Guttural Noise on Acceleration

Hi, Thanks for the reply. The sound is always attached to acceleration. Starts around 2,000 rpm. Even when cruising at 65 mph. A slight acceleration, (200 rpm's), will cause the sound.

The reason I bring up the cornering as my thoughts are that the centrifugal force of the turn causes the engine to shift and the leak temporarily seals. I bring this up to my service people and they just look at me. They tell me that is what the flex pipe would take care of if that was the case. I tell them yes, but what if it is cracked. They looked at the 1 surface they can see from under the car and tell me all is well. If it was cracked you would always hear it. The black carbon would tell the story if I could get them to disassemble it. Maybe they have x ray vision.

This fall I inspected the air cleaner area and the chamber attached to it and didn't see anything. We seem to think alike here. I was thinking about covering the entire area with a packing blanket to see if that muffles the air intake area. If it did, that would maybe lead me to a solution. Wanted to do the same with the exhaust area also.(Not with a blanket though) Wouldn't know what to use there. Not a lot of space down there anyway.

I will say though that you can torque the car all you want and there isn't the sound. Kind of puts a kink in the theory. Or does it?

I am at the point that I will take the 4,000 loss as it is really making me crazy.

Any other thoughts?

Is there anyway of finding out if there is a problem with acceleration noise and the flex joint on the Buick's?

Thanks, I will try that. Will advise.

Well, No luck with anything. 2 dealerships, 3 different service writers just shrug their shoulders and proclaim. It will eventually break and then we can fix it. HA HA HA. They laugh. We test drive the same exact cars on their lot and they are always dead quiet. Mine always makes the noise but they can't hear it as it is always somewhat quiet when I take it in. I'm starting to see that if it breaks, no problem. Diagnosis. Not so much.

Like the fact that the engine uses 2 qts of oil in between oil changes and they proclaimed that GM feels that 2 qts between oil changes is acceptable. They replaced valve guides. No change. I so regret buying a GM car.

Anyways. Enough of the rant. I guess It is up to me figure this out. And good hearted folks that are here of course.

New clue: Traveling down the road and hearing the noise. Remember: I have to turn up the radio and crack the window to drown out this noise when it acts up. I only hear the noise in the drivers seat. If I shift the car in neutral (60 mph) the noise virtually goes away while revving the engine so I don't think it is engine related as I originally thought. It is only under power with the car ROLLING at around 2,000 rpms. Can't hear it revving in park, can't hear it torquing the car up at 2,000 rpms. I have heard bad bearings and this sounds nothing like that. A friend that was a mechanic in a different life heard the noise and said it sounds like air noise like the car didn't have an air filter to baffle the intake noise and that the "wooden ball bouncing around in a plastic box" was a carberation noise. The air intake system was checked.

Any other ideas.

I had/have the same problem. Got the car this last spring. Did not notice the noise at first. Got progressively louder. Only happened on mild acceleration. Louder in back seat.

Buick dealer finally figured it was exhaust after replacing some other parts. Their proof/trial was to install some kind of factory supplied counterweights to the exhaust right after the manifold. The factory told them how to orient the weights and, noise was gone. Once verified, they replaced the complete exhaust system under factory warranty.

Now, it is starting up again. Haven't contacted dealer yet.

If they will not cover it under warranty again, I will ask if they will install the weights again and just leave them on. If all else fails, I'll either get rid of the car or see if complete exhaust replacement by local muffler shop does the job. Depends on the cost.

While waiting for the new exhaust system parts, I showed the (installed) weight things to the local service shop. They said they had seen that type of stuff on other cars before (not all were GM cars.) But never knew what they were for. Must be a widespread problem/solution.

I must frequently transport my 90+ year old ****** around. She says the noise in the back seat is very loud. To the point she asks to trade seats with my sweet wife.
Wife says the same thing.

Nothing like our old Park Avenue.

Thanks for you response. I will show this to them. Nothing will come of it because that would imply they didn't do their job right in the first place and they most likely will dismiss it.
You are right when you imply these Buick's are not what they used to be. Plastic dashboards. Never again. GM is dead to me now. If I wasn't so cheap and didn't mind taking the $5,000 hit trading this in, it would be long gone.

Have a nice Thanksgiving

No, The problem is still there.

When I'm traveling 65 mph and shift into neutral the sound goes away.

Someone on a different site mentioned the torque converter?

