Heard an unusual and alarming noise as I finished my 40 mile drive to work
this morning.
Difficult to describe.. first I thought it was a hole in the exhaust, but it
didn't respond to the engine revs / throttle.. just a constant beating. I
left the car until lunch time and had another look. Again the beating
started, but disappeared by the time I'd got the bonnet up to have a look.
The drive home was fine. Any experienced thoughts on what it might have
been? I might suggest a fuel pump or water pump, for no other reason than
our water pipes at home had an air lock which made a similar noise. It's a
9000CS 2l lpt, about 14 years old and has done @150,000mls. and the noise
seemed to come from towards the front end. I haven't noticed any particular
problems with temperature or acceleration etc...

On a seperate tack - I love this car and wonder whether I should have the
engine pulled and spend £2,000 on getting various things replaced (like
engine mounts, clutch, timing chain and the leaky sump gasket) or would I be
better off just buying another example with less miles and a full pressure
turbo??

Cheers