Civic 1999. Front end click when driving away

[Bob]

When putting my 4 door Civic 1999, 1.6L non VTEC, automatic, in gear, there’s a metallic click/tap sound from the front end. The click happens once or twice(once from each side?) and can also be heard when starting from a complete stop. Haven’t been able to recreate the sound with the engine off and the bushings seems okay as far as I can tell. There are no other noises, but the car sometimes feel slightly unstable when going over sudden bumps, like manholes, especially when turning. The car has about 185k km (115k miles).
Any idea on how to approach the problem?

Topic

[Aaron Abajian]

Is it clicking when you are in gear with your foot on the brake or does the noise start when you remove your foot off of the brake and start rolling forward? Also, does it repeat when you drive straight or turn the wheels either direction and the accelerate?

[Bob]

Thanks for your reply Aaron! The sound seems to come when the wheels first are getting power, whether the brakes are pressed or not. When going in to gear, I hear it with the brakes pressed. When accelerating, I usually hear it when the car starts accelerating(even if the brakes were released earlier). It does not repeat when driving straight, but i think I’ve heard it when breaking or going down a steep hill. Haven’t noticed it when turning and accelerating.

[Lorrin Barth]

You might check the fit of the brake pads. I suspicion what is happening is the backing plates for brake pads are being make somewhere overseas and they are not always an exact fit. I’ve seen where people have to grind them down and I have a pair on my car that are too small. Back out of the garage, brake and go forward and I get the click. I also hear it sometimes while driving. I don’t consider this to be an unsafe condition.

[Bob]

Sounds very much like a plausible explanation. I will check it tomorrow and report back, in case anyone else got the same issue.

[Tom]

I had a very similar click, drove me NUTS! I never did figure it out when it was happening, but then I replaced the front brakes, and suddenly the noise was gone. At that point, I came to the conclusion that the brake pads had not been a good fit, and had been moving in the brackets.

[Aaron Abajian]

When you said “When going in to gear, I hear it with the brakes pressed.” I assume that you meant when you shifted from park to drive you would hear this sound. If this clicking sound occurs at any time when you are stationary, it can not be a brake issue. If you only hear this sound when you are in motion (brakes depressed or not), then I would agree with the other responses about a probable brake issue. If it is not a brake issue, I would then suspect your axle(s). Can you tell if the sound is coming from the back, front, left or right?

[razer1000]

How many miles on the car? most FWD vehicles have factory-recommended replacement of CV-Axles/drive-axles/halfshafts every 60k miles. My 94 camry is recommended every 30 (but seeing as how I drive a 94, i obviously don’t have the money to do it that often, I get by on 60k replacements lol)

-The joints in these could be worn out in such a way that they only click when starting from a certain position rotationally-speaking. If you can, get under the car safely (either a lift or jack it up and put it on stands as crawling under a civic would allow less-than-ample workroom 😛 ) and see if they have any play in them either radially or laterally. If so i’d suspect these or a related component like hub bearings which causes something to be able to shift when power/torque is applied.

-If those check out ok, check for lateral play in your front wheels, should be none ideally. Grab the tire at 9 and 3 and push/pull opposite directions (like you are turning the steering wheel, axis-wise) See if that allows you to recreate the sound. (IMO less likely a cause of the sound but quite possibly a reason for instability over bumps) If that makes the same noise, it’s likely your steering end-links (another commonly worn out part)

-My final thought on the matter, which could link both of the symptoms you describe, is worn shocks/struts or mounts/bearings (however yours are setup, i’m not familiar with hondas). Raise the vehicle and secure it with jack-stands, remove the wheels for easier access, and see if you get any play in the shocks/struts in any direction (although i’m thinking if this is the cause, you should be able to recreate the sound by getting play laterally in the shock in the fore/aft direction with the car.

Hopefully at least some of this was helpful. Good luck and be safe.

[Author]

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