We know that, after turning off the engine, the "tick tick" sound from the engine is normal (from cat cooling down?); however, I heard a similar sound from the engine during hard uphill acceleration today. Is this an ignition retard problem, bad gas, or what?

Thanks.

 

Seriously it could be #4 cylinder failure.

My engine made a ticking noise.

Next day it blew up.

 

During constant speed cruising or revving the engine in neutral, there's no ticking sound. It's only under hard acceleration when the sound can be heard. BTW, the ticking sound "ticks" much faster than that caused by the cat cooling down.

 

Oops, read your post wrong

 

how is your oil level?

 

and how steep was the hill and how fast were you driving?

 

The oil level was right at the full mark (checked cold). The hill was quite steep (HWY 1), so the engine was under heavy load. The sound was most pronounced in third gear going up from 5K RPM or so.

 

I've just read this thread and then dug down to the thread on your engine replacement, dhess.
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...?threadid=75007
and
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...?threadid=78621

I didn't know that a bad main bearing could cause these problems, but it certainly looks that way. How did it go? I'll look for a follow-up thread from you.

 

Things are not looking much better.

An engine inspection by an engineer from a reputable independent party. (RACQ - Royal Automotive Club of Queensland) arrived to the conclusion that a loose #2 big end bearing cap retaining bolt was the cause of the engine failure. i forwarded this report to Honda Australia.

They are saying that this bolt was loose/failed because the engine was overreved. WTF?
The valve train is in perfect condition and a CEL has never been triggered.


Furthermore Honda Australia had their own independent inspection done. Guess what?

They are refusing to forward the results to me. Doesn't it seem like they are hiding something?

You can let the Australian customer relations manager know your feelings on this matter by emailing him. steveb@honda.com.au

 

I think the clicking sound in my car was caused by something else because I rode in a fairly new '02 the other day and it made the same noise.

I think this is what happened:

http://www.type2.com/library/engineg/ping.htm