Rep Power: 0

Ok so the other day I noticed that my car is making a weird knocking noise, it's kind of a vibration noise coming from the engine bay. If I rev there is no noise........but the moment i put it in gear and start advancing forward the noise starts. The noise is especially apparent on first gear on the lower end of the rpm gauge.

What the hell can it be ........... it kinda smells like burnt sometimes .....

HELP!!!!

 
Rep Power: 319

hummm.... well there are alot of things.... bad gas, bad plugs, maybe the idle is to low.

Which model do you have, what year, how many miles, and what (if any) mods do you have? How long has this been happening?

More info and I'll see what I cna think of. You may want to try putting some dry gas in.

Also keep an eye on the RPMs if possible. Let us know when it starts and when it goes awya and what gear you are in and all that kind of stuff.

 
Rep Power: 0

Awlright, it's a 2001 civic coupe ex, 82 000 km, the only mods i have are tein coilovers and an exhaust and a dvd player inside the car. The noise is kinda coming from the right side of the engine bay near all the belts it doest it on 1st, 2nd, 3rd but it might be doing it on every gear but the sound is especially apparent on first and 2nd gear on around 1000 to 3500 rpms. It's a knocking noise with no intervalls, ( tick,tick,tick,tick,....) constant sound!!!! Pretty loud my friend heard it from a couple of streets meters away............. pls HELP ME It's been a couple of days.......... actually the sounds i think started when i put my dvd in the car???? But why the hell would that cause a sound in the engine bay????

 
Rep Power: 319

does the rate of the ticking sound increase with the speed of the engine. In other word as the rpm goes up, does the ticking go faster?

 
Rep Power: 319

EX coupe, is that the American ex or Canadian ex? OR I should just ask, does it have VTEC.

 
Rep Power: 0

american ex, increases as the rpms goes up

 
Rep Power: 319

Okay, well then I see three possiblities, one is the valvetrain, another is the accesories and the third is a bad A/F mix in the engine.

So lets start with a bad mix: does the car seem to be a little lowwer on power? Pull a spark plug out and if you can take a pic and post it up. See if it has some exssive carbon build on it, check for colors out of the ordinary (a light fluffy looking brown and a little black is normal).

The accesory stuff: Start with the A/C, do you notice a differance in the sound with the A/C on verus off? Take your car to an empty parking lot, crank the steering wheel almost all the way ( about a 1/4 of a turn away from the max point) and turn, also turn the wheel as you are moving, any change in the sound? any change if you turn all the elctrical stuff on versus off? Keep in mind that doing this stuff will lowwer the RPMs a little which may change the sound a little, but I think you get the idea of what we are going after here.

Finally the valve train, if all else fails, you're valves may be burnt or your timing slightly off. (this would be my guess, they generally making ticking noices). Since you have not adjusted your timing, I'm guessing that is fine, I hope you didn't pay to have the timing belt changed already, but that can screw up your timing if the person doing it doesn't know what they are doing. It maybe that the valve are burnt to, do you use any fuel addative or anything like that? You may just need a valve adjustment, I believe there is a DIY on here for that, however do not attempt to do this if you do ot have access to a torque wrench, the valve cover must be torqued to specs, other wise you kill the cam baring then the cam (I know from personal experiance lol). But over all it's an easy thing to do, or a shop can do it for around 50-60 USD. (this is what I would first check, make sure the valve lash is in spec).

Also, as Hondas get more and more miles on them they are known to develope ticking noises in the valve train, it has to do with the vavle seat material they use. It is perfectly normal for a Honda with more than 50k that has a slight tick to the eninge, particuarly if VTEC is present. My dads Accord ran over 150k miles with a ticking noise.

 
Rep Power: 344

i have the same problem.....it deffanantly sounds like its coming from the valves...and now that i read it......i noticed the sound right after i pulled out of the gas station.....but it sounds too loud to be that....but thanks for posting the info ill check it out!

 
Rep Power: 344

oh yea and i havent driven it since it started...i dont want to risk breaking anything...i dont have time yet to check it out

 
Rep Power: 0

Actually i went to honda and it might be the tranny...........thank god im still under warranty............ althought they said it might be the clutch bearing and that's apparently not covered by the warranty so ill wait and see ...........ill keep u guys posted!

 
Rep Power: 344

mine is still knocking......put dry gas and changed the spark plugs.....timing maybe???????????????????????help!!

 
Rep Power: 344

ok went to my old job the guy said right away KNOCK SENSOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! does anyone know if this could be it?!!! help i need my car !!!!!!!!!!

 
Rep Power: 265

the knock sensor is- a sensor that dectects knock, or detination inside the engine, this will trigger you CEL. detintaion can occur because bad timing (advanced) or poor gas (low octane)
put your ear to the end of a screw driver and poke around the engine, use it to listen to it. figure out exactly where the noise is comming from
i would reccomend a engine flush with a half synthetic oil, pending on miles maxlife/durablend it may be a hydraulic lash adjuster which may have gotten clogged up leaving the rocker arm to bounce...blahblah it gets complicated, just try that if it is comming from the top of the engine, if its the bottom its rod knock, which is a lot louder-give more details please if that doesnt work