Strange groaning / growling noise when cold

[Sir Les]

Pretty sure it's not a belt -- it's a completely different sort of noise, more like dry bearings. It was quite scary the first time I heard it. Come to think of it, it could be cavitation in the auto transmission as the pump tries to suck up fluid that isn't there due to the cold and the steep angle of the car.

 

[stooge]

crazy that it is still happening 4 years on, I have had about 5 vfs since the one with the dodgy park brake and none of them have had that sound.
I think you might be right about the angle because my driveway is only about a 25deg incline.

 

[Eric Gleeson]

It could be just a thing with Commodores in general when it comes to the cold weather... I live in Hunter reagion of NSW and i remember about 5 years ago My '06 VZ Executive started shaking like absolutely mad one morning in the middle of winter and I even had a fault pop up on the dash saying ABS Fault or something like that (which turns out was just due to the battery going flat).

It really startled me because i'd never experienced that before with a vehicle.... i just fire up my car normally like any other occasion and all of a sudden it feels like i'm in a massage chair....

 

[1985VK]

Pretty sure it's not a belt -- it's a completely different sort of noise, more like dry bearings. It was quite scary the first time I heard it. Come to think of it, it could be cavitation in the auto transmission as the pump tries to suck up fluid that isn't there due to the cold and the steep angle of the car.

Try spray a bit of water on the belts and then do a cold start up. If it does not make the noise then its probably the belts. My Vk started doing a weird cold start up groan and its a belt but it sounded like a bad bearing or pump.

 

[Stefan Nowak]

Following up... I took my car to have the auto serviced... oil and filter changes. Grinding has gone.