I have a couple of issues with the car I purchased mid October'12 that I'm kinda just noticing within the past couple of weeks....

1 - When I turn on the car from leaving it overnight, there's a knocking on the passenger side of the motor.. It's louder while sitting inside the car.. But when you open the hood, it's not that loud.. But when the car is warm/hot it doesn't make the noise when I turn it back on...

2 - The AC/Heat options.. When I turn on the AC, it's all good... All 4 vents are pumping out cold air.. But when I put on the heater, the driver's side vents (left side of the middle vents and far left on driver's side) pumps out cold air... WTF?? LOL.. Yup.. And when I have the system off and the air is coming from the outside (recycled button is off), the driver's side (again, left side of middle vents and far left on driver's side) comes out hot/warm regardless of where I have the dial set to.. If I have it set to cold, it comes out warm on both sides..

Any help on any of these issues would be appreciated...

 

Is the knocking sound like this one? Click the pic.

 

YES!! That's exactly how it sounds... What's the remedy?

 

Have the timing belt changed, including the idler and adjuster pulleys, and tensioner. It solved the noise on my engine.

 

For the HVAC......do you have auto controls or manual settings?

 

That's a pretty expensive job... Can't afford it right now... But I'll keep that in mind... Thanks for the info!!

 

What do you mean by auto and manual? They're two dials for the temperature.. Driver's side and passenger.. Or I can control both sides by pressing the "Dual" button and just using the dial for the driver's side..

 

If the timing belt breaks it's going to get a heck of a lot more expensive. Expensive as in having to pull both cylinder heads and rework some/most/all valves. Spend the $700-$1,000 now to save yourself thousands of dollars later (later as in any time from today to who knows when).

Long story short, a timing belt which is of unknown age is a ticking time bomb.

 

How many miles are on this 10 year old car? The recommended interval for timing belt change are 7 years, or 105k miles, whichever comes first. I waited 8 years, but that's when the noise started. The belt was obviously slipping on the pulleys, because they had black marks all the way around them. The belt slipping on the pulleys is what I think caused the noise. How long would it have made the noise, before the belt snapped or jumped off, who knows. Soon after I started hearing the noise, and decided it was coming from the timing covers, I changed the belt, along with everything except the seals.

 

I have to agree on the tb but I'll leave that for now....

Two dials tells me this is auto ac....meaning there is a digital read out you set the temp to and the system "keeps" it at that temp...just like your house.

At the top of this section there is a sticky/thread - Common DIY Threads. In that there is a link to how to get HVAC codes. Do that and let us know what, if any, codes you get. Sounds like an issue with the blend door motor/actuator but check the codes first.