I have an appointment this Tuesday. They will shrug their shoulders like they have the last 3 times. (2 different dealers). This car is a total disappointment. I can't afford to take a 4,000 hit in trading it in. I bought the car used. The sound wasn't there for the first few months. The sound isn't there when I test drive other 2008, 3.8 cars on their lots.

I'm totally disappointed in Buick, GM and the service centers I have at my disposal.

Did I mention that the car loses 2 qts of oil in between oil changes. They found a tsb and changed something. No help. Then they stated that 2 qts of oil is considered "acceptable" by GM.

And we wonder why people buy foreign.

Took my Lucerne back to my dealer. The noise was not as loud as the first time. They were very nice. After about an hour wait they told me they replaced an exhaust hanger or two, said the exhaust pipe was just touching a body/frame member.

Made a difference.

Still makes a slight noise but now that I've started paying attention, my 1994 Park Ave tends to do the same thing. Not as noticeable but, it is there.

Think I will leave well enough alone. Not really bothersome now, just noticeable. Still like the PA much more than the Lucerene.

Dealer was very attentive and pleasant to work with through the whole thing. In fact, told me that it is still under factory warranty until 50,000 miles. (Only 40, 00 on it now.) Dealer - Garber Buick, Saginaw, MI.

I told the service manage how pleased I was with their service and told him that they were much better than a Garber Chevrolet dealer in another town. He said with a smile, "Sir, we are a Buick dealer, they are not!"

Well,

They had my car for 3 days and told me that they couldn't hear the issue. OMG. A deaf person could hear this. I have to turn up the radio and crack the window and I still hear this noise. This means that this is the sound this car makes. This is the 4th and last service appointment ( 2 different dealers), as this car is going out of warranty. They also told me that the "add oil" light going on BEFORE the "change oil" light was acceptable and to get over it as ALL cars do this today B.S.

Never again. NO GM CARS in my life. GARBAGE!

Tried to support US auto engineering and Bull Sh@#$t business practices but NO MORE! Foreign engineering for me and mine.

I DO want to thank ALL of you for chiming in and trying to help me with this. I wish all of you the best in your lives.

Don

I have a 2005 Buick Lacrosse and have been battling this rattle on acceleration for over a year and I just found it. While I was under the car removing the inspection plate and checking the torque converter bolts I took my rubber mallet and thumped the exhaust next to the catalectic converter I could hear that rattle. After disconnecting the exhaust pipe from the manifold it was obvious. The ring on the inside flange where the flex joint is had stress cracked all the way around broke off and was sitting in the flex joint. Hope this helps someone else.

Hi ive recently purchased a 2011 Buick Regal an got stuck in the snow the other day An now I hear a mild gargling noise an when I first start my car it makes a noise only when I first turn the key, my rpm seems to bounce a little bit when coming to a complete stop as well Need answers need help my carlot is basically telling me I have to pay for them to look at it an I’ve only had it a month

I had almost exactly the same noise on my 2008 3.8l Lucerne and tracked the issue down to under the dash. The spring that retracts the parking brake. It was vibrating like crazy under acceleration and created the gutteral sound you described. I put some foam pipe insulation around the spring and now. Sweet silence

Thanks Matt,

I couldn’t take the noise any longer and dumped the car. Thanks for the reply. Hopefully thr next person can benifit

I too have been experiencing the same issues with my 2008 Buick Lucerne 3.8 v6. I recently stop replace the flex hose and I'm hearing the noise return I am also noticing a shuttering while driving the car and irregular speed surges and would believe that it's probably the torque converter or one of the last issues given about the ring around the flex hose at the catalytic converter or the catalytic converter its self should have also been replaced when I had the exhaust leak at the flex hose repaired. However I am also interested to hear more about the break issue mentioned above as I had a brake line failure on the passenger side about a week after the car said I was trying to drive it with the emergency brake on although I never use the emergency brake. I had both the brake line and the flex hose replaced within days of each other and for a few days the car drove excellent however now I'm starting to get the same symptoms I had gotten before with the noise for the exhaust returning and the instrument panel and indicating I have a an exhaust leak a large one. Plus my fuel efficient efficiency has not improved much since getting the leak fixed or the brake repair as I often felt that the car was dragging as if caused by a tire not wanting to rotate with the rest of them. I believe that there is possibly more than one issue going on with my car it's very least but the post above or very helpful and we determining if it's my transmission or not.