Hi guys. Love to laugh on Saturdays w/you! '99 4cyl Honda Accord EX. Have non-stop cricket sound when accelerating. Sometimes stops when I’m decelerating (sp?) and go down to 20mph. I bought new tires, and had guys tighten fan and air belts coz they were squeaking. The cricket sound isn’t going away. What could be wrong?
Where does the sound seem to be coming from?
Does the sound change in frequency with the speed of the car?
Interesting questions. It’s coming from the front of the car and in ear range somewhere between my knees and my tummy (if I could point outward.) -marona
That doesn’t really help us very much. You need to open the hood while the engine is running in order to try to localize the noise. Just be careful to avoid letting any clothing, jewelry, or body parts get tangled in the belts or the cooling fans.
oh shoot! Okay then. I’ll buck up and get out there during lunch tomorrow in the parking lot. Maybe I’ll get someone to kick the rpm’s up a bit and then I’ll know more. I’ll post my answer tomorrow afternoon. BTW, thanks for replying so quickly! e-See you tomorrow hopefully. -Marona
Perhaps those belts you have already identified as being squeaky needed more than tightening,like replacement. How old are they?
You are not going to ride on the fender are you? You did say the noise appears when you are accelerating
I hope that there was another reason to buy tires,that would be unfortunate to change tires because of a squeak and it did not resolve the issue.
Hiya oldschool. I bought tires coz I had to suffer at least 30,000 with the Coopers I bought. They were the worst tires I ever purchased and I felt unsafe in any precipitation. Coopers spun out in any kind of unclean uphill road condition. So this week, when I saw that Lincoln’s head was all showing, I couldn’t wait to choose a nice tire. Okay with that being said. Seems you really did hear me. The cricketing chirp only occurs when the car is in motion. I second guessed myself last night and thought maybe I was wrong… After digging myself out of the snow this morning and making it back to the tire shop to fix the steering wheel jitters, I noticed that at start up and a traffic light, no chirp. This is going to be a bit hard to pin point, but I’ll do my best short of “riding on the fender.” My belts came with the timing chain change over… and that was 25K miles ago. Thanks for replying all!
Marona
Is this an engine sound or a sound you hear in the body of the car? Is it louder when you drive next to a wall, like through an underpass? And, just completely out of the blue, if you have wheel covers over steel wheels, and not alloy wheels, sometimes the wheel covers will squeak. Just go around the car and push the covers in tightly against the steel wheels.
Hi wentwest… I have been listening to the sound of the chirping carefully. It seems that I find myself leaning toward the passenger side of the car when I’m driving to hear it. When I brake or put in the clutch, the chirp goes away.
I’m worried it’s in the whatchacallits… oy. The valves, pistons, yikes. But then if it were, then I’d hear the crickets when I gunned the engine at standstill, right?
I do not have wheel covers. That’s a good thought, though. thank you. I’ll try other things to narrow it down tomorrow.
Night.
Marona
Sounds more like the brake pad wear indicator tab (metal) is touching the rotor telling you to have an inspection for worn brake pads.
Count this as another vote for the brake wear indicators as the source of the noise. The tip-off is that the noise goes away when you hit the brake. You should have the brake pads on all 4 wheels inspected a.s.a.p., before the brake rotors are damaged.
Another vote for brake pad wear indicators.
By the way, for those of us who are losing their hearing slowly with age, remind your kids or grandkids to tell you if they hear these squeaks. I can’t hear them anymore, even with hearing aids.
I would lean toward suspecting the exhaust system: springs and maybe flexible links between the exhaust manifold and the muffler. The engine torque, when accelerating, rotates the transverse engine. That pulls or pushes the whole exhaust system. Whatever is in place to allow this movement is scratching/squeaking. It may need to be disassembled, cleaned, lubed with antisieze compound, and reassembled.
A big lever that lets you flex the engine against the engine mounts may let you hear the cricket sound while the engine is off.
Hello all. I pulled out my old thread on cricket noises from the archives here. I found the source and need advice:
(Accord '99) I’m still driving with the crickets in my car. I got it down to what it is, only now I want to know how dangerous this condition is. This is the same noise that all the old VW Beetles had in the 60’s and 70’s … It has to do with the clutch. When I rest my foot on the clutch during normal driving, the cricket noise goes away, just like in an old Beetle.
I think it’s caused by the clutch arm resting where it shouldn’t. A tad bit of weight on the clutch and it goes away…
I went to a mechanic and asked him to adjust the clutch for me after he heard the noise. He said no, “we don’t do that anymore” and he wants to replace the whole clutch assembly/rod/bearing for just under a Thousand dollars. He said that it’s not critical and that I can drive with the noise. My take: a bit of a clutch adjustment is what I want.
Question: Is what the mechanic said true? Is this really an all out $1K job? or is it a simple clutch adjustment? How would I go about asking a mechanic for a clutch adjustment to make the noise go away. And in your opinion, do I finally have the cricket noise nailed down correctly?
Marona
THANK YOU!!!
I think the brake indicator sounds more like a scraping sound. Wouldn’t hurt to have the brakes checked if you do not know their status. I think a honda cricket noise is different from a vw cricket noise (which i really like). VWs were designed like that though. Hondas weren’t. I have not heard of a honda clutch out of adjustment making a cricket sound.
It is not hard to adjust the clutch. There is a knob down the clutch cable in the engine compartment and you turn the knob one way or another as needed. No one should really charge to do it because it is so simple for them to do. It has to do with how much play there is in the clutch pedal before it engages. Honda parts can print you out a diagram showing where the adjustment knob is exactly on your car and they can come outside and point it out too.
Love Car Talk,
Thank you so much for the lead. I ended up having three separate car repair shops in the last three oil changes tell me my both my brakes and rotors were worn down to 90%/80%, front/back. So I had them done. I tend to try to get the most out of my cars. This Accord is 135,000 miles. THANK YOU for the lead. I will follow up. Seems to make a lot of sense. -Mary/Marona
Ok here’s what was causing the cricket noise in my 2008 Silverado. The noise was coming from under the dash on the passenger side. I thought it must be the A/C-Heater blower bearing going bad so I removed the blower, lubricated the bearings and found out that wasn’t the problem. A day later I turned off the engine and disconnected the battery which eliminated anything engine or belt related as well as anything electrical. The cricket sound still continued for a few minutes after everything was off and disconnected. I then thought what is still moving with all this turned off? Having retired from the Air Conditioning industry I thought the only thing moving is the refrigerant until the pressures equalize which takes a minute or so. I checked the refrigerant charge and sure enough thee A/C needed some refrigerant. Cricket noise disappeared – go figure. The metering device (ie: expansion valve) was not getting enough refrigerant causing it to pulse or surge causing this noise. Hope this helps someone else.
I guess the OP must have figured it out after 9 years.
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Might be too late to help the OP (from 9 years ago), but the info is interesting/useful.
Hi there so it appears I have the same sound with my car I have a 96 Toyota Avalon I was involved in a front-end collision a couple months back and had to replace a few items in the front, ie…My radiator,lights, and pull my front clip out. Since then I have replaced my front brake pads and have brand new front tires. Upon changing my front tires and brake pads I noticed this chirping sound like a cricket when I’m accelerating and I hear it mostly on driver side as I’m driving with the window down does not appear to be coming from under the hood. Sound seems to be amplified when driving next to a wall or right next to a car or under an underpass, etc. I have also not been able to determine if it’s coming from the front or back as it only occurs when I am driving.