I had purchased a 2005 Grand Prix GT in September, and soon noticed that there was a loud, tapping sound after startup, that would go away after about 5 minutes of driving. The sound was alot louder in the winter. I took it to my trans guy, so he could try to identify the problem, turns out it was just the plastic cover making contact with the fly wheel. Apparently as the cover warmed up, it would go back into shape and the sound went away. But it was 'warped' out of shape when it was cold, making an awful racket.

is there any way to post pictures on this forum?

go to http://www.imageshack.us/ ...upload the pic and copy and paste the link in here example:

Honestly, to me it sounds like piston slap, but may not be. How many miles on your car?

If it is higher mileage, that would be my #1 guess. My truck does this quite a bit when cold, but once it is warm, then it mellows out, and the piston expands, and it goes away. If it is piston slap, do NOT put a load on your engine whil it is making this noise ( leave the car sit, and warm up).

thanks... yeah I know how to use UBB code/linking, I meant can I upload an attachment... most internet forums at least allow you to upload a picture


LOL.

It was just the plastic cover, as I said above. I solved the problem by replacing the plastic cover... no piston slap here

By the way, the noise never went away just by letting the engine idle.

my car just reached 41,000 miles, but I noticed the problem from when I first bought it, around 31,000 miles

anyway, here is what I'm talking about... the left picture is of the whole piece, the picture on the right showing the wear mark, where all this noise was coming from