Help please. I have loved my 2004 Accord for 97,000 miles. It is a v6 with auto trans. It has started making a growling noise with a shutter in the drive train but ONLY under these circumstances. If you drive like a grandpa which I am, between 1300 and 1500 RPM you get this growl and shutter. If you accelerate it immediately stops and if you let off the gas it stops. If you drive at higher rpm it runs smooth as silk and shifts fine. Even from a stop, if you accelerate through that rpm range it does not do it. It only acts up if you go slow and kind of linger in that range. It never does it decelerating only if you accelerate and don't do it quickly. It also seems to happen more when you are going up hill and there is a slight load on it, without enough gas. It has never done it above 1500 rpm, so when you drive a little more aggressive or certainly are cruising on the hwy when its at higher than 1500 it is fine. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I moved you to where you can get some help...Please post in the correct forum..you had this in the new introduction thread

 

Could be a differential bearing.
First check for trans fluid seeping at the inner axle seals on the trans case.
I used to test them by driving at idle speed, then lightly stepping on the gas a couple of seconds and letting off. The differential will growl under those conditions.

 

Hey Hondadude. You are the man. I am a rookie and had to ask my son what a differential was but he said you had more expertise than the mechanic that wanted to replace my whole transmission. To a novice it seems that if it was transmission it would not shift perfectly when the rpm's were higher as well as when they are lower, but what do I know. I guess what I do know is that I'd rather try and solve the problem the cheaper and right way first. Thanks again and I will let you know after I have it looked at.

 

So I called a Honda dealer today to get a price quote to replace the differential bearing or the whole differential and the service guy tells me that my car doesn't have a differential. He says I need to bring it in for them to look at. I am sure I can get more confused but I don't see how. If anyone can help I would appreciate it. Thanks

 

Terminology - Semantics... LOL

In terms of actual gears, your car certainly has a differential. It's the collection of gearing that allows your 2 driven wheels to run different speeds as you drive around a corner. EVERY car has to have that.

But front-drive cars normally have those gears INSIDE the transmission. So you don't have a SEPARATE differential. Not like a pickup truck where the differential is located in the middle of the rear axle.

In order to replace the differential bearings (or the whole differential) you have to remove & dismantle the transmission.