Blindeye_03

What is causing this? It comes from the engine but sounds like the passenger glove box area.

Ive searched and found that some people say its the 'vtec'. On my 03 civic si I never heard such a noise, and I havent heard the noise on people's youtube videos of them showing off what vtec sounds like.

I plan to check the oil tomorrow again. I just had a pretty long road trip since I just bought the car this past weekend - 04 tsx 6mt.

Blindeye_03

Since I am not able to edit my post, I shall reply to it.

I found this thread: http://www.tsxclub.com/forums/1st-ge...post-40-a.html

In it are a few solutions such as changing the spring bolts and doughnut gasket for the exhaust/header, but that didnt fix it. Then that same person that had those parts replaced drove with the car hvac at 75* and heard the sound, then set it to 'lo' and they didnt hear the noise. As a result someone else had their car at the dealership and they bled the coolant, replaced the heater core and the heater control valve.

So I am going to try the method above and if I hear it ill take it in to see if they will fix my car. I just hope its not damaging to it to drive at high rpms with this sound happening.

Angelito

I too had a similar sound coming from the same area (which got gradually worse) and replaced both the doughnut gasket and my right axle... still had the sound. As it turns out, the culprit was my right wheel bearing. Only found it after my mechanic used a Mechanic's Stethoscope.
For the record, the doughnut gasket was worn and possibly damaged when I put a test pipe (now switched to a high-flow cat) and the right axle needed to be replaced. Check out your wheel bearings!

Blindeye_03

Ill check them but he sound doesnt sound anything like a wheel bearing. Those usually increase with vehicle speed, not engine rpm.

Blindeye_03

I wanted to add that ill bring this up when I take my car in to have the inner boots replaced. Maybe it is... I just know I have heard wheel bearings before and this isnt anything like what I have heard in the past.

GWEEDOspeedo

If you're pinpointing it right at 6000 RPM then it would seem likely it's coming from the VTEC process. I don't know much about what's involved with that but it does kick in at 6000 RPM in normal ECU TSX's.

Blindeye_03

Yep thats right when its occurring. I havent been able to drive the car due to ice and snow here in Atlanta, plus two of my tires are bald so I wanted to avoid ice at all costs.

Im going to run some errands today and see if it happens if I turn the heat on or off. I dont recall this happening when I picked the car up in Jacksonville, Florida or in Savannah, Georgia due to the weather being very warm. So of course I didnt have the heat on.

IF it does indeed only happen when I have the heat on, I dont see why it wouldnt be the heater core since it is then related to the heater at high rpms.

As for vtec I can neither hear nor feel it engage, but from what I have read and seen on dyno charts with the 04 its normal... kinda like when I had a civic si with the k20a3 till I put a short ram on it.

Blindeye_03

Okay... I took my car out today for a few errands, and after about 10-12 minutes of driving I figured it was warm enough to take into vtec land. After crossing over 6000 rpm it was pretty quiet but around 6300 rpm I heard the sound like gravel in a box being shaken. I then played around with the heating controls, setting it on hi, lo ac on and off but no matter what I did after that first sound I never could get it to make the sound again.

So the rest of the day the car was quiet going into vtec. I cant really tell if vtec was really engaging or not since its so quiet anyways and you dont feel that surge of power like I felt driving my s2000 (sold that car when I bought this one). I miss that sound so bad .

Anyways Ill be taking it out again later today or tomorrow to get my crappy tint removed and to get some new tires installed. Ill see if it does it again. Ill be happy as hell if the sound never comes back.

Blindeye_03

Ok I've driven the car a bit more, and the sound has not come back. So when I did hear the sound I was able to fiddle with the ac controls to make it stop producing the sound, but now it's not even making it anymore. This is so strange...

But now the console lights are out, and my windows work intermittently. Ordering a new pcb soon. The joys of buying a problematic 04.