Ion Scraping Noises

Hi,

I have a 2003 Ion-3 Quad Coupe with VTi. When going up very, very steep
hills (almost 45 degree incline; it's out of an underground parking
garage), something scrapes or grinds in the engine compartment. Nothing
is scraping the ground (I've stopped on the hill and looked underneath).
Also, for perhaps five miles after going up the very steep hill, it
continues to scrape/grind on lesser hills, then seems to get over it.

I've had it into the dealership. They couldn't reproduce it, and they
checked over the entire car and said they could see nothing wrong.
Unfortunately, the dealership is in a VERY flat area and doesn't have
any hills of that size around. They said it might be the shocks
hyper-extending and staying extended. Does this sound reasonable? Does
anyone else have any other ideas?

I'm tearing my hair out over this one. Thanks for any help.

-Sunny Raspet

 

Just a thought, get them to check the transmission fluid level. It's
possible that the transmission is getting starved for fluid when you go up a
hill if the fluid level is low..

 

Hi

I don't know a lot about the VTi, but from what I have read, load has
always been an issue with low maintance units. I've actually worked around
rubber belt driven units in heavy industry and they could pull a lot without
slipping. The belt would ware, then be replaced, relatively simple (so to
speak) process if the belt is exposed. Cars appear to use steel belts for
longlife with little or no maintance. The VT applications appear to be
limited to light weight vehicles with no towing capacity. I'm going to
speculate that the scraping sound you're hearing is the steel belt slipping
under the load of an extreme incline. That you continue to have it on
lesser hills for a while after suggests a problem with temperature or
condensation. I don't think this is normal operation. It maybe that the
tensioning system in the VT is sluggish/binding until warmed up. Most
underground parking lots are cool and you vehicle has probably been sitting
for hours.

My thoughts, I could be completely outside as well.

David

 

Hey - did you see Junkyard wars last night?
Same thing happened to them - the car tipped up on end and ran out of tranny
fluid. They let it drop for a second and continued on.

They lost anyway, but they had a similar problem.
-e