I have a '97 SL1 sedan 1.9L OHC that just went over 134K and for 2 months there has been a rattling noise that persists whenever the engine is running. I asked a few people and I got varied answers from something is loose inside the engine, to a bearing that got undone. Any advice to what it is/how to fix it? Thanks for your help!

 

Well, sounds like you need to raise the hood and do some looking and listening. With the engine running, have someone pump the gas pedal while you look for movement in the engine (possibly a bad upper motor mount). Also, as the speed of the engine goes up and down, does the rattle noise get worse? (possibly a bad tensioner pully). Does the noise only happen when the car is going down the road? (Possibly loose coachwork or airdam under the car). Do a little investigating, and get back to us ....

 

The previous owner told me that it does have a bad motor mount, it could be the upper one. I did see some movement when I had someone give it gas and the rattle did get a little louder with the rev, but it went down as the rev faded. The rattle is persistent no matter if I am in drive, park, neutral, or reverse.

 

Well - that's where I would start. Be sure to get a deler part (OEM) if at all possible, cuz the after-market units are not strong enough for the job, and fail quite quickly