My New 2018 Civic SI is ticking pretty loud, Ktuner

mpir413

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Hey guys,I'm fairly new to the forum. Please excuse my long post but I wanted to be as thorough and detailed as possible. My new SI that I drive about 45-50 miles a day is making me nervous because it has developed a rather louder than what may or may not be normal ticking sounds. Having a 2nd Gen Acura Integra for years, I knew this very well could be a Honda thing. It definitely goes away when the RPMS are coming down. However During the first couple of weeks + the engine ticks were whisper quite. They were there but not very audible. During these first couple of weeks of owning the car I absolutely babied her to give her a smooth break in, up to about 650 miles. During this time I did absolutely NO launches, only revved to about 3500 RPM and I barley even hit boost, 1-3 IBS tops and if I saw boost was coming on I backed off right away.
At the end of the break in period I decided to ordered a Ktuner V2 to jazz her up a bit. For the next week after patiently completing the break in of 650 miles, I started to engage in some spirited driving and by No means " beating " . For the next 350 miles or so (still waiting for my Ktuner unit to arrive) I occasionally and moderately sped up from 1st-4th gear rolling my foot into the throttle maybe revving her out to 4500-5500( some WOT on the highway) but no redline no rev-limiter no tire cherpping and I still haven't launched the car to this day, (meaning dumping the clutch from like anything over 1000 RPM). SO Still up to this point(about 1000 miles) whisper quite ticking/ clicking from most likely the injectors and or lifters, like you could barely notice it. It was there but you had to listen for it, but it wasn't sticking out in anyway.
Skip to 6 days ago My Ktuner V.2 shows up Friday and I have about 1000 miles on car. Of course I could barely contain myself and I had to install it and flash it as soon as I got home from work. I went with the normal/23 base flash and didn't mess with an other settings. That night I drove around did some data logging and didn't notice anything out of the usual ( <14 AFRs , .49-.53 knock learn and knock count went up something like 20 that night over a few mile drive) except the car moved like a bat out of hell when you got on it... :) .... For the next three days the car seemed fine. I drove to and from work mostly in normal mode and would pop it in and out of sport on the way home.(man that boost feels good) I even sent some data logs to a well known tuner that gave me the thumbs up and said the car was running safe and the tune was good.
However, when I went out to start my car 2 days ago and warm it up, this is when I noticed that there was some rather louder than normal ticking almost buzzing noise going on. I didn't think much of it because it sounded like a loose washer or heat shield, and with a tiny blip of the throttle the sound seemed to vanish. So with a stressful day at work I sort of forgot about it, until the next day when I heard it again and investigated a bit further. Holding the throttle doesn't make it go away, but on the down rev it seems to vanish. This leads me to the very first time popping the hood and being confronted with the nosiest newest engine iv'e ever heard in my life. I'm not gonna lie, this made my heart flutter. I immediately flashed the ECU back to stock to see if the top end would shut the heck up and stop what nearly sounds like chattering. After the flash back to stock, I started the car and proceeded to go and have a good listen under the hood. Bringing my head close to the valve cover, I can hear the noisy injectors (don't sound too loud) but moving my head closer to the drivers side of the valve cover there is another noisy ticking /clicking maybe even tapping/ clacking noise. Please tell me I haven't bent a valve. I've run nothing but shell V Power 93 octane and even add a bit of octane booster from tank to tank which I've only filled like 4 times now.
I've called my sales man and hes trying to get me a service appointment/loaner car asap. I'm thinking I shouldn't drive it until its checked out.
If anyone is reading I'll let you know the results as soon as I find out. fingers crossed


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hawk02

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KTuner issue.......and Shell is not always the best, I have the TSP STage1 tune and sent a data log to the tuner who said it looked like low quality fuel.....so much for the best gas....93 at cumberland farms runs better.
 
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mpir413

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mpir413

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KTuner issue.......and Shell is not always the best, I have the TSP STage1 tune and sent a data log to the tuner who said it looked like low quality fuel.....so much for the best gas....93 at cumberland farms runs better.
what do you mean by Ktuner issue
 


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mpir413

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all i hear is DI. maybe point to a specific time stamp?
hopefully that's all it is.. it makes a different noise when it is cold. I'm going to record again in the morning when its cooled off. I could just be freaking out but it sounds louder now than it did like 2 days ago. IDK
 

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a shot in the dark, but you mentioned it does it more when cold. Have you checked for an exhaust leak? sometimes a cracked pipe will tick when cold, but when warm, closes up enough the tick goes away. slightly loose manifold will also do that.
 


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well dude this forum is full of KT fanboys, which is ok, but just saying.

with that being said, my si has always sounded like that. hopefully yours is just making normal noises, but to be safe you should just stick with the stock tune, or go with flashpro.
 

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well dude this forum is full of KT fanboys, which is ok, but just saying.

with that being said, my si has always sounded like that. hopefully yours is just making normal noises, but to be safe you should just stick with the stock tune, or go with flashpro.
...and FlashPro would do what differently in terms of how the engine sounds?

Please don't spread bad information like that.
 

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33k on my 17 SI. Tuned with ktuner at 2k. I've even been abusing it with a water meth setup. Beaten on daily ;)

That definitely sounds like the normal direct injection tick tho :thumbsup:
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