Rattling/squeaking in the engine bay - Need help diagosing.

[Jungshoe]

When the car goes over uneven pavement, the squeaking/chirping starts to occur. It gets noticeably worse over bumps and potholes, which leads me to believe something is loose. This squeaking is pretty loud - you can hear it above the stereo.

The car has a few vibration areas in the doors and trunk that don't bother me. I've isolated this particular one to the somewhere on the driver's side of the engine bay, in front of the steering column. Even with the shop manual, I can't figure out what's going on.

I put the car on jackstands and removed the front wheels to take a look underneath. Bushings and struts are in good working order, brake calipers are perfectly aligned on the knuckle with plenty of spacing from the backplate. I don't think it's the transmission or subframe either, everything's bolted down solidly. Mounts were replaced 5k miles ago.

What worries me most is that some component might fall off while I'm on the road. Could also be something jiggling against something else.

If anyone has experienced this before or can offer possible explanations, please let me know so I can know where to go next.

 

[Arjun]

When the weather was colder out this winter, I was noticing some chirping and squawking sounds coming from a short distance in front of me, sounding like it might be in the engine compartment. The noise has gone away over the last couple of weeks (the weather's gotten substantially warmer and drier)

I've tracked down the noise to being (most likely) from the intermediate shaft in the steering column. If you've got an 89, check out section 13-04-** in the shop manual.

-Arjun

 

[philw349]

I've noticed something similar coming from the dashboard/engine compartment. If it happens at throttle or over rough surfaces than it could be a loose dashboard. I didn't notice the sound until I put in torque limiters, what mods do you have?