Rattling at 2000-2400 RPM
 

Hey all,

My wife's 05 Accord V6 is making a strange rattling sound while under load (accelerating) between about 2000 and 2400 RPM that is coming from the front half of the car. It's obviously a resonance thing and the first thing I thought of was a heat shield somewhere. I tried to crawl under the car to shake things around to see if I could find it, but had no luck. After searching on here a bit, it seems this is a pretty common issue for the heat shields or something like it to be loose or to have rusted. My problem is that I don't have access to a lift to properly get under the car to check it. I don't want to take the car in to a shop and be charged a few hundred bucks for something so silly. There is no loss of power at all or change in driveability and the sound seems to get a bit less pronounced as the car gets warm. Is there anything else I can do to fix this? Has someone else had this same issue with the 03-07 V6 models?

Invest in a good set of ramps designed to run your car up. Good ramps should have two slopes or curved ramp to avoid the bumper hitting the ramp. I've got by w/ old single slope ramps and a bridging 2x6 to the ramp from concrete.

A pair of jack stands is also a possibility. Get the smaller 2-ton stands and Harbor Freight plastic jack stand adapters will protect the tab from point/point damage. You will need a floor jack to elevate the car from the center front lift point.

good luck

I do have a jack, but I don't have a set of jack stands or ramps. I've never had to use them since my truck (Ridgeline) can have all of its underbody maintenance done without lifting it and I can easily get to the oil drain plug in the Accord without lifting it, too. Never had to do anything other than that. I'm mainly just trying to locate the source of this rattle. From there, I'll be able to do something about it. I was just curious if anyone else had the same issue on a similar car because most of the threads I found that mentioned a rattle were on older generations.

Another thing I should note is that my wife said she accidentally hit a pot hole sort of hard last Monday coming home from work and she said she noticed the rattle on Tuesday morning. I'm thinking the jolt knocked something loose. Maybe a bolt or hanger was rusty and just broke off somewhere. I'm going to try to crawl under there again this evening to see if I can find anything. Otherwise, looks like I'll be taking it to the shop soon. :(

the rattle seems to be mostly caused by the thin metal cover that goes around the catalyst converter.

I am not sure if your car has 1 or 2 of those someone with more experience with the V6s will have to chime in.

That's pretty much where I'm pinpointing the sound, at least from inside the cabin while the car is moving. I'm thinking that whatever was holding the cat shield to the underside of the car may have rusted and been jolted loose. I really don't know. I might try to get a couple of hose clamps and put one at either end of the cat to see if that fixes it. Otherwise, I'm not sure what else to do.