I am having a very annoying problem that the dealership can't figure out. After driving for any length of time over 15 minutes or so when the engine gets nice and warm I start hearing a noise from the engine that sounds like a bird chirping or light belt squeal. I mainly hear it when I am at idle with or w/out the AC on. I have the manual transmission and it's an '08 GTS. Anyone else have this problem or know what it could possibly be? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

sounds like a bearing is gone on one of the pulleys. Could be any of them. Most likely an alternator I would guess. Get the tech to use a stethoscope or a long screwdriver and place it on different areas to narrow down the noise.

 

I have the same problem, I agree with camshaft sounds like a bearing possibly going bad in a pulley, but I think my sound is coming from the power steering pump pulley.

 

Actually, What I had read somewhere was that it is jsut and only the engine noise!
Its nothing wrong. Its a normal noise. Its the belt, correct.
The review I read stated that the belt was slightly noisy, but the rest fo the car was good!

Two other 08 Lancer owners I knwo experience the same! (they have here in Canada, one has an SE and other has GT). I have an 09 GTS.

 

Yea, it's normal engine noise... for the Mivec..... I think it has to do with its really low engine idle speed (when warmed up).. There are multiple noises i hear, one being the noise you mentioned. Kinda annoying yea? also embarrassing.

 

I've got an 09 GTS as well and just started noticing that noise. Got the dealership to look at it and they said it was being caused by debris in the belt shield? They said they fixed it but low and behold, ten minutes later on the road, I pull up to a red light and at idle it starts up again. Does it for me at a really low idle (2-300rpm) and right below a grand (750-900rpm). I cant find it myself, tried the screwdriver bit to no avail..

Hopefully if a pulley fails and I wreck I get a new car from the dealership for a factory defect 'causing the wreck.

 

if your car idles at 2-300 rpm you have more than a belt problem...I think you misread your tach.

 

Sitting in gear with the A/C or heat running nets me an extremely low idle boss. I don't think it's possible to misread a tach if you've been driving for more than 5 years.

I will idle between 2-400rpm, not 2000-4000rmp of course, when sitting like that after the cars been warmed up. Dealership's been over the car with a fine toothed comb already looking for the source of the belt noise. I'm probably going to end up swapping it out with another GTS that isn't making the noise off the lot.

 

Heard the noise in 2 08's

 

Wow that is low. I have the 09 GTS and mine idles at 600-650 rpms. However, every once in a while it can dip to 550.

 

Yea, mine also idle's at around 400, which to me, is was to low for a gasser.... My diesel Benz idles around that, but then agian, its normal for a diesel to have a really low idle speed.....


I doubt that they will swap your now USED car (worth around 17K) for a BRAND NEW car off the lot (at least that's what i gathered you where saying from your post).... if anything, they might replace the engine...... Unless you are talking about Trading the car in and flopping on your payments.....

Food for thought; Do you remember your car making this noise when driving it off the lot brand new? Probably not, NONE of us did, it is something that developed over a short period of time/operation.....

The dealerships i go to say that the sounds and idle is normal for a 4B11 engine and that yea, they are noisy.... So I just play the waiting game.

Don't get me wrong, something is definitely amiss here. I've tried, as I'm sure others have, to have the dealership/service department even look into it. So it's great to see your dealership is actually looking into the problem! I'm definitely going to follow this post to see what your outcome is. Seems like you are the farthest anyone has come to actually having this issue fixed and i definitely want this issue taken care of on my own car~ So keep us up to date

 

Trading for a used 09 GTS with similar mileage, your right, not getting a new one. I guess I should elaborate a bit more next time.

I'm taking it back in next week on monday or tuesday, gotta go in tomorrow to set up the appointment again since I missed todays due to work. I've also got to get my PCM reflashed in accordance with one of the TSB's that was released to deal with trouble starting up in the cold and some iffy hesitations below 2500rpm when accelerating. Hopefully that's a quick fix.

Hopefully it's a belt noise.. I myself can't seem to locate it for anything but today, while I was there, I finally got the tech who's been working with me to listen to it 'cause every other time I've been in they've had trouble getting it to make the noise.

As for the idle.. They said it was normal. It's not affecting my driving as far as I can tell and yeah.. That engine is noisy as all hell. I wasn't used to the lifters being so loud and had it back into the dealership before 150 miles were even on the car. Only to have them bring another brand new lancer up and start it up for me so I could see it was a normal noise.

 

It fixes it for a while but, the issue comes back again. I'm actually taking mine to the dealer at 11:30 this morning because of that specific issue (along with my grocery list of problems). I had the PCM re-flashed a couple months ago.. well maybe October.. it solved the issue i suppose for a couple months. Now it's happening more frequently and I'm not the type that will bring in a car for ever little squeak or rattle. I may mention it along with whatever else needs to be fixed and see where it lands me. However, this has to be the 10th time this hard starting has happened since the PCM was re-flashed.... Enough is enough! Its so embarasing and ridiculous that a car with 14K on the clock has problems being started.... Followed by the irratic idle in addition to the loud exhaust/ rattling exhaust start-up noise.( you know what i mean) I suppose it reflects nicley on the people standing around you at the time.... Makes them really want a Mitsu....

Like i said, I don't take this car in for ever rattle or noise, I always have a grocery list In addition to above, my heat is non-existant basically when i first use the car. It's very mild... That is until i have turned the car off completley, sat for 5 seconds, then restart it.. Then the heat starts to work properly... Anyone else heard of this? It seems like a bad thermostat or monovalvue.... whatever they use to controll the coolant flow...

Also have other issues, but dont want to spend hours in that place....

 

wow, i have my share of problem, recent one is after starting the car and letting it idle, my car will make a ticking noise for like 2 min, stop for about 30 secs then it will tick again and so on, took it to the mechanic and said it was normal but it just started happening in oct, any ideas about the ticking noise?

 

all lancers do this, many cars with small 4 cyl engines do this.

my gf tc does it also.