you take the handle of the screw driver and hit everything you can in the engine bay.





no you put the metal end on areas of the engine and put your ear to the plastic end and you can hear better whats happening in the area you're touching.

 

Could be the infamous cam chain auto tensioner. I've replced mine twice. Take a long screw driver and place it against on of the bolts located below the vtec module on the left side of the head. Put your ear to the handle of the screw driver and maybe rev the engie slightly to see it the sound is louder there than say the valve cover.

 

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.ph...pic=211073&hl=
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.ph...pic=226525&hl=
here's a few threads that may be helpful

 

Pardon the spelling im at work on the phone with a customer while typing this...my bad.

 

let us know what's going on....it's under warranty so no need to worry too much......

 

An 04 with 11000 miles totally under warranty I think that i'd drive to dealer.

 

I'd be willing to bet the dealer will give the famous line, "Oh that's just the valves. It's normal.". I have a little bit of a valve tap when the car is cold. It's usually at idle to just about (maybe 2000 RPM) and then it seems to stop (or maybe gets masked by other noises). It's definitely coming from under the valve cover. I've had it for a while now and have driven the car for thousands or miles since I first heard it. I take it to redline every day. I believe it needs a valve adjustment. These engines are notorious for having valves out of spec right from factory, nevermind 12k miles down the road. I'd like to adjust them myself to save some $$$, but it may be abit out of my realm. I'm assuming this is not covered under warranty. Does anyone know what a valve adjustment would cost?

 

can I ask what a misadjusted valve does besides just make a noise? And how out of alignment do they need to be before damage/loss of performance happens? I would assume that since they have a valve adjustment at 100k that this is not something honda thinks needs work on often. So maybe a ticking valve is not perfect but perhaps it isn't doing anything wrong other than making a little noise?

Someone with some knowledge of valves and adjustments... please fill me in.

 

I can't tell you how far out of spec they have to be before they do damage, but I can tell you that as little as .002" can make a very noticeable impact on performance.

 

I can also tell you that this better be covered under warrenty. There is NO reason that they should already be out of spec with under 12,000 miles, ya know?

There is no way that the sound is a normal sound; to be honest, it sounds like complete shit when its driving and idling