Hi,

I bought a 2001 Civic from a dealer about 5 weeks ago. All was fine
until the day before yesterday, driving down the M1 I started hearing
creaking coming from what sounded like under the driver's seat. When I
was off the motorway, the sound was much more noticeable, and seemed
to be worse when just moving off, switching from first to second, or
when going over bumps. Basically it sounded like something was hanging
loose and swinging when the car moved. By the time I'd driven another
few miles the sound was terrible, like a constent grinfing whenever I
set off from standing , through first to second. After that there was
general squeaking going over bumps, etc.

I was staying away from home, so decided to see how it was on teh way
back up before taking it to the dealer. When Is tarted off, it sounded
fine, no problems at all. After about 20 minutes on the M1 the
squeaking came back, but there was no grinding as the previous day. I
took it to the dealer and went for a drive with the mechanic. The
squeaking was there, but not half a bad as it was the day before - I'm
not sure if he believed me, but never mind.

Getting the car on the ramp he deduced it was a worn washer on the
heat shield, and replaced it with a bigger one. I drove the short
distance home and didn't notice any problem. This morning driving to
work, however, I notice the sound was back. Obviously teh car needs to
be 'warmed up' before the problem appears. Has anyone had anything
similar? I was thinking it could be something with the suspension, but
would this get worse the longer the journey, and then disappear
overnight?

Any help you could give before I go back to the dealer again would be
helpful.

Cheers.