Metal grinding at 1500 RPM - Help?

[fehk]

Hi guys lurker here, need help from anyone who knows more about this car before it destroys itself

it's an 08 2.5 auto with 60K miles. I got it used and it always had this problem, but lately it's much worse

the car sometimes makes a grinding metal noise between 1500-1600 RPM, it comes from under the engine area. it wasn't bad at first, it didn't happen often and when it did it wasn't too loud so it was hard to reproduce. It would happen occasionally while coming out of turns and on cold starts. when the engine would go up to heat itself the car would make the noise until the RPMs came down again.

It's much worse now, it's distinctly metal grinding and it's much louder, you can hear it with the windows up and music on. The car also vibrates just slightly while doing it.

I've been able to reproduce it and it happens every time the car starts up cold in the morning (Miami cold... Like 70f) and the Engine goes to 1550ish to heat itself while parked, but if the cars been running and i take it to 1550 on park it wont make the noise.

I can also get it to make the noise if while the car is moving I keep it around 1550 while on 4th, 5th, and 6th using the manual mode. It happens every time on those "gears" on the cvt, whether the car is hot or cold. Haven't been able do it on 3rd or below. It also makes the noise while on automatic mode under the same circumstances.

The symptoms are pretty specific, but i don't really know enough to know where to start looking. If someone can point me in the right direction i can start looking around for damage etc hopefully before my car cannibalizes itself

[mattyfo0z]

i would take it to the dealership and see if you still have a powertrain warranty on the car. i'm not sure what your problem could be at all, but it obviously doesn't sound too good so i'd take it to them first and see what the problem is. who knows, it might just be a loose heat shield or something vibrating against your exhaust or something.

[fehk]

my warranty went out about 900 miles ago. so it goes

Cash is really tight right now so the dealer would be a very last resort. this has been happening a while and Outside the God awful sound doesn't seem to affect the car much. I really think if I could figure out where it's coming from I could fix or replace the part myself before it's to late

In the mean time I'm going over the part diagrams

[SEismyG]

Maybe there's something wrong with the timing chain on your car? Maybe the previous owner had that problem and just sold it "as-is" and never fixed it. Did you hear it during the test drive? How many miles do you have right now? I don't think its a heat shield problem...then again I wish "mmx23z" would come back on and give you some insight incase it was a heatshield problem. I heard his car start up, rattles, but you're hearing metal "clunks." If your car is un-molested, try taking it to Sears and see how much they charge to run a complete diagnoses of the problem before you do anything yourself. Goodluck...