Popcorn, coming out of the passenger side where the exhaust tubes (stock) run.... Sitting in my garage its not noticable, when i take it around the block and then bring it back, then you can hear it...

I recently took it on a trip to pensacola, about 70 miles from where i am at... when i was driving everything was cool, but i noticed the temp would creep (rather quickly) while stopped and then my oil pressure would dump to close to 15-20 on the gauge (while driving oil press was a little over 45) but before the trip to pensacola i never heard this noise before, so thats why i am kinda tripping out over it...

When i got home i noticed this noise and it doesnt SEEM to cause any performance issues but then again im not a mechanic... car runs and drives fine but i like the only noise to be my motor/exhaust

any ideas?

Sounds like the cat's (catalytic converter) fried.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention... i went to look, bam... i dont have one... i can see where all the piping and stuff is to where it used to be, i guess its called the "AIR" system? but yeah, no cat.

Exhaust tubes come together towards the end of the driveshaft


any other ideas?

It might be a trans or flywheel/flexplate noise, although they still wouldn't explain the temp & oil pressure issues.could you give a little more info?

your oil press is fine. thats normal pressure. i throw my guess to bearings. its a simple thing to check. take your belt off all the pulleys and turn everything by hand. your looking for anything that doesnt spin smooth. the slightest snag will make noise with tention from the belt on the pulleys.... what your discribing sounds like the smog pump. check it first.

another thing you can do is take the belt off and start the car and see if you can hear it anymore. dont let it run longer than 45 seconds for the sake of not burning up your engine. but if the noise is gone you know its not your engine. good luck

i also had problems with a smog pump. i dont have mine connected so i cut the blades out of it when it started making noise and all was well.

hey thanks for the replies... however...

Drove it to work today and showed a buddy of mine what i was talking about he heard it and said he thinks its the valves, but when we were standing there listening to it, it stopped...

I went to rev up the rpm a bit and see if it would start doing it again, and nothing... drove it 200 feet and it started again, then stopped?

Turned the car off, then back on, to show my other friend and the noise was only noticable for about 4 seconds then it stopped again.

Now i pulled into a gas station and i could hear it and continued to do it when i stopped the car (didnt put in park) but stopped shortly after...

came home, pulled it into the garage and while it was moving, no noise/put in park to double check and the noise was gone

the noise is coming from the front passenger wheel, right behind it, right where the exhaust tubes are...

any ideas?