Ok, well I am new to Cavaliers here so I was hoping someone could help me. I picked up a 2004 with the ecotec 2.2 I believe, back in July 2014. Well other than a clutch hose rubbing a hole in its self all has been fine until a strange noise appeared. It started by showing up here and there most notably at idle, Rev the engine slightly and the noise would quit, it sounded to me almost like some rattling up against something, but it has grown worse of the few months and it's a little louder now and more often and it still goes away when I tach it up a little. Well I know obviously it needs fixed and sitting at a light the other day it sound terrible even giving me a feeling matching the noise through the steering wheel. The problem also is the noise used to not really be around at idle and now that it is its clearly coming from the front of the engine and not the power steering pump or valve tic ( which I am very familiar with thanks to my 3.1l buick) I have mechanically inclined friends that have guess but it's my only car and I seriously work 3 jobs and really need a good clue what it could be so when I get it to my buddies shop we can get it under control so it's back on the road asap. That and some things I have read make me fear driving it till its fixed in fear of it being a chain tensioner and have to do a motor instead of some parts... please let me know if anyone has a clue... thanks!
Most likely the timing tensioner..get a video of the sound??
A little more detail about where the noise is coming from would be of help, but my initial thought would be the timing chain is beat. When you give it more RPM it tightens the chain up a bit making it go away. Timing jobs on these motors is a pretty quick affair, a 6-pack job on a Saturday.
I tried pointing to the area of the sound, I hear it just behiND the aluminum you see in the pic, it really is lower than my finger in the pic, it's super cold here to and windy so I did what I could
Apparently my photo didn't upload
Timing chain is slapping the timing cover. This happens when the chain has stretched BER or tensioner is no longer holding chain tight. U can get a timing chain set that has chain, tensioner and i think a crank gear. Its very easy to change chain but still time consuming.
Good luck
the 2.4 eco motors were notorious for cam actuators and water pump chains making a racket. one more vote for timing set
Tensioner. I would replace the tensioner and go.
FU Tuning
