Slight knocking sound for first few minutes driving

[samjaynes]

Within the last week or two, every morning or evening when I begin to drive my car, it will make a slight, but noticeable knocking/ticking sound. It doesn't make the sound when at idle, or at a slow progression, but when you begin to add pressure to the accellerator.

Yet after a few minutes of driving, it goes away.

98 Honda Civic LX Sedan

Any suggestions....

Thank you for your time in advance...

SJ

[lorunner]

Maybe piston slap or loose valves. Remember when metal heats it expands so thats why it gets quieter as you drive.

[exman98]

is it bad to drive your car hard when the engine is still cold then.

[97CivicX]

Originally Posted by exman98

is it bad to drive your car hard when the engine is still cold then.

it's not bad but its not good either. i think if you let your car sit for a minute or two and dont redline within the first 3 minutes of driving your car will be warmed up and you can beat on it all you want. but i've never heard of anything going wrong with a car solely because someone drove it hard from the start. look at people with automatics. lazy fucks just turn it on and go and wonder why the heat isnt working...

[exman98]

i have noticed that my vtec will not kick in untill its warm though, or atleast i dont hear it. Is the oil pressure related to heat also?

[97CivicX]

more than likely. the oil cant flow as well as it can when heated so it doesnt engage vtec. what kind of oil are you using?

[crownedroyal]

Its sounds like piston slap. Honda stats that piston slap is normal on all there cars for the first minute of operation. Anything more than a minute is considered excessive.

[Geeko]

yeah, i get that, especially when it's cold outside.

last few weeks, damn thing sounds like a diesel when i start it up.

it DOES fade, though... my dad referred to it as the "honda knock"- apparently a normal thing, even for 3-4th gen civics

[samjaynes]

Thanks for your responses... This knocking sound is annoying. I do not beleive that it has to do with warming up, UNLESS, the engine cools down very fast. I drove the car 30 miles on the freeway... pulled in to the store to get a DVD, and got back into the car and it done it again. It lasts for a couple minutes.

Is there something to do to find out if this classifies as the 'Honda Knock' or is something failing? Someone mentioned that Honda's timing belts go out around 90K... I have 88K. What are the symptoms of the timing belt going out?

Thanks in advance for your comments...

Sam