faint ticking noise from under engine cover when engines runs ??timing or valves ?

[86accordlx]

1992 honda accord lx , 340 000 km's on it.

I hear this faint ticking noise when engine it runs..at idle or giving it gas, under engine cover, when i feel it by hand. Is it the normal ticking noise from a honda ?
matter of fact,
2 months ago, I changed gasket seal from engine cover and the o-ring seal in the between engine and distributor part. leaking oil in that area solved it ! great.

could the timing be off, i notched it on the metal to align it back on the same place... ???

or could it be valve lash needing adjustment, how can i tell what it is ?

[NAiL05]

How are your oil levels. A soft ticking is something all hondas do they are notorious for that. If its bad you can try a valve adjustment and see if that takes out the sound.

[86accordlx]

thanks nail05,

could it be so that i just didn't hear it , when purchasing the car ?
now i hear it , now months later ??

I'll check oil level, and when should i be concerned if noise become louder, i guess right ?

[danieldavis]

my vars doing the same thing and its the valves

[Accord R33]

could be your injectors

[Hdeuceaccord]

its your valves, one thing you can do is get thicker oil.

[CustomLowz]

Sounds like the notorious Honda tick.

[Akira_kj]

Sounds like a normal honda tick, but then again I got a package from iraq that had a faint ticking. At first I thought it was the notorious honda tick, but it turned out to be a bomb and I died.

The moral of the story is to ignore it. Hondas have a loose tolernce in the valve train. Like AK47s it is a advantage to have loose tolerences. If you dont like the sound have it adjusted, might not even go away. Its about a 50% chance that adjusting the valve lash would actualy stop the ticking.

[owequitit]

Don't be surprised if it is a little louder for a while after you have it adjusted.

There is always a little bit of tick in a healthy Honda valvetrain. Partly because of the way they work, and partly because there is no hydraulic adjustment.

[Accord13&BA4]

LMFAO, Akira_kj is off the hook! hahaha!


A wise car person will do valve adjustment once a year, but hey, who is wise nowadays?
...Well, i consider owequitit pretty wise...

If you are going to tackle this yourself, make sure you have the proper tools and the online manual that tells you how...
.010" for the Intake and .012" Exhaust is how mine came out when i did it earlier in the year.

You can live with it if the "ticking" isn't THAT loud. Everyone is right though, Honda motors tend to "tick" like this, even though there is no need to do an adjustment. Perhaps you can shoot a little video/sound clip on HOW loud it really is?

good luck!

[owequitit]

LMFAO, Akira_kj is off the hook! hahaha!


A wise car person will do valve adjustment once a year, but hey, who is wise nowadays?
...Well, i consider owequitit pretty wise...

If you are going to tackle this yourself, make sure you have the proper tools and the online manual that tells you how...
.010" for the Intake and .012" Exhaust is how mine came out when i did it earlier in the year.

You can live with it if the "ticking" isn't THAT loud. Everyone is right though, Honda motors tend to "tick" like this, even though there is no need to do an adjustment. Perhaps you can shoot a little video/sound clip on HOW loud it really is?

good luck!

Thanks!


The actual inspection interval is 15K miles. They don't necessarily need adjusted every time, if they are in spec, but if you run the car really hard, there is always the chance they will need it more than every 15k.

If you monitor your gas mileage carefully, it will typically stay steady and then start to increase noticably. It will increase to a point and then suddenly nose dive. That is usually a good indication it is time.

You will notice more low end torque with them properly adjusted as well as smoother running, and a healthier sound from the intake/exhaust, not to mention better mileage than if they are way out.

If you don't rape it like I do, you will probably be ok at an inspection interval of 15K miles.

Extreme heat cycling, such as in an engine, causes a phenomenon known as creep. Basically every time you heat metal it expands (like pretty much everything except water). When it cools back down, it goes back down to its original size, mostly. Over time, the metal will actually grow a little bit, resulting in tighter valve clearances.

That is mainly why they require periodic adjustment. It is also one of many reasons that lots of short driving puts the car in the "severe" maintenance category. The valves are heating up and cooling down a lot, but you aren't travelling as many miles, which in turn makes adjustment more frequent in terms of miles driven.

It seems to get a little worse with mileage too, which makes sense I guess.

[Scubasteve_dan]

My car aslo ticks, it ticks for like the first 5 minuts of running and then stops. When I'm parked I don't hear it, it's only when I push on the gas while driving. I hear it the most between 2,000 and 2,500 rpm's , after that it gets drowned out by the lovely sound of the engine . I have thicker(10w-30) oil in there and that doesn't change the ticking. Could it just be knocking caused by poor fuel atomization? I'll put some good fuel injector cleaner through it and use premium gas, maybe that'll help. What do you guys think?

[Scubasteve_dan]

My engine ticks a little between 1,500 and 3,000 rpm's after I first start it and when the car is in gear, for example after I get off work then drive home I hear it. But if I let it warm up for like 5-10 minutes like I did today before school then it doesn't tick. Also I notice that it's not accelerating like it was last year when I got it, would a valve adjustment quite the engine down and maybe restore that lost power? How much are they? $100 $200?

[Fzzy285]

check your belts, mine were falling apart on the pulleys and it caused a ticking noise, just a thought.

[JPsAccordSE]

My engine ticks a little between 1,500 and 3,000 rpm's after I first start it and when the car is in gear, for example after I get off work then drive home I hear it. But if I let it warm up for like 5-10 minutes like I did today before school then it doesn't tick. Also I notice that it's not accelerating like it was last year when I got it, would a valve adjustment quite the engine down and maybe restore that lost power? How much are they? $100 $200?

Mine does that too, but also when its in park. I was wondering about this too.