Hey all, so recently I'd say over the past couple weeks or so my car has been sounding really funny. Its like a fluttering I hear from behind the front left tire, but it only flutters when I accelerate. The best way I can describe the noise were to be if you taped a baseball card on a bicycle tire to make it sound like a harley or something whey you were a kid... its like that. If I give it more than 1/2 throttle its usually better, but i may just not be able to hear it as well. It doesnt make this sound when it is in neutral, but it is the worst in lower gears. I was thinking maybe it was my cat converter or something, but then again i don't really know. It feels like its losing power as well. Any help would be much appreciated I need to try to fix this asap.

 

Could be you'r dizzy cap and/or rotor. i'd say exhaust leak but you say power loss down low how new are they ?(dizzy cap+rotor)

 

hop under the car and see if you see any cracks in the exhaust welds, my car did that and it was a crack on the flange. im ditching the exhaust soon so i went poor style and just put some jb weld on it lol. eliminate the simple things first. what year is your car?

 

its a 97. havent gotten under the car and havent replaced the dizzy cap or rotor on the car myself so i don't know how new they are.

 

A cracked cat will make a fluttering, almost metallic clanking sound when you reach a certain RPM or throttle position.

Have you bottomed out recently?

 

that sounds to me like an exhaust leak. start from the top. check the manifold. then jack it up and check underneath. if you can't see anything, run it on jackstands and shoot under to have a look

 

But with a stock exhaust(or 2.5) a hole/crack would not result in power loss it would help if anything imo. im just thinking it could be the cap or rotor when it arcs it can make a weird noise and result in power loss ?

 

exhaust leaks do hurt power at low rpms. if it's by your o2 sensor, it could also mess with the Air/Fuel readings.

 

exactly. an exhaust leak upstream of the primary o2 sensor can draw in o2 and throw off the readings. this typically occurs at the exhaust manifold flange. it's a pretty common cause of misfiring actually