the car starts fine without any fuss but then when its idoling it makes this very strange sound, I can't even discribe it, it's not a knocking sound but almost like the metal is expandng...Does this sound familar to anyone?

 

Yeah, mine does it too, no idea what it is. It only does it when it's freezing cold. Sounds like it's coming from the front. Very annoying sound.

 

yes it is extremely annoying, it stopped once the car heated up but it still kinda bothers me

 

other people have to have this problem.
bump for input

 

My guess it is the crank shaft but i dont know.... Could be something vibrating like the Hood.

 

No, definitely not. I wish I had a camcorder so you guys could hear this.
Sorry SuM Honda - not trying to thread jack.

 

It's not a vibration, it sounds like something scraping. You can't feel it, smell it, or nothing like that. I don't even think it really sounds like metal. Once again, it only does this when it's cold. Anyone?

 

it reminds me of that sound the engine makes right after you shut it off...but it's faint.

 

just my 2 cents, but are you running a stock exhaust manifold...if so, it could be possible that the noise is coming from that. it's made from cast iron and it takes a while for cast iron to heat up in the bitter cold and cast iron doesn't expand like the rest of the exhaust like the piping which is crap on stock hondas. so as it's heating up slowly, it's contracting as well from the cold until the engine is able to produce enough heat to get it hot enough to stop the slight pinging noise like when you turn you car off. i actually have this problem with the new resonator i put on my exhaust, except it does it at operating temp while the car is running. i could be wrong, but it's a shot in the dark!

 

it was doing it really bad the other night. I'm now about 75% sure it's coming from the gauge cluster