Hello fellas my 2004 Acura TL is making a tapping noise on cold starts in the morning and goes away after it warms up but it doesnt do it all the time. Just started doing this about 3 weeks ago. Any ideas?

 

mines does the same, can anyone hime in on this please?

 

Mine does the same thing too. I have 162,000 miles but drives fine aftrr it warms up

 

Anyone????

 

Damn..

Can't really make of it.. first though would be exhaust manifold leak or could be rod bearing.

Oil level is good? have you try changing out the oil and see if it's get better?

 

please, all u you gearheads out there point us in the right direction, cause i wanna get that fixed

 

start it up without the drive belt in place and see if the noise goes away.

 

Does anyone have any idea????

 

Mine does the same thing. I never popped the hood, but yours sure sounds louder than mine. If I have the car in the garage overnight, and its sitting at 60ºF+ its fine. Parked outside overnight around 50-40 and it makes a fairly loud rattle/knocking noise like yours. It didn't get much below 40 here yet, so it might be louder when the temps start to really drop.

It appears to be based on engine temp 100%, since it stays there until the water temp starts to creep towards 100. Until its warm, it continues to make the noise.

I'll try and record a video under the hood next time its sitting outside overnight.

 

I did a little reading and it might be either the timing belt tensioner or the belt tensioner not sure which would cause that. Heres a youtube video showing someone else Acura making the same noise and he comments on the bottom that he had one of the tensioners replace and the noise went away.

 

as i mentioned before, remove the drive belt and see if it makes noise. If it still does make noise, then you've eliminated the drive belt tensioner and related pulleys.

I'm also working under the assumption you all that are well past 100k have had your timing belt replaced.

 

Yes I am at 158K and I dont think the timing belt has been replaced.Also remove just the alternator belt and turn the car to see if its the tensioner belt/pully??

 

ah, well try the drive belt removal. If that doesnt work, remove the front timing belt cover and inspect the belt. If it's oily or glossy looking, it's probably because of the hydraulic tensioner for the timing belt leaking oil all over it (and probably was never replaced)

Could be that due to all the oil leaked out of the timing belt tensioner, it no longer has a dampening effect and is chattering with the tensioner pulley.

 

Holy crap OP, that's loud! Does it happen to go away if you rev to above 3000 rpm?

And I'd second ez12a's recommendation to at least rule out the drive belt/drive belt tensioner.

 

Pulled the belt off and started her up and now the noise is gone on a cold start.

 

Flex the auto-tensioner a few times before you put the belt back on and then see it the noise returns...

If it does, it sure sounds like it's the AT

 

so for those of you who tried to remove the belt, can u confirm that it was the tentioner thaty was making all that noise?

 

X2


mine is doing the same thing. i just replaced my auto tensoner on the outside of the motor (drive belt) and now is making that noise. could it be a bad brand new AT or could it be the hydrylic tensoner?

 

please update guys?

 

mine did the same thing until after my timing belt service. My car is quiet on cold start after changing my timing belt and tensioner

 

Started my car and the noise was there, so i immidiatly turned car off. Then i took off my serpintine belt and proceded to start my car again, noise was gone. I have narrowed it down to be a bad auto tensioner. Going to replace it again this week...just did the damn thing two weeks ago.

 

u guys are the shit thank you... will get that fixed this weekend

 

So this is not the power steering pump problem?
Saw in another thread, someone suggested oring change
Can anyone confirm

 

^two different and distinct noises...ones a whine and the other is a tapping

 

i do have the tapping noise,
however the noise gets louder whenever i turn my steering.
so i suspect it might be related to the o-ring too?