Honda Civic Forum - 2004 Civic EX 1.7L consistent grinding noise (video)

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2004 Civic EX 1.7L consistent grinding noise (video)

https://youtu.be/WERp4cS8vuk?t=31

https://youtu.be/WERp4cS8vuk?t=111

This is an automatic with about 130k miles.

Symptoms:

Grinding (?) noise (for approx 1 second), seemingly accompanied by a resistance to movement (like a braking force).
Only reproducible when you first start the car and start driving at very low (parking lot) speeds.
To reproduce the sound again, you must cycle the engine off and back on. The delay between switching the car off and back on (if any) does not seem to make any difference. I have also tried switching to P and back to D, etc, but this does not reproduce the noise, the ignition must be cycled.
It happens in all gear shift positions (reproducible in D, R, 2, and seemingly in N as well but that's harder to confirm).
It happens regardless of whether you are turning or going straight (in the video I'm turning, but that's because it's a small parking lot).

Things I have done:

Changed ATF since it was due (4x times, as recommended in the manual).
Serviced front brakes (cleaned, removed some foreign material (rope?) caught in left-front caliper+rotor area, and lubed).
Scanned for any codes, just in case (ECM, TCM, ABS, SRS at least). None.

Re: 2004 Civic EX 1.7L consistent grinding noise (video)

Quote:

Originally Posted by dewyatt (Post 4755107)

Only reproducible when you first start the car and start driving at very low (parking lot) speeds.
To reproduce the sound again, you must cycle the engine off and back on. The delay between switching the car off and back on (if any) does not seem to make any difference. I have also tried switching to P and back to D, etc, but this does not reproduce the noise, the ignition must be cycled

Starter getting stuck?

Re: 2004 Civic EX 1.7L consistent grinding noise (video)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GolNat (Post 4755111)

Starter getting stuck?

Very good suggestion to check.

Very simple test, with the engine running, turn the key to start position again.

If you hear the starter gears grinding it’s fine, if you don’t its still engaged and very possibly your issue.

Re: 2004 Civic EX 1.7L consistent grinding noise (video)

The ABS control unit checks the pump motor

operation during initial diagnosis when the vehicle is

started. You may hear the motor operate at this time,

but it is normal.

Is this what you hear? Although it does sound different than the usual "sproing" or "buzz".

Re: 2004 Civic EX 1.7L consistent grinding noise (video)

I finally got a chance to test this yesterday!
When I pulled the ABS fuse (under dash #11), the sound does not occur. I plug the fuse back in, the sound is back.
The ABS is the only thing on that fuse, so that is indeed what is making the noise.

Looking around, I think it might be normal for this particular ABS modulator to make that noise...I think.

Anyways, thanks!

(Just for fun I also did the starter test suggested above, but it behaved as expected)