My car suddenly has been making a loud reving/vibration noise when I step on the gas. It sounds like it is coming from the hood/engine area. It does not make this sound when the car is idling or when I am braking. Any thoughts on what this may be and if it is safe to be driving?
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Since we can’t hear the noise it’s really tough to tell what it is. We also don’t know the year or mileage of your Protege5.
Have you opened the hood and looked to see if there is some obvious problem? Have you asked a mechanic to look at it?
I’m going to suggest something in the exhaust system is making noise. A loose heat shield, perhaps, or a crack the pipe itself, might cause noise under acceleration.
Unless we know what it is we can’t say whether it’s safe to drive. I think you should stop at your mechanic’s shop and let him or her check it out.
Not sure if the additional information will help, but it is a 2002 with about 102,000 miles on it. I haven’t asked a mechanic to look at it yet, it was just in the shop for other problems (i.e. new brake roters, horn replaced) so I want to delay going back, if at all possible. I haven’t looked under the hood yet… could I tell if it is a loose heat shield by doing so?
Actually, I think we had the heat shield removed recently.
You’d be amazed what you can solve just by opening he hood, putting your head under, revving the engine manually, and listening. Resonant vibrations like this are generally solved in exactly this way.
You know, heat shields do serve a purpose. It’s usually not wise to remove them.
My Blazer had a buzzing noise during acceleration after the intake manifold gasket was replaced. The noise turned out to be from the accelerator cable. It was not secured properly after the repair. I used a tie wrap to secure the cable and that took care of the noise.
Check under the hood for the noise, it might be something simple.
Ed B.
The noise does not occur when the car is in reverse, only when the gas pedal is pushed down (loudest) in drive or when in park. It sounds like a Harley… or a bad muffler, but the sound is clearly coming from the front of the car. I opened up the hood and couldn’t see anything-i think it is underneath somewhere.
Hi, I have exactly the same problem! Did you ever find out what was causing your car’s noise? Thank you
They might not even have the vehicle after 6 years and never returned to update. It is best to start your own thread with good descriptions of symptoms so the replies will apply to you.
Did you ever find out? I to am having this issue:(
Yes! There is a protective metal plate at the underside of the car that got a bit lose.
You need to get the car lifted at your favorite shop, so they screw the holding screws, or check why it got loose.
After they screwed mine, there was never any more noise!
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Great thanks . I will have my husband check this out:)
Hi everyone I hole this helps anyone with this problem above.
My car made the same noise when I press the gas pedal the engine would make a loud noise and each time I would change gear it would be louder. Once I leave my car on idle ie - neutral parked the car would shake and vibrate.
I took it to. Local garage one said they dont know and feel it’s the engine and might need a new engine and one said it’s the cylinders
The third one actually happend to.ipen my bonnet up and chelc the engine oil, guess what??? The engine oil was burning!! I paid ÂŁ40 for new engine oil MOBIL SUPER 3000 and left it parked up for 2 hours.
Got in the car and guess what ? Perfectly fine!!!
The garage said BMWs burn alot of engine oil so chelc it every 2 weeks … if I hadn’t gone to the garage then iteh engine was on the blink of dying which means I would have had to pay £400 for new engine!
Pleaee check the engine first!
Psst, OP
I’ll tell You a secret. I’ll try to whisper on the keyboard. This will be between You and me - and some thousands of people reading on this forum. Wait, here it comes:
ALL engines uses/burn/leaks oil, Some next to nothing, some a lot.
That’s why the owners manuals tells the owners to check the oil level on a regular basis. Like every fill up or every saturday or any regular basis at Your choice. If do that from now on, You can motor on for years trouble free as long as You keep up with service/repair as the car ages. 
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Yup!
Those who assume that their vehicle–of any make or model–won’t consume oil, and/or those who think that they don’t need to check (and replenish, if needed) the oil on a very regular basis are likely to incur HUGE repair costs.
400 Pounds Sterling for a NEW engine?
Not bloody likely!
Even getting a used BMW engine for that price is… unlikely.
Honestly most dont know that you have to check your engine pil so 2 or 3 weeks, to be honest my next BMW service is end of 2019, so I assumed I dont have to check.
Anyway… am happy this is now sorted and the only way to kind of become alert of it all.
Have you ever bothered to read the Owner’s Manual that was provided with your car?
I can guarantee that it contains some sort of verbiage about the need to check the oil on a periodic basis, in between scheduled maintenance intervals. Or, to put it in other terms, I am quite sure that it doesn’t tell you that you can drive for several thousand miles before the oil level is checked and corrected as necessary.
My guess is that the majority of car owners – especially those under 50 years old – don’t check their engine oil level at all. Most car owners I expect either wait until some symptom develops, then take it to the shop; or the more diligent and organized schedule shop visits for pro-active servicing, and let the shop check the oil level. I think a lot of this has to do with the current technology focus at the junior high and high school level is on electronics rather than mechanical gadgets. Before the space race made us electronics conscious most of the science and engineering interested students studied how their cars worked as a hobby. Today they study how their computers work. Teenagers will sometimes see me working on my car outside and they’ll ask me to help them fix something on their bicycles. I tell them I won’t fix it for them, but happy to show them how, and they can fix it themselves. It’s pretty clear most of these kids have never used a screwdriver before. So it isn’t surprising when they buy a car they won’t be checking the oil level themselves.
Exactly. Of course, many shops don’t check the oil, either. After a change, they set their pump to 5 quarts, and slam the hood. If you ask how low the oil was before changing, they stare at you blankly.
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