I have a 1998 S90 with 130K miles on it. My wife was driving home the other night and said the car made a grinding sound. I was thinking belt or bearing but when I started it up it was a terrible metallic sound and was coming from the rear of the engine on the drivers side.

After trying to locate the sound exactly I noticed that when it was a cold start it was worse, after a minute or two it gets a little better. It remains when shifting and when in park and netural. It does change pitch when you rev the engine. After 3 minutes it went away when idle right under 1000 rpm but as soon as you give it gas it comes back and then goes quiet again at idle.

No problems noted other than the sound

 

read somewhere that a starter that is not retracting all the way could make a sound like that...

Any ideas?

 

Does it matter what gear you're in? My guess it that it's a timing belt pulley or tensioner. I had a cold start squeal. You can remove the t-belt cover and see if the sound gets louder. http://atthetipwebs.com/technologyin...iming_belt.htm

Could also be something with the transmission but I would check the t-belt area 1st. If you loose a tensioner or pulley it will destroy the engine. When was the last t-belt change? Did they also replace the tensioner & pulley?