96 Crown Vic Idling Noise

[Stlunarick9827]

Hey, Don't know too much about cars, so I was looking for some answers here. I have 96 Crown Vic, with about 130,000 miles on her. She burns oil, and i need to put about a quart a week in (long drive to work). Just recently I didn't put in enough oil I believe and there was a grinding sound when I started the car and some sparks went flying. I hurried and put oil in it, and it stopped the sparking.

However there is a strange noise when I go in reverse or when the engine is idling.

Is there some way to fix it, or even fixable? It didn't have the noise prior to that night I started it with insufficient oil.

Any response welcome.

Thanks.

[tiggerabbi]

There are many questions to be asked before answering the question. First how low was the oil when u put oil in? Does the noise happen all the time now or just idling? Those r just a few of the questions but a good start to get an answer from.

[carlos80]

typycally low oil will not cause sparks, what area did these sparks come from left, right, front, or back of the engine? where does the noise seem to be coming from? have you had any wiring problems with this vehicle before? is it a clunking, ticking?

what you can do for now is perform a thorough visual inspection of your entire engine compartment look for chaffed wires, metal parts that look like they've been rubbing against something(shiny), or broken/bent parts
as far as the burning oil part try running half a quart of marvel mystery oil, or those tranny treatments that say they'll soften up the seals through the engine, 4.6L engines are notorious for having bad valve stem seals

[rhandwor]

I don't know for sure what happened but a good possibility is the solenoid stuck and the bendix in the starter didn't retract and the flywheel teeth and starter teeth were making sparks.
If you do your own work pull the cover for the flywheel. Take a flashlight and look at the flywheel. I would pull the starter and look at it. Disconnect the battery neg. before pulling the starter. I would lay it on something and try starting the car after connecting battery cable. Watch the bendix to make sure it is working properly. The solenoid is by the battery on the fender wall.
If the bendix doesn't retract fully they rub the flywheel.
Check out immediately or you may have to replace the flywheel. They have to pull the transmission to do this.

[Dondo]

Sounds like your starter is the problem,,, hanging up or something..

[Stlunarick9827]

Sparks to my understanding were coming from the left rear underneath the hood and could be seen near the wheels.

I didn't keep the car running to find out exactly where, and my friends were too idiotic to be very clear.

Um, the oil I would suppose was very low and I'm thinking of puttin more in tonight before I have to take the long haul to work.

That marvel oil sounds like a good idea though.

Thanks alot for the replies, but I'm sort of car illiterate, and anything I get done (at least anything semi-major) I'm going to pay to have done. So Flywheels? I'm not sure what that is...

It only does the noise while idling though, I constantly turn down the radio to check while driving, and its only when I stop at red lights for longer amounts of time that it comes back.

Hopefully nothing too bad, but thats about all more I can say.

Thanks for the help so far,
and anymore is welcome!

Rick