loud tapping from front of engine

hi all,

This morning on the way to work m taco started making a loud tapping noise that gets faster/slower when i press/release the gas pedal (not when speed increases). i pulled over into a gas station to check it out but i cant pinpoint the noise. its def coming from the front of the engine near the fan/belts/pullies area. if i leave it in park and press the gas, the noise goes faster. its present both with the a/c on or off. i turned off the engine and manually rotated the fan blades...but no noise.

i replaced all 3 belts a lil over a month ago and all has been working perfectly until now. i feel no change in performance at all...just the loud tapping noise.

where can this noise be coming from?

i decided to head back home and swap cars...on the way home the noise suddenly got much, much quieter, but still there. by the time i got home it was very low but still there. gonna try and pinpoint it when i get home today.

any ideas?

thanks so much

 

check the fan blade, might be trash got into the fan shroud

also check the idler pulleys for play

 

fan blades/shroud were clear...
went home and replaced the a/c belt which was bad. used it to go to work and no noise/tapping at all. i find it odd that a belt would cause such a noise. maybe it was 'pulling' on the pully the wrong way and the pully itself was making the noise...dunno.

thanks for the suggestions, keakar