l own a 1999 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport (manual) with a 2.2L H4 engine (142hp5600rpms). Whenever l get the engine speed up to 3000rpms it makes a strange sound before 3000 and after 3000 and then continues to go up to about 5000 until it starts to make the sound again.

l wish l had some audio of it that l could share but this will have to do. It sounds like something is grinding sort of and its kind of a low pitched rumble with a screatch! It is not really that loud however and sometimes l do not even hear it if the engine is warmed up.

The engine works fine and l get quite a bit of power up to about 5000rpms which is OK since it is an old car, it just scares the shit out of me sometimes because l think somethings wrong with it! l usually shift about 2500rpms while driving, so is it possibly just the engine reacting to me abusing it?

Also it just started doing it this winter and l think it might be the cold weather causing it but l just wanna make sure. Its been about -10c

A friend of mine who is a Subaru salesman had a 98 that did something similar and it was the exhaust. He never fixed it so l cant tell you exactly what it is but that may give you somewhere to start.

l had a 2.2 make sure u have the proper factory recomended oil in it . these engines have horizontal moving pistons without the right oil the pistons will slap. if it has high miles they may slap anyway. (kind of a rattling sound real bad at startup, & for the first 5 or so minutes til oil gets all through it) the rattle seems to be worse as it revs up, give it time in the a.m. to warm it may help. anyway if it has high miles theres not much u can do for it , drive it its a subaru it will run many , many miles like that. 200000 plus

Is it doing it when you shift? when was the last time you got the car maintienanced? From what you are saying it could be a number of things somthing loose, a bearing, the screatch could be a bad fan belt, if its a turboed the bearings could be bad, or your pistions could be fried and fucking up your cylinders, my recommendation is too take it too a subaru dealer and have them inspect it will cost about 70 bucks but if you can do the work yourself its worth it