What's the worst engine noise you've heard?

[Nick M (nmilton)]

The Ford CVH - a hateful, wheezy, rattly, asthmatic crap-pile of an engine.

[Spiderman]

The worst car noise in my experience happened with my first car,a Triumph Toledo 1300 ,when the big end bearings failed on the M40 in summer 1987.Sounded like the balls in an aerosol can when you shake it.Very distressing because I was a poor college student ,couldn`t afford a new engine and had to walk for the rest of the summer!

Cuore Sportivo

[M@H]

I was driving along the M5 in a Mondeo (not mine!) 3yrs old with 60,000 on the clock...
whilst speeding up noticed a little bit of a vibration at about 3500 rpm, thought "thats odd".. went to 3500rpm again... yep still there..
didn't think to much of it and drove another 2-3 miles.. tried it again..
rrrr.. rr. rrr. thud.. clatter.. clatter.. clatter.. hammer.. hammer.. HAMMER.. HAMMER ..BANG.. BANG.
got it about 200yds up a handy sliproad, and that was it.. Crank bearings were in bits in the sump and other bits were not as they should have been .. Engine was completely screwed, not even a chance for a line bore.. my boss was pleased (not) as it was her car !

[ZZR600]

Astra 1.7 16v diesel 6 months old , as i was accelerating out of a bend the engine juddered then BANG everything on the cam belt side exited the engine bay along with all the oil and water ok i was stuck in the middle of nowhere for 2 hours waiting for recovery but i just could not stop laughing when walking back up the road colecting bits of the engine

[grantberkeley]

Some years ago in the outside lane of the M3 Easter Sunday on Triumph Bonneville blatting along at 85 mph hearing conrods depart at speed from pistons and crankshaft . . .

[smeagol]

Hearing my engine at 60mph sieze all 4 cylinders and throw the crack into the side of the engine producing a crack in the block big enough to see the crank. That sounded particulaly awful and painful. Get this, I was in the AA at the time and called them told them what happenned and they still sent a poxy little van with a mechanic to tell me the car wasn't going anywhere!

[elemchukwu]

Tactical 2 1/2 ton 4X4 truck I drove in Kuwait. Talk about slow, big ang hideous. You hit forty miles per hour in that thing and you had to wear earplugs.

[apache]

I had a 2600 Rover that thought it would be funny to throw one of it's liners into the crank at 65mph between Fife and Edinburgh, at 9.00 clock on a winters night, got it rebuilt and it lasted 2 miles before the camshaft siezed.....one of the comfiest and most sensible interiors though