Cold weather problem

When i start my car after it's been sitting for a while, and when the temp is below freezing, my engine makes a rapid "tapping" noise. It goes away in less than a minute, but it's still annoying.

I replaced the plug wires and even filled up with 89 octane in order to stop the knock, but it's still there when I start up in the morning.

The wierd part about it is it only happens when it's below freezing, it was in the 40s yesterday and I heard nothing, today it was about 25 and it started tapping/knocking again. Can someone help me out with this?

When you first start up a car, all the oil is at the bottom of the pan and the engine is dry. In less than a minute it's all circulated up to the head. What weight oil do you use? For Winter you should go with 5w30, and 10w30 in the summer. You also may just be low on oil.. Check it and get back to me.

I run 5W30 full synthetic year round, and the oil level is correct. I know that conventional oil takes a while to warm up, but synthetic doesn't thicken like regular oil does when it gets cold, which makes my problem all the more complicated.

It will still take a minute to get up to the valves. It did this (in the cold) on my 97 and 00 Civics when I had them but not the cars I have now. Maybe it's just a Honda thing you'll have to live with.

The same thing happens to my 00’ EX when I start up in the morning, & I also run the expensive synthetics. How many miles to you have on the car?

103,000, I asked some of my friends who have Honda's and they all have the same tapping sound in the cold. I guess it's just a normal "honda noise".

so far my teg hasn't ticked at all and it's been cold here.....

I think @ about 100,000 mi you could use a valve adjustment; I’m not 100% sure. Someone with a little more knowledge please chime in here & correct me if I’m wrong. :dunno:

has anyone come up with a solution to this problem or is it just a honda thing.. Today was the first time my car has ever done it. I have a 96 ex
that is just about to hit 100,000 miles.....

I had a dealer adjust my valves at 65k, because it had never been done; I believe the valve adjustments were recommended at 7.5k, 45k, and 100k (according to a Google search, not what the dealer said).

you're supposed to adjust the valve lash on Hondas...that is probably the ticking noise you're hearing.....

if it's a hollow slapping kind of noise instead of ticking it could be piston slap.

Clean your feul injection and use quick-start-spary. Mind is EX2000 at 130,000 Miles. it's better after i did those.