The other day, my Electra decided to begin making a new noise out of nowhere. It was fine when I drove & parked it the night before. Let me lay out some facts: -It is a knock/rattle -It is NOT synchronous to engine rpm -its coming from the lower rear side of things, near the flywheel/TC area from what I can determine -it is MOST prevalent when the car is put into a drive gear (D or R) at idle -it is also prevalent when cranking to start the car -The noise goes away when I'm driving...car drives completely normal Below is a video so you can hear it. In the first part of the clip you can begin to hear it slightly. As the clip progresses, you can REALLY hear it when I put the car in gear a couple of times. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I took the TC cover off just to get a look at things...but everything looks normal from what's visible. Thanks
Ok thanks for these leads. My first guess was broken flexplate as well, having dealt with that on another car...same sound. But looking at it, it doesn't LOOK broken with the cover removed. If the bolts were loose, wouldn't the flexplate wobble? I ask because I tugged on it and it seemed solid in place. Hopefully I can give it (and the bolts) a look again. Thanks!
Update: You guys hit the nail on the head. I got up under there, removed the cover again...and instead of just giving the flexplate a wiggle, I got my fingers on the bolts. I'll be damned...they were loose. All of them. How in the world?!?! I "bumped" the starter to get the bolts in the right position for me to get a wrench on each of the bolts (marked the TC with a sharpie to keep track of ones that had been tightened). All is back to normal now. I do not baby this car, but I certainly do not expect something like this to happen either. This must've been an installation error. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.
