The car: 2006 TSX Navi
50k miles, no modifications

I'm sure this sounds like a strange problem. For several months this has been happening, and last night I think I finally determined what the cause is.

Anytime the car is running, whether at highway speeds or idling in the driveway, there is an occasional electrical pop or snap coming from the speakers. This happens with the audio system on or even off. When the car was in for service and warranty issues last week I explained what was happening, but as expected, they found nothing. So last night I finally broke down and tried to really troubleshoot it.

I determined that it occurs when the air conditioner compressor cycles OFF. At idle, it is clear when the compressor cycles on - it's audible. The instant the pump kicks off is when the pop occurs in the speakers. It also happens both with climate control and manual control.

After some searching, it seems that the ac pump may be on constantly when the climate control is used, so could what I'm hearing just be a fan turning on and off? Either way, it happens when that component turns off.

Has anybody heard of or experienced anything similar to this problem? Could there be a bad ground somewhere, a bad capacitor, relay, etc.?

Thanks for any help.

 

Aboslutely! Please see this thread: click here

for the progress I've made. I have the exact same TSX model year. Car is completely stock. So far. I have yet to get the damn techs at the dealership to hear the sound. I am experience the EXACT same problem, and I plan to sort it out before my CPO warranty is up. This is an electrical issue. When the A/C cycles off, every single speaker in the car will make this distinct pop sound. No one has been able to solve it who has it, but if you look in the thread, mercman (owns an audio shop in NY) has volunteered to look at anyone's car who has this issue. Are you near NY by any chance? Even at the acura dealerships I've been to, the techs are not savvy with electrical stuff and claim that even if they did identify the sound, they have NO CLUE how to fix it Not encouraging. Please reply after reading over the thread linked above.

 

It's a strange problem because it doesn't matter if the audio system is on or off. It only happens when the engine runs too, probably because that's when the A/C is running. It's not the fan you're hearing. It's electrical interference in the speaker system. It's not normal because very few people have this issue.

 

I suspect its a bad ground, but I did have a tech check my amp ground, and he found no issues. I've tried checking the three grounds in the engine bay, and they look good to me. I'm not really savvy with electrical stuff either, so this thing baffles me but also drives me absolutely insane. It's soooo annoying for a car that otherwise works just fine. Hopefully, we can tag team this issue and come up with a fix for anyone else out there.

 

Thanks for directing me to the other threads. Lots of great info there and clearly this problem is VERY real. Hopefully we can make some progress and get Acura to direct a little more effort at it.

It's understandable to look at this problem from the audio system perspective and try to solve noise/interferance issues. The popping is coming from the speakers after all. However, I found no posts regarding the other constant here - the switching of the A/C pump itself. Has anybody tried replacing its relay or looking at the grounding of the compressor. What about some kind of noise suppressor in the A/C electrical system? Isn't it logical to assume that the pop is the result of some curable issue on this end?

I also am considering pulling to audio system fuses to see if the sound is isolated. Has anyone done that yet? Is there anything to look out for?

It may be time to round up the engineer friends for this one...

 

Good luck. You may get more traction if you start this thread in the audio/video section as well. There are more people who know about this type of thing over there. Oh! And are you in the NYC area?

 

Do you live close to the NYC area? Mercman could help you out!