hondaS2001

I dont think this is a major deal but its just something ive noticed for a few months now...... Once the car is fully warm, (3 bars + 30min of driving) if I open the hood and put my ear up to the valve cover, when i give it a little throttle I can hear a tap or tick sound for like a split second and it dissapears. It happens almost anywhere i put my head on the valve cover, more so in other areas, but if I am holding the throttle at 2k rpms, its not making the noise, the second I give it light throttle it makes that sound then dissapears. If I try this at higher rpms then the sound of the motor deafens this, does this sound like normal valve noise? Possibly valves that are a TAD bit loose? Thanks in advance. P.s its not really audible unless I put my ear right by the valve cover.

RACER

It is probably normal rocker arm noise. If you can only hear this when your ear is against the v/c, then your valve train is quiet.

This is normal for engines that have overhead camshafts as the rockers run directly off the camshaft lobes.

As a matter of fact, if I sit in my car while idling, if I listen carefully, I can hear what you describe. If the hood is up, then I can really hear the rockers.

This totally normal.

EDIT: I didn't mention that this ticking is not in rhythm. It kinda comes and goes randomly.

I bet almost every single S does this. You might consider a valve adjustment, but it will still make the ticking sound. Mine made the sound when it was brand new.

hondaS2001

yea, mines not in rythym, kinda like tick tick tick.....tick tick...... tick....... tick tick tick tick etc etc... My question is this though, I know it wouldnt need a valve adjustment just off this noise, but would the valve adjustment cure this or not even? I have always known honda valve trains to be quite noisy even with perfectly adjusted valves, rocker contact will have to produce some sort of noise.

also.... I can only really hear it when im in the car if the windows are up and I push in the clutch to take the bearing noise away from the tranny, and most other people describe it as ticking but I always thought it sounded like tapping rather than ticking, do you think it could be described as tapping?

xviper

Could also be a noisy timing chain tensioner.

s2000turbo

Same thing happen to my car, mine was a combination of both, defective timing chain tensioner and valve adjustment

jeffbrig

I would advocate adjusting the valves if you've never done it before. Especially if you can do it yourself, or with the help of some local members. The south florida group recently had a tech/teaching day where we adjusted the valves on 6 cars. I even did two cars (mine and Bigpurp's) with no prior adjusting experience. Interestingly, we found that on every car the valves tended to be at or a little past the loose end of Honda's spec. We adjusted everything to the minimum spec clearance to get slightly more valve lift and duration. The general consensus afterward was that the cars idled smoother and the valvetrains were a little quieter. I thought (and still think) that the engine feels stronger on the small cams since the adjustment.

My engine used to make what I described as a faint "fluttering" sound. It seemed to come from the right side of the engine, but was only noticed when the top was down at 3k rpm. I had pretty much discounted valvetrain noise as a source. Imagine my surprise when I found that one of the exhaust valves measured .013" clearance, when .010" is the maximum spec. Two months after the adjustment, I have yet to detect the sound again.

Look at it this way: if the adjustment makes the noise go away, great! If it doesn't, you've at least performed a valuable maintenance activity. Give it a shot!

BTW, don't pay someone you don't know personally to adjust the valves. It is a tedious process, and only someone who really cares about your car will take the time to do it right.

Jeff

hondaS2001

thanks guys...... s2000turbo, how did you find out it was indeed the tensioner which was bad?

efthimios

[QUOTE]Originally posted by hondaS2001
thanks guys...... s2000turbo,

hondaS2001

to xviper or whoever else would know, if it is indeed the timing chain tensioner, would there be a way to kind of "cheat" as to replacing it? I replaced the manual tensioner on the 99' prelude I had and it was a PAIN, so I would not want to go through something like that again..... are there any other symptoms to this going bad? I cant really hear thatnoise when i listen for it by the timing area, only when i listen on the middle of thevalve cover....

RACER

Maybe the valves are out of adjustment. Adjust the valves and see if it gets quieter. If it gets quieter then the problem is solved.

Like I stated earlier, these engines make a little bit of sound around the rocker cover. My car made the sound when it was brand new.