its making a grinding noise on passenger side, i know my fuel pump is going out..what else could be the problem?

 

could the catilytic converter be going out?? or how can you tell?

 

?????????

 

Grinding noise? Could you describe it a little better? Check under the car and make sure nothing is rubbing or you aren't dragging something. Then see if the exhaust is rubbing. Also, check the brake pads, maybe they are worn down so much its metal on metal. A fuel pump on its way out shouldnt grind.Also, if your cat is clogged it would heat up and cause major performance and gas mileage loss. It could be loose though and rubbing against the chassis. But check the brakes, exhaust, and undercarriage. Can't think of anything else that could grind, hope this helps.

 

Check your heat sheild or the plates by the exhaust manifold under the hood, could be loose, causing it to rattle/grind when you accelerate.

If it's the cat, you can find out by getting a rubber sledge and hitting it, if it rattles, your cat's dead/dying.

 

on the passengers side floor gets really really hot. when you have the car on and standing on the passenger side that grinding/raddle noise is coming right under the passengers side door. and yes the gas miles suck really bad i have to put $10 in almost everyday. i was told it was my catilytic converter going out and my fuel pump. Now i have to put it neutral when i come to a stop light or to any stop, or else it will die.

 

Def sounds like you have a major exhaust leak or your cat is going bad. That would explain the grinding noise(possibly rubbing), the horrible gas mileage and the car wanting to stall out. I would go ahead and have the cat checked out/replaced and see if it helps. Goodluck!

 

Sounds like all the symptoms of a clogged cat. $10 a day for a v6!

 

take that beast off

 

best way to tell if your cat is bad is just pull it off...

run an open y-pipe, it will be loud, but if the car runs fine then it was the CAT.


replace it or put a pipe in its place and run it ot the mufffler.


as for your fuel pump what symptoms are you getting for that?


things that killed the mileage on my 3.4L were bad o2s, if yours are stock they are likely bad, may consider wanna replacing them.

 

Thats no test. When you remove the cat and run the Y pipe your severely changing the flow of the exhaust. It will feel slugish anyway. There are 3 ways to test for a bad cat.

1: hit it, if it rattles it's bad
2: temp. SHould be no more then 100 degrees difference from inlet to outlet
3: backpressure gauge on the upstream 02 Generaly at idle shouldn't be more then 1.5PSI. no more then 3PSI at about 2500 RPM



or just change it and stick a high flow in it's place. They are cheep enough and easy to find

 

Alright for those of us not working in a speed shop that can test inlet and outlet temps of our cats or use a backpressure guage...

Its easier to go out in your driveway, unbolt your CAT, if the cat is bad to thepoint where its blocking exhaust flow !cat will wake the car up like crazy.

Will the car be ideal for perforance and racing? No, of course not, open y-pipe on a 3.4L is not good. But will it show if the CAT is bad?

yep...

what will it cost... $0 if you have some normal hand tools.



whats it gonna cost to do a CAT, probably like $150 for parts and labor. And what if that is not the only problem.



3.4Ls are good cars but lets face the facts, most on the road have 100,000+ usually need more then just one thing fixed, and are owned by people who don't want to drop $150 on their car in a heartbeat.



My way may not be the most scientific, but under a condition with a budget, I'd say its a bit more practical.

 

It's not practical if it doesn't work. Only way that it might work is if the converter is 100% blocked, in which case the car wouldn't start. Like I said, When you unbolt the cat and run it the car is going to feel VERY slugish. Someone could mistake that slugish for the cat NOT being bad.

think about it. Slugish performance from a bad cat, slugish peformance from droping the cat... how can you tell anything from that?



The other thing that you have to wonder if it is the cat is why did it go bad? did a missfire kill it? is the car running rich and flodding the cat with gas? Is the car running lean and heating it up? There is a lot to it

This is the problem with DIY. you either need the correct tools and know how to do it or you need to throw parts at it untill you figure it out. If auto repair was easy enough for everyone to do then people like me would be out of jobs.

I'm not trying to say that it's can't be fixed at home. but if you can't correctly diagnose the issue how can you expect to fix it.


Just get under the car and beat on the cat. I'm willing to bet that it will rattle and you will know that it needs to be fixed. If not, short of having a shop check it there is no GOOD way to find out if it's bad

 

I'm willing to bet what killed the cat was 11 years and probably 100+k miles...


and a car will start with a partially blocked CAT, I can gurantee it to death, happened on my car. Pulled the Cat, car worked great, then I gutted the Cat, put it back on, car drove great until I saved and got it fixed.

 

read again. I said that a car will not start with a 100% blocked cat.