Hi everyone. Here's the thing, car runs great, better than ever, actually. However, about eight months ago, I noticed a clunk/squeak sound when warming up. Very quiet, but it has gotten louder over time, like a washing machine squeaking its feet with an unbalanced load.

The sound occurs halfway through warmup, when the idle drops a bit, and the motor is shaking a bit. When the idle smooths out, the sound goes away, but I will hear it a bit when braking too, or sometimes going over bumps, likes it is a squeaky motor mount or something.

 

I'm just thinking out loud here, but if you hear this squeaking/knocking noise under braking I wonder if the oil pump pickup tube hasn't fallen out of the pump body. If so, the when you brake all the oil runs forward(unless you have a baffle or trapdoor style oilpan) and uncovers the pump at which point it starts to cavitate(sucking air aka the squeaking sound) and then the engine starts to lose oil at which point it starts knocking. Could also explain your erratic oil pressure gauge. Just a thought.

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the oil pump, thankfully that's not it.

Took the car to a mechanic, and he thought it was motor mounts, so now I've got new ones. The old ones were gone anyway, and the motor is now way tighter, but the sound is still there. Mechanic said the motor is fine, and the car runs great, so whatever it is, it's minor. Also, the mechanic didn't even really get to hear the noise, because I put the car in Drive right away, to move it into the garage, and the sound disappeared (!).

So now I know that the sound goes away when you put it in Drive right away, back to Neutral, or Park, doesn't matter. Also started the motor with no belt, so it's not the smog pump, etc. But when you drive it you can still hear something squeaking underneath a bit. I'm thinking exhaust hanger, or tranny mount bushing. Any ideas?