So, I took my car to my mechanic to get the power steering pump replaced because it was leaking. When I went to pick it up, he said he could hear a tap coming from under the car and said it could be a bearing tapping and that it could get serious. So about one week later, I'm leaving my girlfriend's job and give it some gas and I hear some noise and slipping kind of feeling, so I let off the gas and it goes away. This only happens when I give the car a lot of gas, but when I'm driving like a grandma its okay. So I decided to take it to my mechanic, and before I left my house I went under the car to listen to it, and it kind of sounded like a diesel engine, but from above the car I can't hear anything but loud valve noise. So does this sound like a spun main bearing like my mechanic thinks (he hasn't started working yet) or what? And what causes loud valve noises like constant ticktickticktick thing.

 

Valvetrain noise wouldn't be a spun bearing. How does the oil pressure look?

 

Well, the oil pressure used to hang at about half when I got the car, now it fluctuates, sometimes about half, others closer to a quarter. And I know valve train noise isn't related to spun bearing, I was asking what would cause the noise and if its bad.

 

Any other suggestions?

 

Oil pressure will be fairly high until the engine warms up, then it will fall. Oil pressure will also be lower when car is idling.

 

Ticking noises can often be attributed to an exhaust leak. First thing I would do is check to see that all of your exhaust manifold bolts and spark plugs are torqued to spec. If all checks out then I would use a stethoscope to probe around and try to isolate the noise. Good luck.

 

Plug loose, exhaust leak like mentioned are possibilities. I would pull the valve covers to see if anything is going on under there. If its coming from the bottom of the engine it could be bad.