My 2008 Accord EX-L has had the cold start noise that apparently is coming from the VTC acutator. The car had been making a short grinding sound for the past year. The car has 103K on it right now, but the noise became noisier and grinds for almost 2 seconds when sitting more than 5 hours. This was after some extended highway driving.

I have only used 5w20 MobileOne and change it after 3K to 4K, so this should not be specifically be related to the oil, but several forum entires indicate its more of a design flaw, though it's not clear what makes it happen or makes it worse for some owners.

I have the car scheduled to get the VTC actuator replaced and hope that is all that is needed. The Honda service manager tends to think that is all that is needed, but I tend to want anything that might contribute to also get replaced. Any thoughts?

 

Hey I am A tech at Davis Honda, Burlington NJ- The VTC actuator is very common on the late model accords. As far as what i have read in the service bulletins- there is excessive clearance on mating surfaces that allows oil pressure to bleed off the vtc actuator (cam gear) and it will cause an awful noise at startup depending on how bad it is or is getting. Dont be suprised if they try and sell you a timing chain tensioner and/or valve adjustment- they are PM services that are much easier to do while the valve cover is off and timing cover is off.

Hope this helped you out
-Ben

 

I have this noise problem which started after my 2.4liter engine was suddenly using a lot of oil and was run low on oil. Took it to the dealer and they claimed the oil filter had a small hole in it. My question was if that was the case why was there no oil spillage in my garage. They changed the oil and filter which stopped the oil consumption problem but that is when the cold start grinding noise started. The noise lasts a couple of seconds. My question is how do I make sense of all this?

 

It just seems to happen.. No real time or specific mileage that causes this.. The only solution is to replace it.

 

Hi

As my accord is out of warranty...which part should i replace?
- VTC actuator
- VTC solenoid only due to dirty oil

Will my car be ok if i don't do anything about it?

Thankd for your time

 

Hi

As my accord is out of warranty...which part should i replace?
- VTC actuator
- VTC solenoid only due to dirty oil

Will my car be ok if i don't do anything about it?

Thanks for your time