I recently noticed a low pitched gurgling sound when I start my engine and the car is in idle. I need to turn the radio off to hear it, and it gets slightly louder when I accelerate. The car has 67,000 miles on it and I am trading it in for a new TSX in a month.

I brought the car to a local mechanic who said he would need to take a few things apart to figure out what's wrong. I couldn't leave the car with him, so right now I still have no idea if the problem is serious.

Does anyone have this problem? The car was serviced a few months ago and was in tip top shape.

Thanks.

 

do you have your climate control on auto, or AC on? The AC pump can get loud (mine has been doing it since 70,000 now has 101,000) as it ages and turning the AC on and off will eliminate or activate the sound. I only hear in my 04 TSX on idle though with out the stereo. If its louder then that, good luck.

 

If you are trading in the car next month, don't worry about it unless you are 100% certain that they will make you pay for the repair before accepting the trade. (assuming a lease here...).

If it still concerns you, I think shmork53's answer is about right.

 

Thanks. I'm pretty sure I had everything turned off but I will check it with and without the AC running. I'm just hoping that nothing in the engine breaks down and costs thousands to fix. If I had to dump a ton of money into fixes, then I would probably have to skip getting the new car all together. I think I'm just going to keep it off the road as much as possible until the new car gets in.

 

I'm with Curls. I wouldn't fix anything if you are planning on trading it in (unless it's a lease).

 

I just checked and the sound is there with or without the A/C on. Any suggestions? I think I'm just going to let the car sit in the parking lot unless I absolutely need to drive it and hopefully it won't break down before I trade it in.

 

Are you sure its not the coolant being pumped through its hoses and the engine block by the water pump? Water pump is driven by the serpentine belt, so it IS correlated to engine speed.

Any chance you can get a sound clip and post it up somewhere for us to listen to?

Odds are though its nothing serious unless you've severely understaed its loudness and "non-normalness", which I don't believe you have.

 

Yeah, it seems that most of the research I've done points to air pockets in the coolant and that the fluid needs to be topped off. Also, I recently started using the heating system instead of the A/C which sort of coincided with the time I started to notice the gurgling noise. I'm going to check the fluid in the radiator tonight and see if it needs to be topped off.

 

Try burping your coolant (radiator). Google it, but the basics are to remove the radiator cap, start the car, turn interior temp control to HI, let the engine warm up until the fan cycles TWO times (on, off, on, off), and then shut it down. Top off the radiator and the overflow tank (to the MAX level, but not the top of the tank!).

That should basically do it. You might notice a few bubbles come up from the radiator mouth, or you might not. Either way this is a good thing to do if you suspect any air pockets are trapped in the system.

Make sure you use properly diluted coolant of the same type that's in there now, or a good brand (Prestone) all-purpose coolant that comes pre-mixed.