i just bought a used 95 civic ex and noticed a sound coming from the engine bay on the drive home. it sounds like a very light tapping, almost a very light and very soft growl. it comes and goes a bit. my mechanic looked and it and listened to various parts of the engine with a stethoscope for about 5 minutes and told me that it wasn't rod knock, wasn't a bearing, and he didn't hear anything from the transmission. i know what a bad transmission bearing sounds like, and this sound is much, much quiter than that. it's almost impossible to pick out at highway speeds. does anyone have any idea what might be causing it?

 

clicking injectors or maybe you just need a valve adjustment

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ek9mugen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">clicking injectors or maybe you just need a valve adjustment</TD></TR></TABLE>

What I thought to begin with, but would'nt a mechanic have picked up on valvetrain noise?

 

Does the car have a header? If so, it could be valve noise.

 

sounds like valve train noise to me, but i guess he would have picked up on that like the others said.

 

the car is totally stock.

would valve train noise sound like that?

i just want to make sure that this isn't something that will bite me in the *** when i'm 200 miles from home.

would adjusting my tappet clearances help?


Modified by serious at 3:39 PM 3/17/2004

 

bump.

 

i would try adjusting your valve clearences yes. Search ont his site...they have writeups on how to do this. Its really pretty simple.

 

i've done it before on my other civic and prelude.

i dunna know, never thought a valvetrain could makes sounds like that. i always thought it would sound more like a really high speed chatter and not a growl.