Weird sound from car (02' Civic EP3)
 

Recently my car started making this noise that comes and go at random intervals. It basically sounds like a metal grinding, rattling or a soft "shearing" sound of metal. Like someones taking a grinder of buffer to a sheet of metal, if that makes sense.

It mostly emanates from the driver's side (where my transmission is- but it may or may not have anything to do with the tranny). It comes and goes and some days it may not even come at all. Sometimes it comes on during acceleration, and sometimes even idling. It's hard to describe this sound and when I took it to a mechanic, lo-and behold it wasn't making any noise.

It's got about 200k kms on it if that helps. If anyone knows I'm all ears. At least I can get an idea of where to start looking for it.