Capt Earl

Well my dealership says I need a New A pipe and gasket. Five hundred plus..Ouch! See I have a rattle, for lack of a better word, at about 18 hundred rps and only 18 hundred rps. Drives me crazy. I was thinking just the heat shield loose, but having a hard time tracking one down.......Any advice:?

MSchu

Yeah, dont replace your A pipe... Unless it has a hole in it or it has become warped somehow... they dont go bad.

My vote is for a heat shield being loose or bent so that its making contact with another metalic piece

Capt Earl

thanks...Listen, how important is the heat shield anyhow? I'm guessing theres just a small tack weld thats broke and just needs a little spot weld back on> Hard to be cool when your car sound like Hell.....

MSchu

Yeah Capt... I think its pretty minimal as far as importance goes. HOWEVER, some layouts in the accord may be somewhat critical that it remains, i don't know you engine or layout but a quick visual inspection can verify whether or not its important... if your exhaust is not very close to other rubber/plastic parts you are okay with its removal. Is it coming from the engine compartment? If it is, in Honda those shields are usually bolted on and may be a bolt it loose, if its from under the car, you may have a bent shield from hitting something .

One thing I do is to flick the shield by hand... if I can get it to buzz, sure as heck it will buzz at speed

Capt Earl

You know, I'm sure its from under the car. Took it to the Honda dealership and they did just like you said. Run it up the lift and started hitting on the heat shield. They didn't find anything loose there. So like I said, they said it was the "A" pipe and gasket. I haven't tried doing that myself, but need to I guess. You know, ya hate to think they tell you things just to get your cash. Na! They wouldn't do that.

MSchu

Well in this case, that is very suspicious... Some places are commission based, which SUCKS. There are bad apples everywhere I guess, even at some Honda places

I wanted to add to... that a major pipe section that has a bad gasket will make a different sound than a heat shield... the shield will Buzz, a pipe contacting another metal piece will make a knocking sound


Modified by MSchu at 3:00 PM 11/2/2008

Capt Earl

well went back to Honda dealership and had them check out the noise again. Turns out the noise is coming from the A Pipe..Seems like this pipe is double lined, and the one inside must be broke. Thats where that vibration noise is coming from...checked a honda parts site, and the cheapest one i can find is 258.00. If there may be a cheaper site someone let me know. drinks on me

MSchu

I did not know that... learn something new everyday.

I think 250'ish is going to be the price.