It might be time for the VN to retire

[modcon]

I have a VP and a VN, the Vn 89 3.6 has been off the road for a month as it is making a loud noise around the engine, when idling the noise is a vibrating rattle, when I idle it is still there but not loud, you can here it when you drive and its worse when foot goes down, tonight I started the car and there was smoke under the bonnet and it smelt like a lawn mower, any ideas out there?

[RabidDog_12345]

well cant really say where the smokes coming from? lift the bonnet and see wher e its coming from.. could be oil fom the rocker cover drippin on the exhaust headers

[samuels]

I have a VP and a VN, the Vn 89 3.6 has been off the road for a month as it is making a loud noise around the engine, when idling the noise is a vibrating rattle, when I idle it is still there but not loud, you can here it when you drive and its worse when foot goes down, tonight I started the car and there was smoke under the bonnet and it smelt like a lawn mower, any ideas out there?

is the noise around back of motor?....and is it auto? sounding like a flex plate,as for smoke,could be anything,from oil leaking onto exhaust,also another high possibility,could well be your timing chain tensioner has been chewed out.

[Morton]

Rattling could be anything from a botched big end to a drive plate. Can you crawl under the car and identify how far back it's coming from?

The smoke could be from an exhaust gasket, or as samuels suggested, burning oil.

[modcon]

Sounds like the noise is coming from the backend of the engine - towards the auto trans

[GTP 85]

I know you said its coming from the rear of the engine.. but have you checked the harmonic balancer by any chance? i kno my VP made nasty rattling sounds both idling and driving when the balancer went. i thought id blown the donk

[samuels]

Sounds like the noise is coming from the backend of the engine - towards the auto trans

get a small piece of garden hose,place it on top of bell housing,if it's flex plate you will hear it thru the hose,you may have to increase the idle speed,get someone to help,stand at side of car,place hose like suggested,get some one to sit in car and put in R or D and put a few revs on it,handbrake on firmly,it will start making a noise. rattly kind of noise more so

[modcon]

get a small piece of garden hose,place it on top of bell housing,if it's flex plate you will hear it thru the hose,you may have to increase the idle speed,get someone to help,stand at side of car,place hose like suggested,get some one to sit in car and put in R or D and put a few revs on it,handbrake on firmly,it will start making a noise. rattly kind of noise more so

Yes it seems the flex plate is split, I understand to fix this the gearbox needs to be removed also the torque converter distatched, how long do you think it should take to do this job? I had one garage quote me 6 hours which I think is a crock