My 99 ex is louder than most other ex's in town and I'm tring to figure out why. There is a very faint clicking sound , but the engine is just overall louder than what I think it should be. I've checked the ignition timing, exhaust leak, LMA's, etc. Just can't quite figure it out. I've come to two conclusions and I want to see if I'm right about this.

1. Valve adjustment might have to happen. I checked the valve a few weeks ago but nothing showed up strange, all where in spec but then again this was my first time checking them so I can't be positive if I checked them right. There's the possibility they are out of spec.

2. AEM intake w/ unknown filter. I bought the car with a loud generic exhaust and an intake system. This past feb. I got a generic quiet muffler put on and to my surprise it made a difference in the noise. But now It seems the noise is still loud and is it possible for an intake to be that much of a difference from a stock air box. I mean, It almost sounds like I have an exhaust system on the car.

 

Even a generic intake can make quite a different sound. My friend has a 2000 Accord DX w/ a no name ebay intake on it, and at WOT it sounds ALOT different than a stock airbox.

 

Some SRI's make honda's sound MEAN.

Really, it's probably your intake.

 

could just be injectors...

 

Well, I was told injectors can be loud overtime but It might be them. How would quiet them down? But about the intake. If I have a shitty filter on it, will it make more noise than say a good aem or k&N filter?

 

its really the whole design of the intake/exhaust systems that create the sound..
such as stock intake w/ k&n drop-in is somewhat loud, if you remove the resonator its loud and obnoxious.
if you have holes in your exhaust near the header it will have an obnoxious "sucking" noise.

i would expect that your exhaust system is starting to wear since its getting close to 10 years old.