Knocking at start up, goes away after bike warms up (2003)

Hey Guys,

I have a 2003 VFR with 22000km's and just recently when i go to start the bike there is a knocking noise in the motor. The noise stops when the bike reaches a temp of 80degrees celcius and runs nicley. I havent had time to look at the issue yet but i though maybe someone has experienced this before and could steer me in the right direction.

Cheers

 

Howdy Polak. I can't help you with your knocking issues, but if your bike is a 2003, it is a definitely VTEC (unless you've swapped the engine out). All VFR's were VTEC beginning in 2002.

 

Thank you Pliskin
My mistake im a little groggy this monday morning hah

 

timing chain tensioner?

 

No problem, Polak.

Just out of curiosity, do you know when the oil was last changed? Was it the right type and weight? I'm a firm believer in starting with the easiest and cheap things.

 

I havent had time to look at the timing chain tensioner but when i do that will be on the list of things to look at.

Yes i changed the oil and filter about a month ago with 10w 30 synthetic. (3 weeks out of the month ive been working out of town)

Thanks

 

I had a knocking sound when cold when I changed my oil to Castrol power 1 racing 5w40, only at idle, so I changed back to motul 5100 10w40 and the noise went and never came back. (07 model 25000Kms)

Could be your oil is a bit light also (although I know honda says 10w30 is OK) From my experience, the vtec does better on a semi synthetic rather than a full synthetic, based on engine noise, gearchanges etc.

Anyone else used the castrol power 1? I dont think much of it.

 

Yes Thanks Dogman

I did some more searching and it seems the problem is the cam chain tensioners are making the knocking noise. I did recently change the type of oil i use i forget what brand but i will go with a semi synthetic 10w40 oil.

I wont be able to change it today hopefully get to it tomorrow and let you guys know the result.

Thanks again for the response.

 

I knew it
You should at least cluck the THANKS button my post
<wink>

 

22,000KMS =13,670.166 miles.

Now we can talk about worn out cam chain tensioners.
Too soon in my opinion.

But first I would get a oil pressure gauge to see if oil pressure is low at idle.
Or if you just turn up the idle a little bit, the oil light will go out and the knocking will stop. Was the oil light on when it was knocking?

DOGMANs comment seems VERY worthwhile to check out.

 

I hooked ya up, Kobe. Good looking out, kid.

 

If its e tensioners u might as well clean ur throttle bodies as u need to remove them to get it.

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

 

I have Changed my oil from Motul 5100 10w40 to Castrol 10w40 and the knock is gone! thanks for the replies. Also you should not have to remove the throttle body to get access to the front tensioner, There was a post on VFRD with details about it while i was doing some searching.

Anyways my problem is fixed Thanks Guys!

 

ive noticed mine knocks too, at idle when cold. but the strange thing is, it goes away when i pull in the clutch. i figured it was just some drivetrain noise...

 

Glad to hear all is solved and that you're riding!
It's unusual to me that the same weight oils but different brands screwed with you like this.
Doesn't matter now, it works ~

 

I used Castrol power 1 at my last oil/filter change, and have no probs thus far (3500mls ish) but then I used power1 GPS 10w40, not 5w40 racing. Perhaps that'll be why!

 

I was wondering if you have an oil filter with a bad non return valve, and the oil drains back when you stop the engine, and the knocking occurs on startup until the oil flow/pressure resores itself.
Are you using an OEM filter?
I have experienced this with cars in the past.
Another possibility could be a stuck oil pressure relief valve.
In any case, it would be interesting to check the actual oil pressure with a gauge, but I'm not sure if its possible on the vtec.

 

Did you figure out the sound?

 

As someone who has just bought a well-used 6th gen, I have been dealing with a couple of knocking sounds. Camchains were quiet when cold but get progressively louder as the oil warms up. In my case the front tensioner was not in good shape and I found that retensioning the spring made an enormous difference. The other knock on my bike is the clutch, and the noise depends on the smoothness of idle and hence the starter valve synchronisation. It is possible the idle is quite lumpy when cold and smooths out when warm so a clutch rattle would diminish with warmth, but not on my bike. A quick test to see if the clutch is the cause is simply to apply some pressure to the clutch lever, that tensions up the clutch lifter and stops it rattling.

 

The noise that goes away once pulled in the clutch. Is that something you have to deal with or is there a way to get the noise to stop?
Many thanks