# My 99 VW Jetta sounds like a motor boat!

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/my-99-vw-jetta-sounds-like-a-motor-boat/17035>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** jetta\
**Created:** [July 21, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/my-99-vw-jetta-sounds-like-a-motor-boat/17035 "2008-07-21T20:30:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mkemberling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@mkemberling](https://community.cartalk.com/u/mkemberling)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 8:30pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/my-99-vw-jetta-sounds-like-a-motor-boat/17035/1 "2008-07-21T20:30:03Z")

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Hello Car Talk community,  
  
  
  
 Today I just started my car up after two days of not driving it and also during a period of heavy rains (no flooding though). When it turned over, the car sounded much much louder than normal. I wasn’t sure if something was up, so I started it again to get the same loud noise. It seemed to run fine so I decided to drive it around a bit.  
  
  
  
 In low gears, it sounds really loud like a motor boat, but when I get up to 5th, it sounds somewhat normal. When I downshift and sometimes when going down hills, I can hear a sputtering sound, almost like there’s water in some pipe and the air going over it is making the noise. I was wondering, is this a simple problem that will go away or will I have to put in more maintenance for my car.  
  
  
  
 Here’s a little background info. The car has 104,000 miles, a newer engine (only 75,000 miles on that) and it just had the radiator replaced in it. Thanks in advance for any recommendations.

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**Author:** ![VDCdriver](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/cartalk/user_avatar/community.cartalk.com/vdcdriver/32/30_2.png) [@VDCdriver](https://community.cartalk.com/u/VDCdriver)\
**Post date:** [July 21, 2008, 11:31pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/my-99-vw-jetta-sounds-like-a-motor-boat/17035/2 "2008-07-21T23:31:08Z")

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The first thing that I would check is the exhaust manifold. The symptoms that you describe are consistent with a cracked manifold, and this can be especially obvious during periods of heavy rain. I had a Volvo that did exactly the same thing, and it was the exhaust manifold that produced the noise.