XT horrible grinding noise.

Hello all,
I have a Rebel XT. Today it started making horrible grinding noises whenever I press the shutter. Very sudden problem, it was working fine yesterday. It does this with both lenses and if I use manual or auto focus. My google mojo is not strong today and I haven't found any ideas what could be wrong. Warranty is long gone, and I bought it used so wouldn't have helped much in any case. Any ideas what is wrong and how to fix it and how likely it is to result in total death of camera? It is still taking pictures, just with that horrible noise - which makes me worry I'm further damaging the camera by using it. I'm thinking repairs probably will cost more than the camera is worth.
Thank you for any suggestions.

Have you tried taking the lens off and looking into the camera while depressing the shutter? It sounds like something mechanical. Check to see if your mirror assembly or focus screens are sitting in their correct location.

GPFocussed wrote in post #11317299
Have you tried taking the lens off and looking into the camera while depressing the shutter? It sounds like something mechanical. Check to see if your mirror assembly or focus screens are sitting in their correct location.

Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I did try this, but as I'm not entirely sure what it should look like, I don't know if I've found the problem or not. I'll bring the camera to my camera club this week and see if someone there can do this and see if the location of the mirror or focus screens seem off.
Thanks again!

It is probably the shutter winder. I had to replace one in my old 40D, cost less than $200 US. The shop gave me the old winder, which is a little cylindrical electrical motor that moves the shutters. When I turned it using my fingers, it felt and sounded like it was full of sand.
Thankfully, it did it before my Europe trip, so it worked perfectly while across the pond!

Well, took it in to repair technician. He said it was the metal gears grinding on each other - not uncommon and should not interfere with the use of the camera, which is good news. Thanks for all the replies.