Good Morning Guys,

My Honda Del Sol EG2 1.6Vtec is making strange knocking noises from underneath the car every now and then. Noises are some times loud and sometimes not and happen randomly . The noise is like someone is punching and kicking underneath my car.

My mechanic can't understand what the issue is as he said that all bolts , nuts , etc are tightly screwed, axle rods , suspensions and knuckles are all correctly in place . The left steering bellow is a little torn but I don't really think that that's the issue.

Did you guys experience such a thing ? Do you know what it could be ?
Mechanic said that the car can be driven normally as he's sure that everything is holding pretty steadily in place and it could be some wear and tear metal part due to age.

 

Stop running over people! Haha but seriously, have you noticed the noise more while doing a certain thing? Like "It happens more when I turn right" or "only while going up hill", or "only when the gas is under 1/4 full".

Any other information you can give will help, but I have very low hopes of someone diagnosing just a random noise with no other information given. The best we can do with the information so far is just guess more or less wildly.

 

Hey Mate - Thanks for your reply.

Funnily enough , the sound is done randomly at low to medium revs but never on high revs and high speed. I've noticed that the sound is done more often on normal roads then on main roads / high ways.

My Mechanic is pretty sure that the noise is not coming from the engine bay but it is more of a suspension noise , however he can't see any issues so far.

The car is new to me as it's been mine only for one month and it was left around 4 to 6 months idle at the previous owner's garage. Now I'm trying to keep it running as much as possible to regain the power it once had so I'm using it a little often. The noise was heard few days age , I had 1/4th tank of petrol and decided to empty it with a good run on one of the main roads and then fuel it up with ePower ROM98 Petrol. What I noticed was that at high revs the steering got very vibrant and this was not usual. I gave it fuel and it stopped but after two hours the knock - knock sound was heard . It is heard randomly at only when it wants , there are no instances or patterns.

The strange thing is that we lifted up the car and everything seems to be pretty stable and fixed in place.

 

That made no sense to me

Regain the power it once had
BUT
Drive as little as possible

A video clip would help to identify this mysterious knock...

 

I didn't understand your statement sorry.

What I meant to say is : Since the previous owner left the car in his garage for a long time , I'm trying to use it and keeping it going as much as I can so that it will be actually used how it's suppose to.

 

You say only at low-medium RPM, does it do it also when the car is stationary, or ONLY when the car is moving? If it does it while stationary, it is likely engine-related, if only while moving, it could be either drivetrain or suspension.

 

Only when car is moving .

Just for the record , I don't know if it makes any difference but the car has an A/T .

 

can you post a video?

 

Hi Guys ,

I've been to the mech again to do more tests.

It turned out that we noticed that the interior "cage" in the driver's side half shaft bellow is broken and it is making strange noises when turned manually (by hand).

I will be replacing that , Approx 250 euros part + installation.

Will let you know if it will fix the problem or not.

Hope it does

 

That sounds pretty much like what the problem could be. I have a 2002 Subaru Forester that I thought had rod knock, I was pissed until I noticed that the knocking noise doesn't increase with engine RPM, only with vehicle speed. I think I've got a similar problem as you. Hopefully after replacing that CV axle you'll be good to go! Please let us know if that fixed it.

 

Hey Mate , I've purchased a second hand driver's side half shaft from a guy who has a Del Sol for parts. Bought it for 150 euros and installation cost is approx 100 euros.

Appointment with Mechanic is for the 12th May because he's fully booked with work But I will definitely let you know if it solved the problem or not. Hopefully it will

I'm pretty positive that it will solve it as it is the only root cause we've found strange so far.

Thanks - Dan

 

Wow! Seriously? Can you order from somewhere like Rockauto.com?

They are only $50 here in the states. but that labor is appropriate, even tho, I'd do it myself.

Good to see you found the prob. I had 4 axles go out on the 2 sols I'm responsible for, so I know its not that hard to fix, but that part cost is wild!

 

The thing is that since it's a huge chunk of metal , even if its cheap from online sites I would still pay a sh*t load for shipping

Anyway , I bought one for 150 euros now .

Yeah Mech said that it's not that hard to fix but he has to put some time in it and dismantle a lot of parts to get through to the actual part needing replacement.

I'm not a mechanical guy so I'd prefer not trying to replace it myself , I'll get it even worse If I try

 

Hello All,

I've fixed the above mentioned problem by replacing the Driver's Side Half Shaft (The Short One) , Inner cross and the 3 bolts / ***** connecting to it.

The original one I had attached to my car was broken from the inside and as soon as we removed the below , metal parts started falling from inside the cup.

Tested the car for 2 days now - so far so good :D

 

Awesome, great to hear! Thanks for posting the solution to your issue.

 

Great!

And like most suspension parts, they should be replaced in pairs, but if mechanic didn't see a current problem with pass side it should be ok for now.

Just start saving for another round of this in the future.

All the cost of having no car payments