rxrxrx

When accelerating into highway speed, when the tachometer hits above 5000 rpm and before it shifts to second gear, I hear a loud crackling noise coming from the passanger dash area.

This problem also occurrs when 2nd gear shifting to 3rd above 5000 rpm. This is under normal accelerating conditions. I can also reproduce this noice if you put it in neutral and rev it above 5000 rpm (this is not good for the car but done to demonstrate to the dealer). The dealer spent 1 week and could not figure out this problem. They claim to call ACS and stated that it is a normal characteristic of the car. I had a RL loaner and my friend also has a RL....Both those cars do not have this problem.

Anyone out there have the loud crackling noise above 5000rpm? If fixed, how? Thanks!

bkw

What kind of gas are you using? Could be pinging and detonation at the VTEC engagement point, but I highly doubt it as it appears that Honda had tuned the RL to run a bit rich.

Is it a metallic noise like metal on metal? Loose heatshield? I hope it's this rather than detonation.

The again, it could be perfectly normal. I'm curious, have you owned a VTEC equiped Honda before?

texas_acura

I experienced the same noise in my 2005 RL right after I bought it about 4 months ago. However, I noticed that it wouldn't always do it. It only made the nose above 4500-5000 rpm and only in first or second gear but not every time that I went past that engine speed range in first or second gear. At first I too thought that it was coming from a rattle in the dash and then I realized it was actually eminating from the engine compartment.

So, the next time I was in for service I asked that they take a look at it. When I picked it up, they said it was "normal" and that it was characteristic of the VTEC. I told them that I had owned several Honda/Acura (1994 Accord EX Coupe, 2002 Accord, 2004 TL), products with VTEC and had never experienced any such noises with any of them. Thinking that they were feeding me some BS I said, "Let's hop in the 2006 demo and see if it does it." They agreed and off we went. Sure enough it did it right off the bat. Needless to say I was shocked that the 2006 demo did it too.

I talked to the actual tech after that and I explained that I was not as concerned as before since the demo did it too, but I didn't necessarily like my $50,000 car making those kind of "unrefined" noises. Furthermore, I told him I was puzzled why it did not do it consistently. He said that depending on load, ambient temperature, etc. the VTEC will operate differently, not variably like iVTEC, but differently. Since then I have noticed that when I usually, not always, slowly spool up to RPMs about 4500 or so I don't get the noise, but when I drive aggresively (i.e. heavy load) at those RPMs in first and second gear I do usually get the noise.

Kinda long, but I hope this helps. I thought that it was BS at first, but I kinda buy it now...