The heck is this?!

[Wufnu]

Seriously, I have no idea what's making that sound. Sounds expensive

http://youtu.be/fCX591Ff_Sw


I had something fail on the way to work a couple weeks ago. I had random misfire error code. I found that cylinders 1 & 2 were missing. Replaced plugs, wires, dist cap, and rotor. Seems to be running better (still missing cyl 1 & 3 but I think the wires are shorted somewhere as the RPMs do not change when I pull plug but it continues to click at distributor so the charge is going somewhere).

However, I heard this sound and located the source to this section. I believe it's the transmission?

 

[Wufnu]

The sound was gas igniting at the catalytic converter.

After a lot of trial and error, it took someone else rear-ending my wife to nail down the issue. Y'see, mechanic was trying to figure out why it wasn't running. He found the timing out. He "adjusted" the distributor rotor. I told him he couldn't have, it's not adjustable. Cap isn't, either. He said the rotor is.

Ding ding ding, winner winner chicken dinner.

New distributor and it's running like new.

If you have timing issues, random misfire codes, etc. then I highly suggest you check the distributor rotor to see if you can turn it (firm but not too hard; it's a press fit; if you muscle it, it'll break free and then it doesn't matter if it was broken to begin with). If you can, it's bad. Rotor shouldn't rotate unless the engine is running.