I have a 2013 Honda Fit with an automatic transmission and about 26,000 miles on it. For about three months now, it has been periodically making a noise which lasts for about one second. I first started hearing it after making right or left turns. I only hear it when making big turns through intersections on main roads, not when turning on streets in residential neighborhoods. I hear it almost every time I drive the car, but usually only once or twice during any trip. I make almost exclusively short trips with it. Mostly I drive it to work which is less than 7 miles one way.

The noise only lasts for about one second. For the first several months, I was only hearing it immediately after having completed the turn and straightened out the wheels. Now that several months have passed, I am sometimes hearing the noise while I am actually making the turn rather than after completing the turn. Also, I am now sometimes hearing it while driving straight down the road without having just recently made a turn.

I think the noise is coming somewhere from the front half of the car. It's a relatively quiet sound and I'm not sure how to describe it. Possibly it sounds like a small gust of wind blowing underneath the car or the sound of water splashing up under the car after driving through a small puddle.

Any ideas on what the problem might be?

 

Take a video and post it. If you have a remote microphone for a GoPro that would even be better

 

I don't have a GoPro or any special video or audio tools. I'll try make a recording with my iPhone. Thanks.

 

Any time you have noises when making a full turn, the likely culprit is torn constant velocity (CV) boots. You have two black ribbed outer and two black inner boots. Once torn, water and dirt gets inside and causes "irritation" to the moving parts of your steering/suspension system. Have you noticed any grease splashed up on the plastic wheel liners behind the tires? Also take a strong flashlight and see if you notice any grease splashed on or behind your CV joint. If you don't see any grease stains or evidence of grease splattered around, and everything looks bone dry, then you can move on to the next possibility. Having had many cut CV boots on my cars, I would describe the sound as a whooshing noise when making turns.

 

Thanks for your input. I haven't had a torn CV boot since the 1980s and figured the manufacturers had come up with a way to make them much more durable. I'm working tomorrow, but I'll try to take a look if that might be the problem.

 

I checked the outer CV boots on both sides and they looked good. So I took my car to the Honda dealer yesterday and they checked the cv boots, suspension, rack and pinion, and didn't see any problems. The technician took it out for a test drive and didn't hear anything unusual. He went on a second test drive and I went along and did the driving and still no noise. The noise is easy to miss because it's very short in duration and not very loud. It is barely noticeable if you're not paying attention.

Is it possible that the cv joint could be damaged without the boot being torn?