Well for the past week or so, my car has been making strage noises from under the drivers side dash. I have talked to some people, and came to the conclusion that it is a spun rod bearing. Does anyone know:

1. How much should it cost to fix?
2. How long can I drive it before things will start to get bad?
3. Can someone please explain what a rod bearing is, and what it's purpose is?
4. How could I have spun this bearing? People have told me it's from mis-shifting, but I have never mis-shifted my car. NEVER!

I thank you all for your time and for helping me out.

 

a rod knock sounds like a distinctive low pitch thud that emanates from the bottom end.

1. if your not doing this yourself it is very expensive. the actual part is only about 8-10 dollars each, but the labor is on the extensive side.

2. if it's rod knock you want to fix this ASAP. what is happening is that there is metal to metal contact going on somewhere in your bottom end, and your bearing is slowly deteriorating. this small problem could turn into a very large problem if the bearing total destroys itself because those metal bits from the bearing will be floating around in your motor, and necessistate an entire engine overhaul/r&r. what also can happen is that your motor will seize up which is equally as bad.

3. the bearings in the engine serve as an intermediate between your crank / rods / mains. the crank / rod / mains are a hard metal and the bearings are a soft metal compound made of aluminum, copper, and lead. the bearings arent ever supposed to come into contact with your crank, they actually ride on a thin layer of oil which is pumped thru holes in the crank, and seperates the two. one of the properties of a bearing is that oil clings to it.

4. the main cause of rod knock in a normal motor is over revving, and/or low oil levels. sometimes motors a put together wrong from the factory, meaning they have the wrong clearances, and that can also cause a rod knock to develop over time. what also causes bearing failure is if your crank/rod/block isn't true/straight.

how many miles are on your motor?


[Modified by SEFI8LOxCivic, 4:17 AM 4/19/2002]

 

Thanks for the info. I currently have 23,xxx on my motor now and was planning on doing a full tune-up around 30k along with the valves adjusted and such. This sucks. I was hoping I'd never have to deal with this crap. Oh well. Could you estimate a cost and do you think Acura will warrenty this set up with my exhaust and intake? Let me know man. Thanks.

 

If you still have them, put back on your stock intake and exhaust before you take it in. A lot of dealers will look for any excuse out of warranty work (It doesn't pay as well). If they try to use I/E as an excuse for internal engine problems, ride it up the corporate chain and you will win. If it really is a spun bearing, it would be covered without question.

 

i would take the intake and exhaust off to be absolutely certain. if you have warantee they are definately responsible for taking care of this. there should be no reason a 20k motor should do this.

are you certain it is rod knock? is the sound intermetiant? if so when can you hear it? my buddy had a slight rod knock right as he would start up the motor, but it would disappear right afterwards. a bad rod knock is a bit easier to diagnoise... on a bad rod knock the low thud noise is audible at idle and progressively gets faster as you rev the engine higher and never disappears. what does yours sound like? can you tell if its coming from the bottom end.

as for the price... the break down would go somewhere like this...

labor
$500 to remove and reinstall the drivetrain
$600 rebuild the engine

parts (add 20% if you dont get a discount)
$170 entire engine bearing set
$60 headgasket

but if you know someone that knows their hondas you may be able to just get away with changing your rod bearings (if that's what's bad. it could be your main bearings) which you can do by simply dropping your oil pan, and does not require you to remove & reinstall your entire motor. that would be significantly cheaper.

best bet is to get it checked out at acura and make them pay for it. good luck.

 

Ok, I'll describe what is going on here. *NOTE* this only happens going 45mph+ and doesn't happen any slower than that. It only happens around 2800-3100 rpm. When the pedal is slightly pressed, a rattling takes place and sounds like it is comming from under the dash, somewhere where the pedals are. As soon as you push on the pedal harder to excelerate more, the sound goes away. No noise when I start the car or at idle. The car sounds perfectly fine other than the times I described above. The reason why I thought it might could be a spun rod bearing is because another member on this board had a similar problem and told me what his was (which was a spun rod bearing). To my knowledge, it may not even be that, or anything to do with the motor. I'm just really stuck on what do to here. Thanks for the quick replys. I'll keep you posted on what happens, and please try to post you guesses on what it could be. Thanks.

 

That is NOT rod knock. Also, I would suggest taking it to the dealer but do NOT put the stock parts back on. I don't know why people think that dealership mechanics somehow miss turned bolts. When AssDime took his car in they *knew* everything that had been done even though it was changed back to stock, and this was for a spun bearing. Of course there were other reasons that certain items were removed (header to drop tranny, valve cover for valve adjustment, etc) so he was still able to get it fixed.. took 2 months though..

but either way, that is NOT rod knock.

 

yea, that definately doesnt sound like a spun rods bearing. what a relief!