Intermittent Slapping Noise Cold / Warm at idle

Can’t seem to wrap my mind around it.

Car runs perfectly fine without any issues. No oil pressure issues, not overheating absolutely nothing. But I’ve got this intermittent almost like belt slapping sound coming from under the hood at idle when the car is cold or warmed up. What could this be ?

Get a stethoscope and start listening around the timing cover. My guess is one or both of the tensioners is going out.

How big of a job is this if they need to be replaced ?

Check the radiator fan. They are known to come apart and do exactly what you are describing. Turn on ac or defroster and see if it makes the noise.

I’ll try this tonight ! I know one of the lines to the ac condenser is leaking Freon so I haven’t been using it at all. Trying to pencil out some time to get that line replaced

speednlux said:

How big of a job is this if they need to be replaced ?

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The timing cover has to come off to get to them. So basically everything on the front of the engine has to come off.

Hopefully it's just the fan. Saying you hear it when the engine is cold is what made me think of the tensioners. I had it happen in my 01.

01yellercobra said:

The timing cover has to come off to get to them. So basically everything on the front of the engine has to come off.

Hopefully it's just the fan. Saying you hear it when the engine is cold is what made me think of the tensioners. I had it happen in my 01.

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Cold or hot, i hear it repeatedly every 30 seconds or so. It’s pretty loud , you can hear it over the exhaust. It just sounds like something is intermittently hitting almost like a belt flapping against something for a few seconds then stops goes away for about 30 seconds then repeats

I’ll check when I get home but based on that clip that’s not what I’m hearing. And mine is intermittent, it’ll come and go every so often.