I've done a few searches here and haven't found anything, but I might have missed it..

Anyway... when I first got my car, I noticed an occasional noise from the engine bay when idling. It sound sort of like a washer rattling or a chain vibrating somewhere in the car. What it actually IS, I don't know.

It's getting worse now.

It started making the noise more often at idle, and now it's discernable when the car is under acceleration (from the outside of the car, anyway). I can also now hear it from inside the car when it's not moving.

I took it to the dealership and made the technicians listen to it. They mumbled something about tensioners and not wanting to get into taking the engine apart unless it got a lot worse - that was before it got worse.

So, for those of you more familiar with the internal construction of the engine, any thoughts about what could be making such a racket under there? It just doesn't sound normal... and noticing it is driving me (more) nuts.

Is my car going to go up in flames, sputter and die, or just cheerily rattle away for the next 20 years?

I'm sure a pulley mod would fix it!