Hi, My 2013 Odyssey makes a strange sound, usually on cold start. The car turns on when turn the key, but almost immediately after makes a sounds like “zzzz…it.” (but real fast) It sounds like metal to metal, but then stops quickly. Car runs fine. It’s been doing this for awhile, but I only seem to notice on very cold, or cold starts. Interested in your thoughts and thanks.
It might be the starter. They make a grinding sound when they start failing. If you aren’t going to do the work, take it to a shop you trust and let them fix it. Just describe the symptoms. If it’s the starter, they will know that quickly.
I vote for a SERP belt driven item.
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With a Honda, my first hunch is a heat shield on the exhaust. Other thoughts are the starter’s drive gear is a bit slow retracting and you are hearing its forward edge dragging against the teeth on the now-spinning flywheel. And it could be something driven by the serp belt - you could remove the serp belt and listen.
But if it’s an extreme-cold deal, how much time can you spend on it, unless you do the work in more comfortable conditions and then let things get down to -15F or what have you?
I am not a Honda driver. On my Ford Ranger, that sound would be the ABS system going through its initialization.
That could be the case IF the noise happens after the OP drives a few feet. He mentioned nothing about actually driving the vehicle after he starts the engine.
@Mark52: When–exactly–do you hear that noise?
Do you hear it after doing a cold start and then driving a few feet?
Or, so you hear it before driving it?
I hear the sound immediately with ignition, a quick “zzzzit” (1-2 seconds, almost like a bug zapper sound) and then it’s fine. No sound.
In that case, you can ignore the suggestion from @oldnotdeadyet regarding the ABS self-test/initialization.
On my Hondas, that occurs a few seconds after starting to move forward, not during the start phase.
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Could be the fuel pump but you need to try and figure out where in general the noise if coming from. Open the hood when cold and have someone else turn the key to try and localize it. On the other hand depends on the definition of “cold”. If 10 or 20 below, weird noises can be pretty common.