91 Camry - 1/rev rattle after heavy rains

bought a 91 camry a few weeks ago, very clean and smooth running car. two days ago, drove to work in heavy rains. hit a portin of local road where water was 6-8 inches deep. noticed my car lacked power and kinda sputtered through the lagoon.

now, the car runs like it did before the rains, but i hear a rattle from the front left of the car. it's more like a light knocking sound that's proportional to the speed of the car. sounds like a 1/rev, maybe 2/rev with wheel speed. odd thing is, the noise goes away while i'm accelerating and comes in only when i let up on the gas.

since the noise is present at 5 mph or 40 mph, i don't think this is a loose panel. i have noticed that the needle on my speedometer shakes back and forth at the same frequency as this sound (this has been here since i bought the car).

sorry for the essay, but i just wanted to be thorough explaining my problem. could this be tied to the speedometer? and is the speedometer sensor even related to the front left wheel?

any help is greatly appreciated.

Reply to
wildturk8
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light knocking sound that's

related to the front left wheel?

Is the CV boot intact?

Reply to
Daniel M. Dreifus

Both boots look to be intact (no rips or tears). The thing I haven't figured out is, why the noise goes away when I push on the gas. I guess the best analogy I can come up with is pedaling a bike. When you're pedaling, everything's quiet. When you relax, you hear the whirring of the rear axle. ???

Reply to
wildturk8

I had this on an old model bronco that didnt have a proper engine in it... unrelated as that is, it sounded like there was a milk carton up by my _right_ front wheel bouncing around and it only did it when i let off the gas.

It turned out that the car was backfiring because of a vaccuum leak (due to it not being a proper engine for the bronco..) but it could be that you are hearing it backfire..

Reply to
Speeddy

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