hello,

my son's 18th birthday is around the corner, so we bought him a 95 eclipse gs, with 64K miles on it, 2.0 manual.

in general, car is in fair shape for the year. has 2 issues:
1. squeak coming from the driver side engine, where alternator and water pump are. not from ac side, it's towards firewall. every time i heard that squeak before, it ended in replaced alternator or, better to say, the bearing goes bad and starts squeaking. definitely not engine noise, definitely not belts, i can differentiate easily between the two. what do you think - alternator, water pump, or idler pully? as you all know, it's very tight area to work in, so i'd rather have reasonable surety what to work on.

2. on warm engine, there's a pronounced tam-tam-tam sound, irrelevant from rpms change. guy who sold me the car was very positive that it's some sort of auxiliary fuel pump, positioned somewhere around the engine compartment, working. i had a buick century that had 2 pumps, and one in the carb will do clicking noise while working. he told me that that pump can be bypassed to remove the noise. is this true? it is kind of sumping noise, quite dull. we had 94 eclipse and i had that engine disassembled down to engine block left in the engine bay, have not seen any auxiliary pumps. i know they changed 2.0 engine design for 95. any ideas? once again, none of it on cold engine, has to be warm to hear. tum-tum-tum-tum, same amplitude no matter what rpms engine is on. i was suspecting bent valve (he told me that he replaced timing belt at 60K miles, because it is recommended by manufacturer) but that would have been relevant to rpms, right?
squeak is just there, definitely changing with rpms.
would appreciate suggestions before i start disassembling the driver side. i am thinking about removing alternator belt and run engine off battery for 10-15 seconds, to make sure it's alternator. otherwise, car drives fine.

 

1) Either a belt (even though you dont think so) or the pulley. Spray it with some WD-40 and it should be fine.

2) Without hearing the noise its almost impossible to tell. It could be just a lifter.. and in that case i wouldnt worry about it. These engines make odd little noises all the time, they really dont mean anything.

That motor in that car will last a long *** time, provided you change the oil. You have nothing to worry about.

 

thanks, bro or sis, whatever you are
we pulled almost worry free 260K miles out off 94 engine. was taking oil, about it.

i am 100%sure it's not a belt. i know belt squeak all too well.
which pully? idler pully? i looked into that area of engine, and there is nothing but alternator in there. water pump is all the way towards the center. 'the other noise is rythmic, thumping noise, lower frequency, about 120 beats per minute. like i said, it does not change with rpm change, lifter noise does. and there is no auxiliary fuel pump, i just bought repair manual. i'll have 3 days off next week, will pull mud shield out and get to alternator bearing and spray it with something good.
i'll run a can of seafoam through the cranckcase. oil was recently changed, right before sale, so we'll just drive it with seafoam in it for maybe 1500 miles, that will open all the plugged pores. then i'll switch her to either royal purple or amsoil.