Cold start grinding/rattling sound

[Watts-Up]

When it's below 32F and I start my car after it's been sitting overnight of a few hours,it makes sort of like a grinding or rattling sound for about 5 or 10 minutes until it's warm. Today I noticed that when depress the clutch pedal(in neutral) the noise stops...let the clutch out,and it starts grinding again. The car has done it ever since it was brand new. @ 1st I thought it might be just frozen condensation in the airbox or something,but today I noticed it goes silent when I press the clutch pedal.

Anybody else have this noise? And if so has anybody figured out what it is? And If so has anybody figured out how to make it stop? Thanks!

[XeroState]

I don't know what it is, but mine does it too (though my is overpowered by the 'can-o-marbles' noise). Frankly I have given up on these weird quirky noises and have grown to accept them. I figure, if it works, it works. But if there is a simple way to make it stop, I'll try it.

[r-shay]

ive had that noise too ever since the car was new. There is a fix for it that requires taking the transmission apart and installing springs between the gears to keep them from rattling. When i brought my car in for the fix they did not have the proper tools to do the fix, so they just replaced the whole trasmission. This was last year and now that its cold again i hear the same noise so apparently the new tranny doest the same thing. I will be bringing it back in to see what they have to say; they promised that the new transmission would fix the problem.

[Watts-Up]

WOW!!! Whole new tranny huh? Hmmmm,I'm thinking maybe try to get them to do it and see about getting the LSD as long as they're in there!

[r-shay]

i dont understand what the LSD has to do wtih the tranny

[clevelander2002]

You have to open up the tranny in order to install a different differential.

[BlueMonster]

Ok..I have had this noise sense day one. They concluded that the noise is coming from the rockers/gears in the tranny. GM is well aware of this issue, and only because its not harming the tranny they went ahead and released it . They figure they will have more new buyers than returning buyers, so they went with the particular design of our tranny. Its a design flaw. I have went rounds with my dealership and spoke to the damn vice president. Lol, anyways after a long battle they changed out my tranny and still I have that noise on a cold start. According to the Gm design engineers, it was the cheapest route for gm to make some money.=( Anyways, I don't know if that helps you any, but the bottom line is your tranny will continue to make that nosie but its not harmful. Just a GM fluke.

[r-shay]

Is not a nomal thing. Theres no way saturn can just call it a “normal sound” because they have a service bulliten on it. Im telling them they either fix my pull to the left, gear rattle, and strange “RPM bounce” or I want an 06.

[Sp00ner]

Originally Posted by r-shay

Is not a nomal thing. Theres no way saturn can just call it a “normal sound” because they have a service bulliten on it. Im telling them they either fix my pull to the left, gear rattle, and strange “RPM bounce” or I want an 06.

Sure they can. There's only a TSB from people complaining about it.

The RPM bounce is normal...

Neither of the above two items do anything detrimental to the car, or performance.

The left pull is an odd one...

[r-shay]

what i called "rpm bounce" is not normal. At a light, in neutral, the rps rev up to about 2000 then drop all the way to about 400 where the car almost stalls. this will continue until you shut off the car and restart, or the car stalls. doenst sound normal at all