Hi All,

The same noise which happened a few months ago is back again. Last time this happened I replaced the battery and everything was good. On the way home today it is back. I have uploaded the video on Youtube and you can hear it when I take the camera close to the top of the engine near the end of the video.

I took readings of the battery. It was at 12.64 volts, I started the car and the reading was erratic even displaying -1 and then 4.5 volts and 12.55 etc. It would not stay in one spot. I then shut the engine off and the reading went to 12.43. Does this look like a faulty battery or possibly the alternator? Car has around 75,500 miles on it.

Any help would be appreciated in troubleshooting this.



Nick

 

Also one other thing is that my air bag light came on for a second the last time this happened. I guess I need to check again while the car is running and get an accurate reading on the voltage. I think this is where the issue is from a few other posts I have been reading. It just seems way to early for the alternator to be going.

 

Ok here is an update.

Last night I took a look at the oil gauge and it seemed a little low. I added about 1/2 quart of oil so I don't know if this is also related. I changed my oil about a month ago. No leaks have been detected. I also have some snow on the ground and don't see anything leaking.

I started the car this morning in the 22 degree weather and the noise was still there. I checked the readings while the car was running and see that it is getting 14.75 volts. After about a minute the noise stopped but I still could smell something electrical and it was strong around the alternator area. I will check the connections later today and have the battery tested at Autozone just to be sure I didn't get a dud.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Nick

 

Connections look good. The noise came back after a few minutes and reading while the car is running is at 14.5V. I will get the battery tested tomorrow and see if I could have a faulty one. If it checks out ok, I will need to take it in to have it looked at as I don't know what else could be causing this.

 

sounds like the alternator to me....Also check your ground connections and clean them up if they are corroded.

 

Connections are good. I replaced the battery on Oct 9th and everything was ok at that time as well. I also put on di-electric grease to help prevent any corrosion.

The odd thing is the noise is coming from near the top of the engine and not the alternator. You can hear the murmur as I move the camera near the top of the engine. The very odd part of this is that the noise was the exact same thing when it died 3 months ago. I just have this feeling that I couldn't have been so lucky that the alternator could have recovered and went 3 months without seeing this issue again. We'll see hopefully today what the battery test shows.

 

car sounds normal to me...

 

Here is a video I found on how it sounds. This one is a little better from what I recorded. I will try to upload another video again tomorrow.



Didn't have time to have the battery tested today as I was working from 7am until 8pm.

On that video the OP mentions it was a bad torque converter. I started searching for articles and came across this post which mentions on a TL they said it was a torque converter issue but after replacing a bad batter the issue doesn't appear.

https://acurazine.com/forums/problem...er-not-835075/

I know the battery is only 3 months but I have seen some people encounter issues with them. I am almost tempted as a worst case to just buy one and see what happens. But I will try the test first at AutoZone and see what happens.

 

I can still hear the noise but it isn't as bad as it was before. I did notice some oxidation on the negative battery cable going to the body of the car. Do you think I should replace that? I wonder if something with the salt and the snow caused this issue.

 

Could be alternator noise, especially if your voltage is moving around but I don't have any explicit experience with that. Does it drive normally other than the noise?

 

Yep the car drives ok so far without any problems. I did notice that yesterday it wasn't as loud as it was on Tuesday. This was the first time I took it out since the issue started on Tuesday. Tonight I did notice it was a bit louder. The difference was yesterday it was around 34 degrees and today it is around 17. The car doesn't seem to struggle starting like it did 3 months ago when I replaced the battery. I think the variation with the voltage was my multi-meter connections. Yesterday I checked it a few times and it was reading around 14.5 - 14.25 volts.

I will check tomorrow while the car is running. I think it may be a good idea just to have Autozone check the battery and at least tell me it is good.

Also unless this gets ridiculously loud I won't be taking it to the dealer. I've already taken my car multiple times for the hollow clunking noise coming from the passenger's front and they think I'm already crazy with that.

I also checked the transmission fluid and that looks ok.

 

Okay, so you should be taking it to a dealer or mechanic that you trust.
You have a mechanical noise, it could be a timing chain guide, oil pump, water pump, anything that spins - valvetrain, you name it.
It isn't the battery, so save your time there. I
t isn't the alternator if your car continues to start every day without you jumping it.
I get the feeling you're not super experienced at diagnosing this kind of stuff, and this noise could just get worse until you fail a component and then you're in trouble. Someone needs to go in your engine bay with a stethoscope and try to determine where the noise is coming from. Then you'll know more.

 

Before submitting for repairs or diagnosis, suggest removing serpentine belt temporarily and starting to verify the noise is not associated w/ items driven by accessory belt; AC, alternator, PS pump.

Noise suggested to me a bad bearing sound.

good luck

 

Well the noise came back louder today. I am going to schedule to have it looked at. The noise is coming from near the rear area of the engine. Oil level is good as well and I checked for leaks.

You can faintly hear the noise in the background. It sound like a murrrrrr type of sound.

 

Oh one additional thing I found was that while the drive belt has no cracks it is near the end of the tensioner range. I am going to replace the belt but I don't think that could be contributing to this noise.

 

I got an update from the dealer. They were unable to hear the noise. I asked for them to warm up the car and then place it in drive to see if they hear it.

Will be getting AAA just as a backup as I think something major is going to fail soon.

 

The dealer called back and was able to diagnose it to the alternator. Hopefully that will be it.

 

Issue is fixed. It is too soon for this to be failing at 75,000 miles. I have opened a case with Acura and am asking for some goodwill on the failed part.

 

My 2007 RDX just had to have the alternator replaced with a little over 80K miles. I had more of a whirling noise but when it went, I got a heck of a light show and jerky driving - electronic clutches don't like when the alternator dies!

 

Yeah I wouldn't have thought to look at that because every other Honda I have owned has gone over 140k miles without needing a new one. On our 99 Accord it has 108k miles and still doesn't need it.

I guess with everything else Honda is cutting corners on reliability.

 

My old 92 Prelude had 150 on it, original alternator. My 04 TSX has 165k on it, original alternator. My 91 NSX has 110k on it, original alternator.

So, I still have good luck.