"02 Civic, 7000 miles on new Honda belt and water pump. Belt began making noise, and while driving to have looked at belt broke and engine quit. Belt scraps were in long pieces of rubber coated string. Can see some wear on lower cover. Bent all the valves. Anyone out there seen a belt give up like this?
Bob
Hi, Wondering who install the belt?
"N.E.Ohio Bob" wrote in news:46f3dd82$0$32476$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com:
Can happen if tensioner seizes. Was the tensioner also replaced 7000 miles ago?
Sounds like either a bad tensioner or an overtightened or defective belt.
Either way, you are now looking at least at about $1000 repair bill to repair the valve train. Depending on the damage to the timing cover, you may need a new one (possibly could get from a wrecker, but unlikely). Also, the Crank angle sensor could have been damaged, its a $130 dealer part.
When this happend on my sister's 99 civic, it ended up costing over $1200. Also, not all of the valves may be bent. You'll need a new head gasket and head bolts as well. Go for a honda head gasket for sure.
tN.E.Ohio Bob wrote:
indeed. or a seized water pump.
don't need new head bolts in the d-series motors - ok to re-use originals.
Work was done by professional Honda-Acura mechanic. He is sole proprietor in his own shop. He has many years of Honda dealership experience, and does about three timing belts a week. Tensioner wasn't replaced, but feels fine. Water pump was new (Honda) with belt, and also rotates freely and has no rough spots on gear. Will replace all valves and needed gaskets. Probably will replace tensioner too. Can give more info next week as work progresses.
Thanks for your info. bob
wow man that sucks.
If the guy is worth his salt, he should at least offer a discount on labor to rework your top end...
It is a rarity to hear that someone who is actually on top of the maintenance plan gets pooched like this....
tN.E.Ohio Bob wrote:
How many miles were on when you replaced the belt/pump? The guy shouldn't give a discount, he should do it for free. He was the mechanic that did the "job", he should be responsible for the repair. Of course, if he did this job and messed it up, why would you want him to do another job for u?
fwiw, i discovered that it's possible to over-tension the timing belt if the tensioner bolt is too loose when adjusting. book spec is that it's half a turn loose - on this occasion, i'd made it looser, so that the base of the tensioner pulley had tilted. on tensioning, the base leveled out and therefore pulled the belt a lot tighter than it should have been. i discovered this later when another project required re-entry, and on loosening the tensioner, not only could i see the belt loosen, but the cam gear relax - it had been elastically distorted it was pulled so tight!
bottom line, if he's a pro, he knows what he's doing. but we all make mistakes on occasion. short of a massively defective belt, [possible, but unlikely], that would be the only other thing i can think of to explain the problem. other potentials such as mis-routing the belt, i've seen, but are usually immediately evident and don't get the vehicle out of the shop.
oh, and the other thing to look out for with an over-tensioned belt is potential damage to the cam bearings. in fact, the cam doesn't even have bearings, it sits directly on the aluminum casting and is oil lubed. under normal belt tension, that is sufficient, but under excess load, the oil film that normally separates can get too thin and the aluminum can get gouged. if that's the case, the head is done and needs to be replaced.
or maybe they didn't actually do the work!
If Honda did the belt replacemenet, it may be under warranty (12 mo/12000 miles) .
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