So I recently just got my 97 prelude. I bought it knowing that the engine was making noise. With my own personal experience, and having some trusted, knowledgeable friends look at it, I bought it thinking it was a bad intake valve. Somewhat of an easy fix.

I just had my mechanic take a look at the car today, and he says a few of the valves where loose. He fixes everything up, slaps the new gasket it on, and bolts everything back together. The noise is still there. It's a clanking noise that goes with the RPM's, but it's not affecting performance at all.

My mechanic then tells me that while he was in there, he noticed that somebody had done a head job on it. He can't tell exactly what it is they did, but he knows somebody was in there poking around. His best guess is that the noise has something to do with that, but he can't tell until he gets in there.

Does anybody have any fekkin clue as to what the hell this could be?!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by JuJu &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> It's a clanking noise that goes with the RPM's, but it's not affecting performance at all.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Spun rod bearing maybe? Drain your oil and inspect it for metal flakes.

 

Did an oil change the night I bought it. Oil was clean. Also, after changing the oil that night the noise seemed to get quieter.

 

Just a thought has previous owner been using low octane gas instead of premium, that can cause a knocking noise as well.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by britishlude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just a thought has previous owner been using low octane gas instead of premium, that can cause a knocking noise as well.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Low octane and a knocking noise is actually from detonation. It would not be knocking like that at idle.... unless the motor was detonated and something internally gave.

It's hard to diagnose something over the internet when you cannot hear it in person.

 

and we have a knock sensor...you usually wouldn't hear the knocking as the ecu would pull timing..

 

Well my check engine light came on after about 150 miles of driving it. I looked up the code and it was a mis-fire in the 4th cylinder. My mechanic cleared it for me, and said not to worry about that. 70 miles later, it hasn't come back on.

I'm dropping it off with him next week so he can open it up and try to find out what the problem is. I'm just trying to get a rough idea of what it is so I know how much I'll be shelling out.

The car runs beautifully. I was told not to worry about it too much, but since we don't know exactly what it is of course I'm concerned. I'm very happy with my first prelude, and the car will be absolutely perfect once I get this diagnosed and replaced the cracked windshield.

I'm just praying that this isn't serious.

 

Hope you didnt pay too much for it.

 

why didnt the mechnic tell you that in the first place?

he had to seal it up and then tell you so he can open it up and reap your wallet

again.

 

He charged me 40 bucks to do a valve adjustment, not exactly high priced.

He says he needs the car for a couple of days, since he doesn't know exactly what the problem is he wants to take his time going through it and try to find out what's wrong. He's not open on the weekends so I couldn't just leave it with him right there. I'm taking it in first thing on monday for him to do whatever he needs to do.