Honda Repair: Ringing noise, intermittent problems, steady speed

Question
Matthew, hope you can help us. We purchased an 02 Civic last November. Recently we noticed a loud ringing noise occuring at speeds above about 70 kms. The ringing noise is brief, lasts anywhere from 2-5 seconds, ceases, and then may or may not occur again during the drive. Also it does not always occur.  It is very random but happens enough, and is loud enough, to drive us crazy. It didn't happen right after we bought the car, but may have started occurring after driving the car with ice buildup in the rims - the car was vibrating severely - we didn't know what was happening till we called the dealer and he told us to power-wash the rims to remove the snow/ice.  We'd never encountered this before.  Could driving the car with ice in the rims have caused something that is now making loud ringing noise?  Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.  Diana

Answer
I don't think ice on the rims would cause what you are experiencing. I live in Georgia & we don't get ice very often. I would have the exhaust system checked because it sounds like you may have a heat shield making noise or a baffle inside the muffler buzzing. When I try to diagnose noises with my customers, I get very in depth with questions like driving speed, time of day, is the motor hot or cold. All this info will help whoever is trying to track down the problem. As soon as you here this noise, you have to make a note of where is it coming from, the front or the back, driverside or passengerside. What temperature is it outside (cars will make funky noises when it is cold)How long you have been driving, were you driving at a steady speed or did you have you foot off the gas & then start accelerating when you heard it. Once you have all this information, take it to a Honda dealer & have a technician take a test drive with you. Don't get discourages because intermittent problems like this hard to diagnosis.