I have a bad ticking noise and i thought it was an exhaust leak but now its right near the oil pan, and the torque convertor, i put my ear up to the convertor and it sounds likeits coming from there...? Could this possibley be due to an old convertor or a broken one or not the convertor at all??

btw: what does a torque convertor actually do

thx

iroc-z z28 350 1987

 

the torque converter transfers power from the engine to the transmission through a fluid link, torque converters work by moving fluid through sets of vanes, they work when a certian "stall" speed is reached, below that speed they basically freewheel which is why cars with automatic trannys don't stall when the car is in gear and at a complete stop.. if the sound your describing is actually coming from inside the converter it is most likely a broken vane or stator.. stock style converters are good for breaking apart behind a strong powerplant... if the noise is coming from your converter i would immediatly stop driving the car.. i had a torque converter that had a broken stator sprag which in turn eventually wiped out most of the vanes in it which then damaged the input shaft on my tranny.. if your converter goes theres a pretty good chance your tranny is ****ed too.. if you are extremely lucky and no damage has occured you may simply be able to replace the converter and have the tranny flushed really well and replace the filter, but if the converter is actually fubared internally there is a very good chance that your tranny has metal particals all through it... remember if it is your converter dont forget to flush the transcooler as well as metal particles like to hang out in there.

 

I was just getting ready to post with the same problem my car just started having. I had a bad feeling it was my tranny making the noise. Thanks for the info. Anyone else have anything to add, could it be something else, etc? Any help or suggestions would be great. Thanks.

 

A friend of mine had the same problem one time and it ended up
being a cracked flexplate.

 

whats a flexplate? how long does it take to replace the torque convertor, or how much do you think someone will charge thx

 

Does it do it in all gears or just P and N?

 

all gears, and when its in neutral or park and i rev it it, the ticking gets faster, until it stops or just blends to high with the engine im not sure

 

inspect the flexplate for cracks first before you spend money on a converter, the flexplate is the thing in front of the torque converter that its bolted to, it has a ring gear around it that the started uses to turn the engine over, its an automatics equivilant to a flywheel

 

i was inspecting it, and it seems to have some scratches on the inner portion of it ...check out my drawing

 

This is 100% just like what my car does. I am going to have to check out my flexplate too. I will let you guys know what I find out. Please keep me posted on what happens with yours. Oh, what could cause this to happen to the flexplate? Could it be a bad tranny, etc?

 

well im callin a local tranny guy today to see what he thinks and get an estimate on a cost of repair if he knows what it is, my tranny was rebuilt years ago and it only has like 50k on it so ill be pist if its f ed up lol ill keep ya posted

 

well i talked to the guy, and hes going to charge me 300 dollars which includes the torque convertor....how does that sound for a price??? or shouldi jsut do it my self?

if it is even the torque convertor

 

I had the same problem guys except it turned out that the bolts holding the trans on to the motor had come loose and the trans had shifted to the rear about 1.2 inch and the flexplate was occassionaly hitting the top part of the motor similar to what would be the bell housing on a manual trans. It actually broke a chuck out of the trans case just above the flexplate.

 

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/torque-converter.htm

 

make sure you pull the trans pan to make sure there is no metal in there.

 

i was told there will probably always be some little metal flakes in there but be worried when theres bigger chunks....lol i dont like that work, chunks of metal inthe tran pan, not good....if there is... oh yea i called the guy i bought the car from and the tranny and torque converter were replaced in 98 trannny rebuilt torque replaced....... could one go bad that quickly??

 

thats not a bad price...in fact it a very good price with the converter (stock) Im sure...
With your experience..or lack of..(no flame here).I would let them do the job..unless you have a friend that has pulled a 3rd gen tranny..then do it yourself.

Yep, very fair price

 

I had a similar "rapping / ticking" noise on my 85 IROC last spring right after it came out of storage, coming from the same area of tranny. It reminded me of exhaust leak also. Turned out one or more of the vanes on the front pump came loose! It did'nt always do it, usually just in park when warm, and or under acceleration. At driving speeds, it pretty much went away. A way to determine if this is the problem is this: at idle, in park, with e-brake applied, remove the TV cable from the throttle body and pull it back and forth through its range of travel. This will increase / decrease line pressure through tranny and the pump. If the sound changes tone or volume in any way, it could be pump or stator related, or would at least be a place to start. This is what mine was, and I was surprised. I had never heard of this before. Regardless, I would'nt drive it until its fixed and flushed to avoid any extra damage.

 

Well, found out mine is not the flexplate. It's the tranny pump just like 1991 RS 305 said. This weekend I am having a new tranny, mounts, t/converter, u joints, flexplate, etc. installed. This way I will have no more problems with this crap. Can't wait to drive it. Good luck guys.

 

come to find out mine was the flex plate, it was cracked in several places and the entire middle ring where the bolts are was cracked like an o, i took out the tranny or what not and was able to litterally pull the outside of the flex plate off leaving hte circle in the middle where the bolts are on the engine.... how rediculous...!!

 

JAYHODGE

I'll be doing the same job as soon as my new Flexplate arrives.
What a pain in the *** it is! Don't you agree? I've had my tranny out so many times and each time I say to myself I hope I don't have to do this again to soon! Oh well!

Did you replace the flexplate yet? If so how is it doing? I would like to know what causes the flexplate to crack. To much power, bolts not torqued enough, to much? anyone have any idea? I would like to know before I put my new one on.

 

​​​​​​Hi all. same thing with my converter I think,ticking sound but only in when in gear I'm hoping it's the converter from what I've researched I could be on the right track but I also get a burning smell only sometimes