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Well fellas......

Yet again I have made an appointment to bring my Spark in 0900 tomorrow to the service department. The reason, a loud rattle/metal on metal noise while accelerating and hitting 2500 to 4000 rpms.

I have brought it in once in the past and they gave me the infamous "unable to replicate" solution. This time I am not going to leave until I get someone, preferably a technician not an advisor, to take a ride with me.

About the noise, I hear it inside the dab while accelerating. It is loudest when the passenger Window is down and I am driving through an area where the sound bounces off. Does anyone else expirence this noice? I need to try and record the sound but will probably have to use the gopro set up on the exterior. In cab I can't seem to get a quiet enough audio to cancel out all other noises.

Anyways I Will keep you informed as to what they say. I am still convinced we are having timing chain issues...

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Mine makes the same rattle at high rpm. I'm sure it's just some thin heat shielding, but I haven't looked yet.

How loud is it? Mine is loud to the point it sounds like I have a very low quality rice burner muffler on...

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Timing chain makes a whizzing sound, I have a timing chain problem. And it should come from the right hand side (passenger) maybe the same sound, maybe different and it should get real bad up at 5000rpm. Mine is worst when cold.

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Yep.. Right hand side. Worse when I start cold. And louder when I reach about 4 to 4500 rpms then the general engine noise is to loud to still hear it. Let's just say it's loud enough to make me embarrassed at times when driving past pedestrians haha

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I chuckle and hope my engine seizes when I hear it. Every time I get a lack of power I hope it's for the last time and a piston flies through the hood... So far still going down the road. I'm in the dealer at 8:00 tomorrow, unless the snow comes early.

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Mine does it too, around 3-3500rpms when accelerating. Sounds more like timing chain noise, like Greg said. I'm used to it now, and I'm not taking it in only to be told it's normal. Perhaps it is normal, do brand new Sparks make this noise too? I will be unloading mine at 99,000 miles, right before the powertrain warranty is up, and staying clear of GM for life. Those who are taking it in to the dealer are wasting your time. While your there, test drive a new Spark and see if you hear the noise, some of us are wondering.

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My chevy spark does the same thing. I thinks because of sparks small motor. I thought it could be coming from the seat belt on the passenger side. since only a cable holds it to the car and its free to move around. Im bringing mine to the dealer to soon for a oil change. let me know what you find out.

Edited by tootal2
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Update.

Took it in this morning for the rattle that is getting louder and louder. I requested to take a technician for a ride so that I can point out the sound. The tech agreed there is an odd rattle sound. After waiting an hour the service advisor came and grabbed me. He stated that the noise is coming from behind the alternator and is more than likely an exhaust rattle. He then went on to state that they do not know what part to replace and that they have placed a call into Chevy to see what they want the dealer to replace.

So now it's the waiting game to see what Chevy wants to do. Not the dealer. At least they finally admit they don't know what to do.

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UPDATE...

I finally received a phone call back today. Two days later... The Chevy dealer informed me that they had ordered me a catalytic converter for my Spark. Appearently there was something wrong with mine that they seem to think this replacement will solve the issue. They stated the part should be in either wednsday or thursday of next week. Once it is in i will get a phone call to bring my car in to replace it.

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It could be the heat shield on the converter, occasionally a weld will snap and the shield begins to rattle against the converter, the sound can drive you insane! Basically, it is a fairly common problem, it can happen on any car. Most muffler shops simply take the shield off, a cheap fix. If the converter isn't giving off any putrid smells, most likely this is the problem. Let us know the outcome.

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The dealer is not allowed to simply remove the heat shield, it could open them up to liability if you ever started a fire with your car. You would of course need to pump a lot of unburned fuel into it to get it that hot, but I have seen a couple like that. After many miles of glowing red they normally melt the exhaust hangers and drop down where you can see they glowing when following the car. Normally a short time after that the pipe falls off, or if you shut the car down so they cool the cat will collapse and you will have a plugged exhaust.

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The headshield on our cars is held on by 4 10mm bolts and also require the O2 sensor to be removed to get it out. I know this because I went to remove the manifold yesterday and the O2 sensor was siezed in place. Not even 17k on it and I got maybe an 1/8th of a turn.

I did take a peak inside and the converter is a ceramic unit...which are fragile and can rattle once the substrate is damaged.

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Hmmm.... Interesting. What can damage the converter? I only have 6,400 miles on the thing... It's not like its been used and abused.

That's the answer you're going to have to squeeze out of the dealership, if the converter has internal damage, what caused it to fail? Just a simple replacement, without a fix, will just fail again.

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