Hey gang,

I bought my 2005 TL a few months ago and then realized it has a "knock", sounds like coming from bottom end of the motor.
Otherwise, the car drives perfectly, pulls fine and only has 113k miles on it.
I wonder if it's a damaged crank bearing or something... Anyways, it really drives fantastic, but just can hear this noise.

This is not my video, but it really sounds identical.


Guy at dealer told me it's rare, but he's seen a few with the exact same problem. A tech there said his has been doing it for a couple of years with no other adverse effects. He has way more miles than me and consensus is that any fix would be extremely expensive so just change oil frequently and keep driving it. I'm just curious how widespread this problem is and how many here have this same issue?

 

not as widespread as they're making you believe....
the J-series engine came out in 1996 and have had millions sold. just saying

 

jesus that car sounds like absolute shit

 

didnt listen to the video....but if you say it sounds like shit, it must mean previous owner didnt take care of car.....

and an engine swap is CHEAP, OP......
since these engines are PLENTIFUL you can find them for less than $600

swap the engines and you're good to go.

 

Justn, srsly just listen to him start it up

 

im bout to leave the office. but will do when i get home

 

Crazy someone can get the dealer to admit they have seen this a few times, but none have ever heard of the cracked dashboards being common?

 

^

 

Yeah, sounds bad, but the message that I was given was that I can probably drive it without issue for years the way it is. Which is what I'll likely do. BTW, it runs perfectly. No performance issues.
It's my daily beater / commuter and I bought the car cheap.
I commute 100 miles per day.

I've told myself that if I end up with a much shorter commute, I'll likely sell this one and buy a cleaner version of the same car. I'm pretty happy with the TL besides the obvious concerning engine knock.

 

but you dont know whats causing it so how can you say that you can probably drive it without issues for years to come??

You dont know whats going on internally and clearly its not a normal noise so something is indeed wrong.

 

just watched the vid....thats exhaust leak

 

of course you can drive it forever and ever and ever like that, it's just exhaust gases escaping somewhere, maybe at a weld or missing bolts

 

<-----------------------my car sounds like that, sometimes when I dont tighten down bolts or a hole develops in exhaust pipe

 

Really? I think we are listening to two different things. One sound on his car sounds like he has a modified exhaust or louder, but the other is the "knocking" sound coming from motor area.

If it's just exhaust leak that is causing that noise, I will be relieved, but that knocking sound I'm pretty sure if coming from deep down in the motor.



Any threads on this I should be looking at?

 

Yea I'm talking about the exhaust noise/rumble. The TL isn't suppose to sound like truck , its a luxury sedan.

You can certainly hear the knock when the camera gets to the engine. They are 2 different noises

 

Take the serpentine belt off and start the car to see if any difference.
There have been cracked harmonic balances that can cause the problem.

 

I'm headed out of town tomorrow, but will take a video of the noise when I get home and try to post it here.

 

It does sound like a rod knock but you probably need to get it up in the air and get an ear on it with a stethoscope or a screwdriver to your ear while on the oil pan. A car doesn't necessarily need to be beaten on to have this issue. My parents 02 3.5RL created a rod knock like this but even worse and it came suddenly out of nowhere. Car only had about 100k miles. The C35 isn't known for this either. My father who was in his late 70s had the car for years, obviously never beat on it, and I changed his oil with Mobil 1 every 5k miles.

 

Okay, here's my promised little video clip I took when I got home tonight. Sure sounds like "rod knock" to me, but would be great if it's a harmonic balancer or something else.

Any thoughts?

This is on a perfectly well maintained 113K miles 2005 Acura TL.

 

not that i'm a pro at diagnosis, but could this be from any belt tensioners? timing or serpentine?

 

@NSX_Lvr, you should do this AND only this. no need to take the vid

i agree with turbonut, ive seen the crank pulley come apart and it does sound like that

 

Broken crank pulley, failing belt tensioner (either accessory or timing belt), could be a failing waterpump, could be a bad purge canister, etc.

 

Thanks guys... I'm on holiday in Florida for a week, but will check it out when I get back. The PO did a full timing belt job and water pump about 10k miles ago.

I'll investigate further when I get back.

 

does the knock increase in speed and loudness with rpm?

