Hi,

I bought this 2003 Honda Civic last month. The manufacture 3 year warranty is over last november 2006. However, the dealer gave me a 3 month warranty when I bought this vehicle last month.
The vehicle is giving a pinging noise even when I slightly step on the pedal. I'm running premium gas and I'm still getting this sound. Its hardly audible when the windows are closed. But when the window is open you can hear the noise clearly (not very loud, but a mild clicking noise).
I took this vehicle to the dealer. After the mechanic took it to a test drive and looked at the vehiche, he had a good discussion with the representative. The representative later told me that they were not able to hear any sound from the engine. He adviced me to run a higher octane gas, which I'm doing now with NO results. He also asked me to call him if the sound becomes more audible.
What should I do now? Is the dealer liable to fix this when the vehicle is inside the 3 month warranty? Or is this a defect in the vehicle which cannot be fixed? What if the dealer says he is not able to hear any sound again - if I take it back to him? Should I take the vehicle to a Honda dealer to check for the problem? Will it help?
Please advice as this vehicle is a huge investment for me.
shalina

 

Are you sure that the 'clicking' noise is coming from the engine? Honda engines are notorius for haveing "ticking" sounding engines it's natural for them. I'm not trying to say that your wrong or anything just trying to help. What I would do if I were you is to let it idle and listen to the engine with the hood open, see if it is directly coming from the engine block, and also see if it does it in a rythmic pattern or out of place.

Oh, try to find someone else with a honda and listen to there engine idling see if they sound the same. hope that helps some.

 

When I open the hood, I'm not able to hear it in the regular engine noise. However, when the vehicle is moving and when I accelerate, I hear the clicking sound. I will try to again lister under the hood this evening...
My previous vehicle (97 Civic) had similar sound coming, until I moved to 93 octane gas. The sound stopped coming once I moved to the 97 octane gas.
Meanwhile, any ideas or comments are welcome

 

I would also have another mechanic look at it. If the mechanic at the dealer had to talk to the representative first, there's a good chance that he didn't want to let the cat out of the bag if it was pinging.