Recently I have been hearing a kind of whining, or crying noise while inside the car during first day/morning starts, and starts when the car has been sitting for a longer period of time.. When looking under the hood I do not hear it, but when i am sitting inside the car at a stop light or whatever I hear it.. This noise is sometimes loud, lower, and in and out.. It usually lasts 6 mins or so then goes away..

My question

What could be causing this noise?? Should I even worry about it if the noise goes away? What could I do to get rid of it (its a very annoying sound)?


Thanks everyone..

 

Forgot to add maybe it could be belts?

 

Any ideas guys?

 

mine does the same thing - first when i start her up i get one knock that sound exactly like a piston slap , than she moans in very scary evil possesed way, after things worm up a bit its all quiet

i'm leaning towards timing belt tensioners or simply normal wear and tear on engine with 140k

Nick.

 

yea but my car has 57k on it.. dunno nick..

 

mine does that too... no slap noise.... if anyone has any ideas what it could be, please let me know. i brought it to nissan and cuz it's so intermittent, they can't find it.

 

My car makes same noise whenever car has been sitted for more than 24 hour..so usually Monday morning, when I didn't use car for Sunday.. Mine began to make this noise around 80K miles. Friend of mine own same vehicle(1997 model), his car make whenever he starts his car. He has roughly 150K miles. Something to do with engine oil? I know dealer has been told me that my oil switch is bad or something.. I don't know what it does though.
I don't know much about car, but I kept thinking it might be caused by oil since car only makes noise when it has been parked for while.