Hello! I just got my car back from a trusty shop and my car is STILL having the Sam issue…i only spent 1300 so I’m not feeling frustrated at all right now. Anyway…my car does an intermittent groan/rub thing when its been running for a bit and I am making turns. No rhyme or reason as to when it randomly happens. The repair was for my ac compressor…so its not that. It’s also fed so its not the common rear dif issue Honda has. I’d really appreciate any feedback or thoughts on this issue…I’m hemorrhaging money and that’s never a a good thing.
Sorry for the weird auto correct typos…im writing from my phone. The only one that might be confusing is when I was talking about my car being FWD…not fed. Don’t worry, cars do not have appetites.
Has it been put on the lift and somebody’s turning the steering wheel to check if a front wheel is hitting something, like the plastic under-engine shield maybe is a little loose?
Are these stock wheels? Nothing unusual about the wheels or tires, right? Tire pressure ok?
Note: Just b/c your car is front wheel drive doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a differential. It does, but the differential is in the transmission. In the engine compartment in other words. So the noise could be coming from there.
Has the transmission fluid been checked? On some cars there are two places to check, the main transmission, and the differential. Sometimes they use different type of fluid. Look it your owners manual and ask your shop to check the transmission fluid if you haven’t already done so.
Thanks for the quick response. I actually just put new tires on the car a few days ago and the tire pressure had to be adjusted yesterday. Possible culprit? And good to know about possibly having a differential…apparently Honda has fluid issues with my year crv. Not sure about the transmission fluid…i would imagine I was checked as i just received a full ‘checkup’ from my mechanic.
Did the symptom start immediately after installing new tires?
No. It started a few months ago and increasingly has become more frequent. I dropped my car to have the repair made then went elsewhere and replaced two tires and rotated the other two (in great shape) to the front. Then, I went on a road trip with zero problems. Came back to low tire pressure and then today, the sound was back.
Oh!! I just pulled out the paperwork for the repair and it states that the transmission oil is dark…my friend picked up the car and failed to communicate this. Could this really cause the sound/symptom??
Huh? you went elsewhere to get the tires changes while it was in the repair shop? How is that possible?
Sorry…i dropped off, picked up then went right to the next place.
So you replaced the tires and the sound disappeared, but then it came back after your long road trip. And at the same time you’ve noticed the air pressure is low. Well, seems to me the next thing to do is pump up the tires and see if the sound goes away. This seems more like something associated with the tires or brakes, that’d be my first guess. Complaints about differential noises in fwd cars seem to be pretty rare here, unless the fluid is low.
I’m sorry, I wasn’t very clear but the repair for the ac compressor actually took the sound away, not the tire repair. I also had my front brake pads completely replaced…
I’m reading that for Honda crvs of a certain time frame the differential fluid being ‘defective’ or bad can cause the sound. I notice it when turning the wheel sharply when turning or backing back…intermittently…after the car has been on for awhile. Does that sound possible for a FWD?
On my Corolla at least, when I turn the steering wheel the idle speed goes up. That’s the way it is supposed to work, since the power steering pump loads down the engine, so the idle speed gets bumped to prevent stalling when the power steering pressure goes up. I wonder if this is associated with that?
Is the power steering pump on the same belt as the ac compressor?
I don’t believe so…what I’m gathering from google info is that crvs have separate power steering belts.
Does it make the noise when not rolling and turning the wheel? I am thinking power steerining pump.
Your FWD doesn’t have a rear differential, so it’s not the rear differential.
I had an intermittent scraping sound when turning in my '99 CRV and it turned out to be a front brake dust shield that was scraping a brake rotor. I bent the dust shield back by hand and the sound went away.
Try driving slowly in circles in a vacant parking lot, with a friend standing at the center of the circle to try to pinpoint the source of the noise. He/she may be able to track it down to a particular wheel.
I’m also wondering if it might be the power steering pump. Can you get it to make the noise by turning the steering wheel when the car isn’t moving?
Once the noise has started, it will make the sound if I turn the wheel when in park.
I’ll try the friend/parking lot trick again as soon as I can, tried this morning and my car wouldn’t make the sound.
Since the noise can happen in “park,” it’s not caused by wheel rotation. Most likely a suspension component or the power steering system. When the noise comes back, keep the car in “park” with the handbrake on, and crawl under the front end while a friend turns the steering wheel to make the noise.
You’ll eventually be able to trace the groaning noise to something like a bad sway bar link, etc. I have a '99 CRV and recently had a similar problem. Turned out to be a bad rear sway bar link. The ball-in-socket on the end of the sway bar link will start groaning when it goes bad.
If the rubbing sound is a metallic scraping, that could be a dust shield on one of the front brakes. The fix is to just grab the dust shield and bend it back a little away from the brake rotor. If it’s more of a plastic scraping, check inside the wheel wells to see if a tire is scraping the plastic fender guard.