Sounds like a bad muffler while in 3rd Gear

elgunter84 · Oct 24, 2020

Hey, so I have a weird noise I noticed today... We were accelerating from a light and after a few seconds, I found myself looking around to see which sports car or truck had a modified muffler, making that loud unmuffled engine noise. A second or two later, it was gone. After the next stoplight, I once again heard that noise, but this time I let my foot off of the gas briefly and it seemed to calm down. One more stoplight and I was in full on troubleshooting mode. I began listening to the engine as soon as we began accelerating, and realized that the noise was isolated to the third gear of the transmission.

The transmission doesn't show any signs of strain or jerkiness when shifting between gears. The car is a 2010 Odyssey EX-L with ~130,000 miles on it.

Has anyone ever heard this sort of noise isolated to a single speed of the transmission? Anyone have any ideas on why that might be happening? Excited to isolate the problem and keep this van on the road for another 130K miles :-D

MrRangerZr1 · Oct 24, 2020

Check for exhaust leaks. Common area to leak is the j-pipe (flex pipe).

elgunter84 · Oct 24, 2020

Would that make sense to only hear it while it's in the third gear?

jackrabbit000 · Oct 25, 2020

Mine did this on my ‘06 EXL, the exhaust would just scream at around 2200 rpm. A few 100 rpm under or above this and everything was normal. The dealer changed out the “A” pipe under warranty and everything was good after that. I think there was a TSB on this issue. Part #6 in the link below.

Exhaust Pipe - Muffler for 2006 Honda Odyssey | Honda Parts HQ

www.hondapartshq.com

elgunter84 · Oct 25, 2020

jackrabbit000 said:
Mine did this on my ‘06 EXL, the exhaust would just scream at around 2200 rpm. A few 100 rpm under or above this and everything was normal. The dealer changed out the “A” pipe under warranty and everything was good after that. I think there was a TSB on this issue. Part #6 in the link below.

Exhaust Pipe - Muffler for 2006 Honda Odyssey | Honda Parts HQ

www.hondapartshq.com

That seems to be about the same RPM at which mine does it, but it did seem to only happen in third gear. I just drove it and didn't hear the noise even though the camera was rolling, so I'm going to hold for the time being and if it flares back up, I'll look into the part you had to have replaced.

Thanks for the reply!

jackrabbit000 · Oct 25, 2020

I was off by 100 rpm lol. Here's the TSB for mine.

http://www.urvi.net/forumfiles/SB/A06-050.PDF

In 3rd gear you are probably at 2100 rpm, when it shifts up to 4th, the rpms drop and the noise goes away. On mine I can reproduce the noise every time by hitting 2100 rpm and didn't matter what gear I was in.

elgunter84 · Oct 26, 2020

Wow, this seems spot on similar for what I was experiencing... I could be wrong about the third gear, but it seemed to be I didn't hear it until I was up around 40. I gathered the same that once it shifted and the RPMs dropped, that I didn't hear it again.

According to the TSB it is only while "driving" at 2100 RPMs... does that mean I wouldn't hear it if I were to rev my engine in park? Does the vehicle need to be moving to create the appropriate (or inappropriate in the case) resonance?

In any event, this puts my mind at ease as the van drives just fine and no check engine lights or other indications are present to suggest it's having issues.

Thanks again for your input! Super helpful.

MrRangerZr1 · Oct 26, 2020

When the van is in gear, the engine is in load, so the noise/rumble will amplify.

Sounds like a bad muffler while in 3rd Gear

Exhaust Pipe - Muffler for 2006 Honda Odyssey | Honda Parts HQ

Exhaust Pipe - Muffler for 2006 Honda Odyssey | Honda Parts HQ

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