I have a 04 EX civic with 10,000 miles. I have noticed this ticking noise when my car is idileing. When i push on the gas it seems to go away and not get louder. Its annoying cause i can kinda hear it when I am sitting in the car. I am just wondering if this is normal. Its like a tic tic tic tic tic tic noise that sounds like its going at the rate of the engine. when i rev it gets a bit faster but as u rev more it stops. Any ideas what this could be. I use premium gas but dont think this would have anything to do with it. Any answers would be helpful. Thanks

dont use premium gas. that might actually be your problem. you should never use higher octane than is necessary. it will actually HURT performance and could cause damage to your engine.

also when is the last time you had the oil changed?

just changed it this past weekend. But i have noticed this problem way before this oil change. I change my oil on time.

so i should just go back to 87 octane?

i would say so.
why would you put such a high octane in your civic? i could understand if your boosted, but on a stock civic???? wtf?

i know lots of people that put higher octane because they think its better for performance and for the engine itself...i always tell them NO, but no one ever believes me.

So this may be the case if not, thats a common belief that many people may agree with me on.

i used to hear that a while ago, but the ticking noise went away. i didn't change anything. just one day, it all went away

just thought higher octane was better for your car thats all.

i guess i'll be switching back to 87 oct. soon

make sure your tank is almost completly empty before switching back....

will do, hopefully that will take care of it. Is it something I should worry about or is it not that big of a deal

i've investigated a similar problem, if not the same problem. i think that it is from one of the wheels or gears spinning in the engine bay. dunno though, cause i haven't heard it while in the car, but i'll take a listen and hear.

Are you in a winter climate? I could just be from differences in air temperature or from ice/snow or cold water that has splashed onto your exhaust manifold. I typically get this noise during the winter as well but once the weather gets warmer it tends to go away. Does your exhaust manifold click after you turn off the ignition?

yeah, i am in cold climate. I'm in maryland. You could be right. I bought my car in june and never heard the noise I guess til it started getting cold. The exhaust manifold doesnt click when i turn the ignition off. Weird thing is, when i first turn on my car after it sits for a while it doesnt make the noise but when it warms up it tends to start ticking.

your car is made for the 87. premium gas is harder to burn, and your car may actually not be able to always detonate the mix right. premium requires a higher temp to ignite, which is why it's used on cars that have FI or high compression. it is more resistant to detonation since these cars can get the mixture much hotter from the compression ratio, hence their need for the more expensive gas, to prevent early detonation.

FYI...winter fuels are formulated differently...hence there is variation between winter and summer fuels. Since you live way up north, that can be some of the issues you are experiencing with your engine performance.

The problem may be your hood prop. open the hood and see if it makes the noise with it open. if not then check the prop out. mine was making a noise like that and i freaked out but realized it was the prop vibrating against the hood.

nope, it makes the noise with the hood open

booo that sucks. let's hope it's nothing big.

yeah s2000man is right. Just use 87, the manual even saids to use 87 gas and that the engine was specifically designed to use that gas. If you still hear it, just take it to the dealer and have him check it out. You have warranty, you might as well use it. I have a 04 ex auto with 30k on it and it has never made that noise for me. Then again i live in California.

since your car is still like new, take it back to the dealership cuz it is still under warranty.. but i dont think the ticking is anything bad.. maybe civic engines just tend to have a ticking/clicking sound

personally i think that using higher octane gas will not damage the engine, i think it's all a myth, i have used it since the begining of time and my engine performs better than any other stock d17a2 engine with boltons on this site. Well there is one guy that dynoed as high as me with boltons but i think he had pnp head. Well just my opinion.

I'm not surprise that people still think running higher octane on a civic will give them more power. This means the oil companies are doing a great job with the advertising.

The octane rating is used to rate how resistant to ignition a fuel is. The higher the number the more resistant it is to igniting. So a 87 octane ignites at a lower temperature than a 92 octane would.

Typical cars that use 92 octane are cars with high compression/supercharge/turbocharge engines or you live in extremely hot climate (consistently over 100 degree F). These engines have a higher combustion chamber temperature thus necessitating higher octane fuel to prevent predetonation, as you all know predetonation is very destructive to engine components.

Now. Knowing this and you still want to use high octane fuel in your Civic. Then be my guest. It's not going to hurt it. Know this though. You are not improving the performance of your Civic. All you're doing is spending more money on something your Civic can not take advantage of.

If your reasoning is to use the higher octane fuel to clean your engine. Then you have a valid reason. Because most premium fuel does contain more deposite controlling detergent in it. However, you could get the same effect by using a bottle of fuel injector cleaner every few thousand mile.

To answer the original poster: Your ticking is normal. It is the fuel injectors turning ON and OFF. You can hear it more at idle because the rest of the noise is relative quiet compare to the injectors. When you speed up, the noise from other components are now louder than the injectors, thus it appears as if the ticking noise is gone.

you know someone once had the opinion that the world was flat too.

there is opinion and then there is scientific fact. I already explained earlier WHY higher octane gas isn't good for your car. and while it may not cause drastic damage, your engine will suffer more wear and tear in the long run.

oh and if there were a way for you to feasibly do it, if you dyno'd your car on premium then dyno'd it right after (so to have the same conditions) using regular, you'd find that you dyno'd higher using regular gas than premium gas. again proven scientific fact.

Well, you could switch back to 87 octane. With the money you save, you could get your Turbo sooner. After which, you can switch to 92 octane.

moving to vehicle issues and problems

i know your car only has 10,000k on it but if you drive it hard and rev it high quite often, it could be possible that you could need a simple valve adjustment, but more than likely the wrong type of gas is your problem

No No No I have the same problem at 10 000km's and i looked into this further and wht I noticed is that near the intake manifold there are some control modules and the clicking cmes from one of them put your ear close to one and youll hear it...Thats why you can hear it in the car..

Anyways check it out and let me know....

Viper

I think your right, it does seem to come from that area. What did u do to fix it or is it just normal.

lose nut behind the wheel