My son has a 1996 grand am with 61000 miles on it. It's well maintained and very reliable. Since we purchased the car 4 years ago, I've replaced the following:

All brake parts (pads, shoes, rotors, drums, cylinders, and calibers)
Alternator
Water Pump
Power Steering hoses
Evap full system canister
Instrument cluster
Battery
Shocks and strutsThe oil is changed every 3000 miles with Mobil 1 and K&N filters. All filters on the car were changed in May when he came home from college.

The car has developed a noise in the engine compartment in front of the driver. The noise only occurs at lower speeds during hard acceleration and almost sounds like a mis-fire. The plugs were changed right before I purchased it and when I pulled one to verify, they looked good.

Any ideas what this noise could be??

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Welcome to AF !

Could you describe the noise any better?
Is it clicking or tapping or pounding?

Where you are describing the noise from its hard to say,
but it could be a CV joint making the noise.

Its more of a "growl" than a bumping or banging. I've already checked the CV joint and it's ok. I was talking to a mechanic earlier today and he thinks it may be transmission related.

The ETS OFF light has been on for a while, but my son never told me. He said it's been on since we changed the one Power Steering hose. I'm thinking that a wire may be off or disconnected for that and then I'm going to change the fluid to see if that fixes the noise.

It only occurs when your in a heavy acceleration and was occuring before the ETS light came on so I think the two are "unrelated" but both are issues.

Does this make sense??

yes it does now.

You wheel Hubs(bearings) are going out on the drivers side.
If the warning lights are illuminated, get the car scanned with an ABS capable scanner.
Once you replace the bad wheel sensor, if the lights still on you'll need to get the code cleared with that scanner.

Good Luck

Thanks, I'll work on these items to see if that fixes it.