nothing like that kinda of noise.

I'm very confused in regards to the oil issue....you don't know what size of bottle the replacement oil came out of?? Is this what you're saying? In which case you have no idea whether it took 1 or 2 qts to refill it?

I don't feel 1 qt is too bad, but running it 2 qts low is definitely not good in my mind as that only leaves 3.5 qts in an almost 6 qt oil sump.

The noise could be starter failure, waterpump weakening, pulley of sorts, serpentine belt issue.

Try either using a tad thicker oil viscosity or switch to Rotella synthetic 5w-40 diesel rated oil, it should slow down the oil usage incredibly. Try to never allow it to get 2 qts low again....if possible.

I had checked it not to long ago, and I could have sworn it read full. I haven't drove much at all. No highway usage so I figured my oil would be ok. Mabye I didn't check it properly. Next time I see my oil go low, I will add that brand of oil.

I just didn't look to see how big the thing was. 1.5-2q max. Becuase the bottle was bigger then a 1q but not more then 2 for sure.

So far in this cars life, I have had the waterpump replaced, the serp. belt replaced, egr valve replaced, that pipe in the engine replaced, range mode sensor cleaned (still didn't fix limp mode, but now I just let it warm up for 30-1min and walla no limp mode), the rear differeitnal serviced, front brakes, spark plugs, 2x o2 sensors (front or back don't remember).

Nothing really major yet.