Over the past couple months my TSX has been making a loud clatter/grinding noise immediately after start up. This only seems to occur after the car has been sitting for a bit of time. It seems to only do it after sitting overnight in the garage or sitting in the parking lot at work all day. My first assumption was it may be an oil starvation problem, perhaps in the valvetrain or something? At first I thought turning the key to the "on" position would allow the oil pump to prime and would help, it did at first, but now nothing helps and it does it every time no matter what.

I check my oil regularly and have changed it once since I've owned the car. I changed it at 20% oil life the first time and it currently has 30% oil life.

I'm brining it into service tomorrow, but wondered if anyone else has heard of this issue or has any ideas what it could be?

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dave

 

Priming the *fuel* pump with the key won't do anything for startup clatter.

Any OHC engine (and some OHV's) will have a momentary clatter in the valvetrain if the car sits for an extended period of time. When they sit for a long time the oil pump will lose it's prime and the lost motion assemblies (OHC) or lifters (OHV) will bleed down resulting in clatter until the *oil* pump primes and pressure resolves the issue.

I wouldn't sweat it and I don't know what you could do about it other than installing an accusump primer system, which wouldn't be cost effective. To reduce damage, I'd recommend a synthetic oil of your choice.

 

Thank you for your feedback, I wasn't sure if turning the key to the on position primed only the fuel pump or if it helped with oil pressure as well. It seemed to help sometimes, but it also could have been a coincidence. The car is at the dealership, hopefully I will be able to get an answer as to why it might be happening.

I normally convert all of my vehicles to synthetic, but this is a lease and didn't think it would be warranted or cost effective.

 

The clatter & wear isn't good, but, yeah, it's not like you're purposely damaging it, it's just what it does when it sits.

 

My only concern is that it is not a subtle noise. In fact, its quite loud, and frankly, embarrassing. I wish I would have taken a video of it to post.

 

It can be loud and long. I had a 93 Lincoln Mark VIII company car and it rattled like hell every morning. A third car in the household is an 02 I35, after sitting for 10 days it rattled like mad for...had to have been 15 seconds or more. =O

A slighhtly thicker oil might help a bit.

 

how's the service??? what did they find out??