I was head out in the afternoon traffic to go karting when I muted the radio to see where the police sirens were coming from. Just as I did that, I hear this slight ticking coming from behind me (top down). I thought it was just the car behind me but the sound was only audible as I was passing other cars. I got concerned so I left the radio off. The next exit was coming up so I pulled to the slow lane. As I was braking I heard the noise again! At this point I'm going nuts, I pull it out of gear and listen. The ticking was at speed with my car regarding of gear or rpm.

When I get to the karting track I looked at the rear to spot any leaks or nails. Didn't see a thing. Went on with my day and figured I'd drop it off at Honda to check out. On the way back, the ticking got louder to the point that other people were looking at me! At this point I'm thinking the rear diff can't be done at 1200 miles on a 2003! As I pull into the dealership at around 5:59pm, the garage doors were just closing. The service manager hopped out to talk to me and see what I needed. He asked if I checked for nails and I said I did twice. We both looked at the diff to see if there was any leaking.

Culprit: a BOLT lodged in my brand spanking new S02s. The head of the bolt was 2-3cm diameter. In any case, it was a false alarm, but I have a feeling this is going to cost me a new tire. The bolt looks huge.

Anyways, I just had to share my sigh of relief.

Richard

 

i know that scare...i picked up a piece of tape or something once and it drove me crazy all the way home until i realized it as a false alarm...too bad about the s02 though.

 

That sucks, for sure. After having my car for only 4 months, winter time hit and I swapped out the tires. I stored the SO2s (with VERY little mileage on them) in the attic of a friend's apartment. Long story short, they were thrown away by management. On the new set I picked up (RE730s this time) I somehow managed to lodge a rusted boxcutter razor blade within a month of putting them on. Lucky enough they were able to patch it with a mushroom plug (I never knew plugs came that large, and even THEY weren't sure if they could do it). My next set of summer rears the following summer I picked up a screw early on in the season. It looks like my winter tires fair a bit better, but I'll knock on wood, just in case Time to replace the rears again, so hopefully I can get through an entire set without a puncture.

 

I had a very annoying rattle occur after my rear bumper was replaced (was smushed while parked via a hit and run). It sounded like metal on metal and like something wasn't tightened right. Naturally I assumed that the repair job wasn't up to snuff, and the bumper was loose somewhere. Turns out that the metal plate holding down the spare tire was loose. A few turns of the bolt holding it down and the rattle went away

It's easy to assume the worst when an odd noise occurs. And it's a relief when it turns out to be something minor and not a real problem!