Hey guys

Just wondering if anybody can tell me what this noise is. Here are 2 examples I found on YouTube.

My 94 Accord ex makes the same noise. My 03 Civic does too.

 

 

Bump

 

bump it

 

That metallic rattling sound?

It's piston slap. Especially common in the older high mileage engines. It will be more pronounced when the engine is cold.

 

Could be piston slap except it’s not that bad when it’s cold. It gets louder as the engine warms up to operating temperature.

I have searched for hours about this noise and found so many threads and videos, I’m just going to say it’s normal and move on.

I have already put 25,000 miles on this engine and it’s been making this noise since I’ve had the car.

 

That sounds like rod knock, the last time I heard a sound like that a rod went through my block.

Can you pin point if it is from the top or bottom?

Take a long wooden handle and place it against the block and put it to your ear. Move it to different places on the block and head. The louder it gets the closer you are to the item making that sound.

 

It’s top end. It’s not rod knock. I’ve had rod rod knock in two of my cars. It was super loud,This is barely noticeable and only when light throttle is applied in the 1000 to about 2000 rpm range.

 

Maybe I heard the wrong noise, but that knock that I hear is very noticeable compared to how these engines should sound. If you know for sure that it is top end, I would suggest removing the valve cover and checking your valve train and valve clearances. Easy enough job to remove the cover and take a look. You can reuse the valve cover gasket if the need be.

 

the first video is loud

check the second one I posted, that’s more like how my car sounds. Valve lash was just done a few days ago. This car has been making this noise since I got it and I’ve put 25000 miles on it so far and I drive 700 miles a week.

 

Oh wow, was that first sound recording of the same car?

The second video sounds like a normally operating Honda engine. You should have no issues running that for another 100k miles.

 

no that was a different car. I was just trying to show some examples of what mine sounds like. It’s just that faint knocking at low revs that I was concerned with. Like I said I have owned several Hondas and they all made that noise if I recall correctly. I have also owned cars with rod knock and that noise is unmistakable. Thank you for your time.