Civic EU6 - strange reverberation and clutch stink at speed
Discussion
I like to think of myself as a reasonable home mechanic, but this one has me stumped.
My partner's trusty 2002 Civic 1.4 (EK3 shape, called EU6 in our case given the engine) has started an intermittent fault when warm and driven at 50-60mph. Gradually the NVH worsens and it sounds and feels a bit like a ropey diesel, sometimes it gets to the point of all interior panels vibrating and the rear view mirror being blurred by the vibration. Performance (such as it is!) does not seem to be impacted. Slowing solves it, or accelerating to 70 lessens it. Declutching, changing gear or braking don't seem to have an impact on the noise. When coming to a halt after such an episode, there's a smell of slipping clutch. The car has 105k miles and does short journeys so arguably may be due a clutch, but it will happily stand an abusive launch from standstill without slipping an inch. It doesn't do it on every journey at that speed, and no impact on slower journeys (the car rarely sees more than a 40mph limit as it's just used for commuting and shopping) and no clutch smell after a typical journey.
I wonder if the clutch smell is a red herring and it's actually the smell of something else burning? I can't see anything untoward, but haven't had it up in the air.
She did have trouble a while back of making a very steep hill start with the car fully loaded with fat friends! I'm told it was a real effort to get going and the clutch stank. Perhaps it could have warped the clutch plate or pushed it out of alignment? But that wouldn't ring true to it not slipping from standstill (with a normal load) and the noise staying present with it declutched.
Clearly it's not worth a great deal so will be hard to justify any major surgery, but it's been a gem in its ~10 years with us so I don't like to be defeated!
Any bright ideas?
My partner's trusty 2002 Civic 1.4 (EK3 shape, called EU6 in our case given the engine) has started an intermittent fault when warm and driven at 50-60mph. Gradually the NVH worsens and it sounds and feels a bit like a ropey diesel, sometimes it gets to the point of all interior panels vibrating and the rear view mirror being blurred by the vibration. Performance (such as it is!) does not seem to be impacted. Slowing solves it, or accelerating to 70 lessens it. Declutching, changing gear or braking don't seem to have an impact on the noise. When coming to a halt after such an episode, there's a smell of slipping clutch. The car has 105k miles and does short journeys so arguably may be due a clutch, but it will happily stand an abusive launch from standstill without slipping an inch. It doesn't do it on every journey at that speed, and no impact on slower journeys (the car rarely sees more than a 40mph limit as it's just used for commuting and shopping) and no clutch smell after a typical journey.
I wonder if the clutch smell is a red herring and it's actually the smell of something else burning? I can't see anything untoward, but haven't had it up in the air.
She did have trouble a while back of making a very steep hill start with the car fully loaded with fat friends! I'm told it was a real effort to get going and the clutch stank. Perhaps it could have warped the clutch plate or pushed it out of alignment? But that wouldn't ring true to it not slipping from standstill (with a normal load) and the noise staying present with it declutched.
Clearly it's not worth a great deal so will be hard to justify any major surgery, but it's been a gem in its ~10 years with us so I don't like to be defeated!
Any bright ideas?
Jamp said:
I like to think of myself as a reasonable home mechanic, but this one has me stumped.
My partner's trusty 2002 Civic 1.4 (EK3 shape, called EU6 in our case given the engine) has started an intermittent fault when warm and driven at 50-60mph. Gradually the NVH worsens and it sounds and feels a bit like a ropey diesel, sometimes it gets to the point of all interior panels vibrating and the rear view mirror being blurred by the vibration. Performance (such as it is!) does not seem to be impacted. Slowing solves it, or accelerating to 70 lessens it. Declutching, changing gear or braking don't seem to have an impact on the noise. When coming to a halt after such an episode, there's a smell of slipping clutch. The car has 105k miles and does short journeys so arguably may be due a clutch, but it will happily stand an abusive launch from standstill without slipping an inch. It doesn't do it on every journey at that speed, and no impact on slower journeys (the car rarely sees more than a 40mph limit as it's just used for commuting and shopping) and no clutch smell after a typical journey.
I wonder if the clutch smell is a red herring and it's actually the smell of something else burning? I can't see anything untoward, but haven't had it up in the air.
She did have trouble a while back of making a very steep hill start with the car fully loaded with fat friends! I'm told it was a real effort to get going and the clutch stank. Perhaps it could have warped the clutch plate or pushed it out of alignment? But that wouldn't ring true to it not slipping from standstill (with a normal load) and the noise staying present with it declutched.
Clearly it's not worth a great deal so will be hard to justify any major surgery, but it's been a gem in its ~10 years with us so I don't like to be defeated!
Any bright ideas?
Possibly the DMF has given up assuming its got one.My partner's trusty 2002 Civic 1.4 (EK3 shape, called EU6 in our case given the engine) has started an intermittent fault when warm and driven at 50-60mph. Gradually the NVH worsens and it sounds and feels a bit like a ropey diesel, sometimes it gets to the point of all interior panels vibrating and the rear view mirror being blurred by the vibration. Performance (such as it is!) does not seem to be impacted. Slowing solves it, or accelerating to 70 lessens it. Declutching, changing gear or braking don't seem to have an impact on the noise. When coming to a halt after such an episode, there's a smell of slipping clutch. The car has 105k miles and does short journeys so arguably may be due a clutch, but it will happily stand an abusive launch from standstill without slipping an inch. It doesn't do it on every journey at that speed, and no impact on slower journeys (the car rarely sees more than a 40mph limit as it's just used for commuting and shopping) and no clutch smell after a typical journey.
I wonder if the clutch smell is a red herring and it's actually the smell of something else burning? I can't see anything untoward, but haven't had it up in the air.
She did have trouble a while back of making a very steep hill start with the car fully loaded with fat friends! I'm told it was a real effort to get going and the clutch stank. Perhaps it could have warped the clutch plate or pushed it out of alignment? But that wouldn't ring true to it not slipping from standstill (with a normal load) and the noise staying present with it declutched.
Clearly it's not worth a great deal so will be hard to justify any major surgery, but it's been a gem in its ~10 years with us so I don't like to be defeated!
Any bright ideas?
Thanks, can see that as plausible, but do you think it would cause issues in only such a narrow band of operation? I had a look today and the engine is rocking a fair bit when riding the clutch on the handbrake, though the front engine mounts look ok. I think I'll bob it into the local indie to take a look underneath at the rear mount and gearbox mounts.
If you want to rule out the clutch as a possible problem, just drive the car gently up to about 30 mph and then stick it in 4th or 5th and floor the throttle. It will do one of two things - either the revs will shoot up as the clutch slips, or the engine will complain as the car accelerates very slowly.
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