My TL makes a pinging noise when accelerating or driving at low speeds around town. The pinging noise sounds similar to what it would sound like if you were to drive an old car up a steep hill without giving it enough gas. The noise is definitely more prevalent after the car is warmed up and has been driven around a bit. Anyone else run into this issue?

 

what octane gas are you using?

regular octane 87 will cause pinging in the engine.

 

I've never put less than 91 for fear of destroying my motor. I did change gas stations, in case my regular place had bad gas, but that didn't do the trick. Pinging remains... no matter where I get my gas. I should have mentioned that this has been going on for over two years and Acura Certified Techs have not been able to figure it out.

 

From the March 2006 ACura Service News:

Pinging or Buzzing Between
1,500 and 2,500 RPM
Got a ’03–05 MDX or ’04–05 TL in your shop that
pings, buzzes, or whistles under load with the
engine running at 1,500 to 2,500 rpm? The culprit
could be the intermediate shaft bearing heat
shield. This noise can change with engine
temperature and may be intermittent. Sometimes,
you can hear it only when the engine is cold.
If you suspect the heat shield is making all the
hubbub, try loosening the mounting bolts,
pushing the heat shield as far to the left or right as
you can (the direction doesn’t matter, you just
want to anchor the shield against the bolts), then
tightening the bolts to 21 lb-ft. Be careful,
though, not to overtighten the bolts; if you do,
you could strip them. The heat shield is made to
move around a little bit even when it’s securely
bolted in place, but anchoring it against the bolts
and tightening them will cut down on the
possibility of rattles.
Test-drive the vehicle, and listen for the noise. If
you can’t hear the noise, you’re done. If you can
still hear the noise, hook up a STEELMAN®
ChassisEAR™ diagnostic tool (T/N JSP-SM06600)
and test-drive the vehicle again to track down the
source.

 

Thanks, I will bring this to the mechanics attention. Maybe this issue applies to 2007 TL's like mine and not just ’03–05 MDX's or ’04–05 TL's. Would love it if my beautiful car quit sounding like a hunk of junk.

 

It's most likely real pinging or detionation. These cars are notorious for it. Make sure you mechanic monitors knock retard on the scanner. A quick check for youself would be half a tank of 100 octane unleaded. If it's detonation it will go away with the high octane. If it's detonation Acura will deny it and say they don't hear it. There's a long thread on this issue. You're pretty much on your own to fix it or to run high octane all the time.

 

a little of topic but did you ever get to replace that thermostat that made you believe it was the culprit to similar issues being talked about here .... ?

 

I have a 2004 Tl and I might have the same issue as yours...I usually hear it in the mornings when I start it when I drive pretty slow for about 5min, but the sound even shows up while my car is just parked. The dealer told me it was the pulley and tensioner and when I replaced that, I found out that they were wrong. It sort of sounds like your rolling a rusty wheel or something right?

 

Where is the intermediate shaft bearing heat shield located?

 

Fixed my ping/heat shield with Harley Davidson rocker gaskets. 1 on each side of heat shield when I bolted it back up (2 PER BOLT) and NO MORE NOISE!

 

get under the car, and it's the shaft connecting the passenger's side axle to the transmission. The shield is on the wheel (vs. the transmission) end side of the shaft.

you can get access to 2 bolts without taking the exhaust pipe out.

loosen the one towards the drivers side and pull the heat shield towards the drivers side (it slides about 1 cm). re-tighten the bushing/bolt. Fixed my "ping" right up.