Two Saturdays ago, 10 minutes from home, my wife's '07 Civic (bought new) w/ 18k started whining when accelerating slowly from a stop. Only noticed it in 1st gear and it didn't whine every time. Even with this new noise, the transmission shifted normally.

Took it to the dealer and the service writer and mechanic swore this was normal even though this whining only just started. Of course we were skeptical, but since Honda warrants the powertrain for 5/60, we left feeling that we had given them a chance to avoid what we suspect could be an expensive fix.

Any ideas?

 

In November, the dealer said he heard the sound and said it was normal. Now, three months later, it's noisier, so we decided to take it back to the dealer to have them look at it again.

The verdict: the steering rack needs to be replaced. The seals may have leaked, etc.