'05 Honda Element motor noise.....

Folks,

We are having some problems with our Element.

We have an 05 with about 80k miles.

Over the past several months we have noticed more noise coming from the engine when the car is in park. The noise is RPM dependent.

THe serpentine belt appears to be OK, the tensioner position is OK. I put a stethescope on the Pwr str pump, on the tensioner and the alternator. The tensioner was the noisiest of the 3, but I don't know if it is excessive.

Has anyone else seen this problem? How did you diagnose/fix it?

(Text above is from a query to the Element owners forum.)

I replaced the serpentine belt and tensioner. No improvement on the noise issue. All of the accessory units appear to be tight, with no leakage/AC problems/etc.

Does anyone have an insight on this problem?

TIA, Rog

did you run it with the accessory belt off to verify if it is coming from belt drive accessory? Do that, if the noise is still there sans accessory belt, Is that a timing belt engine? Possible the noise is from under the timing cover?

Yeah, I ran the motor briefly with no belt. It seemed quieter..... The motor uses a timing chain.

We had an Element and loved it for about 100IK miles. Try the screwdriver stethoscope trick on the timing housing. If all your accessory drive stuff is quiet, I'm thinking possible chain follower issue.

If you can navigate it, the screwdriver trick should also help you identify if you have an accessory tension pulley or accessory going bad.

Guys,

Just another data point:

Folks,

So I checked the Alldata service at the local library.

Honda claims that there is a resonance/vibration in the balance shaft drive. Resolution is to live with it.

Got a couple of other sources to cross check, but the way they described the problem agrees with what we are hearing....

Rog

The Honda tech bulletins indicate that this is a condition typical to all of the balance shaft 4 cyl motors...

FYI..

In reply to boulder_dweeb: Huh? My Element was an '05. Nothing involving the engine or transmission ever sounded noisy to me. Maybe we were lucky?

So we have a 2005 Element with about 80K miles and not heard that type of noise, just how loud a noise are we talking about? Do you feel a vibration through the steering wheel?