jelyman

I searched the forums for a while and couldn't find anything specific enough to the issue I'm having so I'm hoping by starting a new thread, I can pick some brains.

I have a 2008 Accord EX-L V6 w/o nav with 122k and it likes to make a certain, rather elusive noise.

When I turn the steering wheel left to right, I can hear a low groaning noise come from the front of the vehicle. I can feel slight hesitations in line with the noise as well as feel vibrations on the front wheels in line with the noise. I cannot, however, hear the sound from the outside, just the inside.

If one wears thin shoes, they can feel it in the floor, more so on the right side.

This particular sound only occurs when the vehicle is warm and is in warmer climates. It does not happen when cold on a hot day or when warm on a cold day.

I've had the dealer look at it twice, with both attempts being futile. The sound I describe to them (like creaking metal with no squeak) and they don't think it'd be the ball joints. They don't see anything out of the ordinary with them.

I want to say it might be strut related since when it's really warm (say 80+) outside, if I drive over rough road, I can hear it with the typical sounds of said rough road.

It's been something we've tried to track down for at least a year now. We originally lived in WA where it only happened in the summer (days of 80+) but now that we live in CA, it's always warm, so it always happens once the car has warmed up (roughly 20 minutes).

Last major service was about six months ago and last maintenance was about 1000 miles ago.

I love this car, and it performs admirably every other minute of the day. I don't have issues steering overall. My fluids are good across the board.

Help?

tech8

Is the sound similar to this video or is it different?

jelyman

Similar, yes. It's hard to tell from the video, but the sound in it seems to come from the column, where mine tends to eliminate more forward and be a bit lower in pitch.

tech8

If it sounds like that, there was a Honda service bulletin years back already regarding the steering column lower bearing being mis-set. The fix was to replace the steering column.

Honda TSB 09-078

jelyman

Spoke with the dealer, they checked that bulletin and another like it, neither applying in this case. 09-078 was already looked into long ago, around when it first came out.

EDIT: My vechicle's been exclusively serviced at Honda dealers so the records for it are extensive, to say the least.

jelyman

Update.

The dealer finally acknowledged the sound and said it could be something is just loose and needs tightening or the steering rack will need replacement. This info is relayed by my wife so it's paraphrased but if its the latter, it'll be covered under our warranty replacement. I'll update when I find out more later this afternoon.

Update 2:

After looking at it, they said my LBJs are worn out, which I told them to look at when I took it in a couple days ago and they claimed there was nothing wrong. (sigh). So they're going to work on those tonight and we'll see if it comes back. If it doesn't, well there ya go.

Final Update:

The issue here was UBJ and LBJs were low on lube so when they warmed up, what was left drained to the bottom of the joint and caused the noise. Replacing them definitely helped, in this scenario.

In other news, it cost me $154 to find out a fuse was the culprit for my A/C to take a while to come on.