Now I know it's not a toyota truck or suv but I own a 93 toyota celica st. It is a 5 speed and contains the 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine. Yesterday it started making a horrible noise that is kind of a grinding sound. My friend, who is also a member of this site and owns both an 89' toyota pickup and a 00' toyota celica, looked and listened and we have both decided that it sounds like it is coming from the exhaust manifold. There is no noticeable difference in the cars driving. My friend told me to post on this site and see if anybody had any ideas before we got it jacked up and the manifold off to look around. I thank you all in advance for any advice. Let me know if you need any more specific information and I will provide it if I can.

 

look VERY closely at the exhaust gaskets.

also, Im unfamiliar with the celica engine, so I dont know whats near the exhaust...try putting your hand on parts (that aren't hot) while its running and see if you can feel the vibration.

 

Thank you for the input, I will be sure to do this when we get it jacked up.

 

heatshield rattling, possibly on the cat or on the exhaust mani...its not a pleasant sound...

 

After some more examination we have now decided the noise is located in the area on the left side of the engine where all the belts are and we believe it to be grinding of the bearings in a rotor. The most likely candidate we found to be the alternator bearings. Just hoping it's not the bearings in the main rotors. I am planning on pulling the alternator today and taking it to get tested. Any thoughts on this new development? It makes sense to me that the car would drive fine and not throw problem lights if the bearings in the alternator were going out. The alternator would still be putting out power and the engine would still work fine as until the damage in the alternator finally caused it to fail. It would explain why the sound gets worse when I rev the engine both in neutral and in gear. Again, any thoughts would be helpful because I'm not mechanic and I'm trying to troubleshoot this without the cost of a mechanic because I'm a poor college student. Thanks again for any thoughts or advice.

 

I replaced the idler pulley and fired up the engine only to get whining. Sounds like a belt tightness issue to me, what do you think. Another thought, since I didn't let it run very long maybe the new pulley just needs to get acclimated? Thoughts?