1999 Honda Accord Knocking Noise

1999 HONDA ACCORD
153,000 MILES • 6 CYL • FWD • AUTOMATIC
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BPHOUSTON
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I have a '99 Honda Accord with 153K miles. Yesterday when I started my engine there was a brief, 1-2 second knocking sound. Immediately after that the engine sounded fine and even when I revved it up in idle, there was no noise. This happened on 3 seperate occassions.

I have not heard the knocking sound today. Just curious as to what that could have been.

Thanks
Mar 10, 2009 at 5:03 PM
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F4I_GUY
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It may of been piston slap. This can happen when the engine is 'cold' because the piston to cylinder wall clearance is at it's maximum when cold, once the vehicle warms the piston expands and the piston stops rattling away.

This also may be valvetrain noise caused by lack of oil pressure on straight up. Have you checked your oil level? What weight oil are you using?
Mar 10, 2009 at 6:59 PM
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BPHOUSTON
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I live in Texas so the cold was definitely not the problem. I had my oil changed last week and I noticed that the oil level dropped slightly.

I took it back to the shop where they changed my oil to have them take a look. After further inspection, they noticed that they did not replace the washer on the drain plug. There was some leakage from this area. They told me that there's no way to check the oil pressure...that makes me wonder. I just now noticed that they put in 10W 30.

Hopefully it did not cause any serious damage. I have since not heard that noise since a couple of days ago.
Mar 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM
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F4I_GUY
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To check oil pressure you have to remove an oil pressure switch on the back of the engine block and install a mechanical oil pressure gauge. So it's definately not impossible, however it's not a 2 second job either.

Well hopefully everything is fine now. Let us know what happens!
Mar 11, 2009 at 5:46 PM