 

Alex, I'll take "Over torqued auto-tensioner" for $1000....

or maybe the shim issue on the 2005's??

 

Not sure about the knock, but between the 13-16 second mark in your video it sounds like you have a timing belt rubbing on the idler pulley like nfnsquared referred to above. It's a warbling/chirping noise and if you download TSB 08-031: Chirp From the Timing Belt Area there is a video clip with sound that sounds very similar.

 

+1 on the TB tensioner.

 

I have had a few J series motors and never had one die... they are pretty tough, if it was rod knock it would increase with RPM and you would notice other things like metal in your oil filter when you cut it open.

 

I'm told it's loose exhaust valves by the experts. Seems like I need a valve adjustment. Not the best news, but certainly could have been much worse.
Might do it myself, but not sure it's worth it. Still doing research. Sounds like it isn't super urgent that I need to do anything.

 

Never heard of J32 exhaust valves getting loose, only tighter.....

 

They said valves. I guess I assumed exhaust valves. But if you listen to my video, what do you think?

 

Good luck with the valve adjustment - my TL had the exact same noise before I got rid of it - but I think a lot of people have tried adjusting the valves to fix this (and similar) noises and it didn't make any difference. I adjusted the valves too. No change.
Usually the intake valves get looser and the exhaust valves get tighter.
It could be piston slap. Does the noise go away or quiet down when the engine warms up?

 

Yeah, I think someone else had mentioned it could be piston slap. What causes that? I thought these motors were built to such high tolerances that problem would be rare.

It's dead quiet when I first start up the car, but makes noise when at idle once it's warmed up. I don't hear it when driving or from inside the car, but audible from outside at idle.

I can rev it and doesn't seem to get any louder or more pronounced with revs... Engine noise kinda drowns out the "clunk". Listen to the YouTube video I posted a few posts up.

 

My guess is going to be that all mass-produced engines these days are going to be built to approximately the same tolerances. That being said, your piston rings will wear over time, and there are lots of reports of some of the V8 engines made by GM having piston slap issues from the time the vehicle is new. The cause of piston slap is that the piston is slightly undersized so it rocks back and forth inside the cylinder, but often this noise will go away when the engine is warm and the piston expands. Sometimes it would take a while to warm up - the engine itself will get up to temperature very quickly but in my case it took significantly longer for noise to disappear. I was also able to hear the noise quite well while driving the vehicle.

I first noticed the noise one night when I had my hood open and engine idling to help jump start a friend's car. It was much quieter then. Two months later my #5 spark plug blew out of the cylinder head (111K miles, 9 years old) and I did the fix with the thread repair kit. Engine went from consuming no oil to a quart every 3000 miles, and I drove it for about another 9 months/10K miles before getting rid of it. New plugs and adjusting the valves didn't help after the plug blow-out. And after that incident I refused to get the timing belt service done.

While you're in there checking the valves see if the bolts holding down the rocker arm shafts/camshaft bearings are loose. If the spark plug can come loose, maybe those are coming loose too. Who knows.

Did you try removing the serpentine belt yet to rule out any accessories?

I always had the dealer change the oil on schedule so I'm fairly confident the right oil and filters were being used. My TL also never had a short trip in its life - it got nice and warm every single trip. Premium fuel (from different gas stations) up until the very end too.

 

What doesn't make sense to me is that if it were "valve slap" it would be louder or more pronounced when the engine is cold.

My symptom is the exact opposite... The engine is quiet until it warms up, then it starts making noise.

 

Resurecting an old thread here

My 2006 Tl makes the exact noise as described above. Dead quiet upon start up.

Car has 138000 kms or about 80000 miles.

Its been doing this for 1.5 years. I’ve had the valves adjusted. I’ve been told it’s piston slap yet it’s quiet on start up and develops between 20 seconds and 2 minutes later depending on outside temperature. I’ve taken the filter apart 3 times. No metal whatsoever.

Any advice?

 

Not sure why it posted underlined. My apologies.

 

horder can you monitor live OBD data? I would check VTEC data like timing advance

 

I will be taking it to my friends place who has the ability to do that. What are you thinking in regards to that?

Here is a picture of latest filter media. Wix filter. 4 Months. 5000 miles.