Remember my thread about OE timing kits on E bay ?

[fastfredracing]

Ya, don't do it.
I drove this car for 6 months. Sold it to my good friends son for his first car . Came back on a tow truck 30 days later, no start . Timing belt broke.
F a kakin water pump is locked up tight . Says Honda right on it . Probably 7 k miles since install .

He is a super good buddy and also a bit of a bad ass, so I just refunded their money and took the car back . Good thing motors are cheap !
Losing a weekend over the whole shebang though .

[DonDavis]

Good on you. Certainly big picture thinking, for sure.

So they reman'd a Honda pump and sold as new OE? grrrr

[mattdavis11]

Thanks for the heads up. I own 2 of those cars, 04 TL and 07 TLS, they have different motors, 3.2 and 3.5. I assume that is a 3.2. Wife has a MDX, 3.7.

I need to get after the timing belt on all 3.

[fastfredracing]

I probably saved $50 by purchasing on E bay . I have people ask me about this stuff all the time . It was my own car, so I took a gamble, mostly out of curiosity sake . The boxes, and metallurgy of the parts, def looked very chineesium .
OE parts only from the dealer is my recomendation .
I had a Gates kit hydraulic tensioner fail on my after 2 years . Thank goodness, that one was only making noise and did not grenade the motor .
Im like a pit crew on this motor job. 2nd time is always faster !

[fastfredracing]

I loved this car, and will probably grab another . This one was not in super nice shape. We used it as our rental house stomper .
Id love to find a nice S for a daily .

[Scott Douglas]

My '11 Accord V-6 has never had the belt changed. It has just shy of 50k miles on it now.
Am I playing with fire not changing it?
It is a pure So Cal car, ie it hasn't gone thru the rad temp changes of winter time temps.

[fastfredracing]

I am pretty sure your interval is 110k. I have seen people push them waaaaay past that . I would not risk it though . They are such well built vehicles

[mattdavis11]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

I loved this car, and will probably grab another . This one was not in super nice shape. We used it as our rental house stomper .
Id love to find a nice S for a daily .

The things I have noticed on these cars, 2004-2008, is the seats fall apart and the dash cracks on all of them. Met a guy with a 2008 TLS on Thursday outside a repair shop, like all others, the interior is shot. One huge difference between the TL and TLS is the turning radius. Too many times it's a 3 point turn in the TL, but is a 1 point turn in the TLS. The suspension components are much better in the TLS.

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

I am pretty sure your interval is 110k. I have seen people push them waaaaay past that . I would not risk it though . They are such well built vehicles

I think the manual says something about 7 years or 110k miles, whichever comes first. Guess I'll have to convince the wife preventive measures are the safer way to go.
Thanks!

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Im like a pit crew on this motor job. 2nd time is always faster !

That is what my son said when we had to remove the engine from my Alfa Spyder twice in two weeks. Thought it had popped the oil galley plugs out of the crank as oil pressure was reading ZERO.

Turned out to be a bad gauge. (sigh) Taught me to always check the easy things first.

Did that Acura engine get destroyed because of the water pump seizure?

[mattdavis11]

Yep. Water pump seized, timing belt broke, bent valves. It is an interference engine. He could replace the bent valves, but it is likely easier, and cheaper, to swap another engine in.

[Scott Douglas]

Originally Posted by mattdavis11

Yep. Water pump seized, timing belt broke, bent valves. It is an interference engine. He could replace the bent valves, but it is likely easier, and cheaper, to swap another engine in.

My bad, I didn't think thru the sequence of events. Yeah, it's toast.

[fastfredracing]

Yep,toast. Not even checking . If it was a Subaru, id toss a belt on and prey , but 100% sure this smashed valves .
I can purchase a good used engine for less than just the parts to remove and repair the heads . Its a Honda. these motors are really stout . The only failures I ever see or know of are head gaskets ( my first motor ) , and timing belt snapping .
I like working on Honda products . I already have the new timing belt/water pump kit on , harness swapped, and just set the motor back in the car. I worked from 5;30-8 last night, and from8 am till 2;20 here now .
Being my second time around, all the seized exhaust bolts, and basically, every bolt twisted right out without effort .
I bought this car with a bad motor the first time around .
When it came on the tow truck, I was kind of perplexed as to what happened. They don't usually break down, and I had daily driven it for a long time, car ran 100%.
As soon as I twisted the key I got that sick feeling in my stomach .
I have since resold the car . Just got the motor Wednesday , I have been waiting for several weeks. The salvage yards, loader quit, and they got waaaay behind .
Anywhoo, here is where Im sitting at right now. Ill have it running by lunch tomorrow
V TECH YO!

[Scott Douglas]

I'm with you on Honda, Fred. I love 'em too. I really need to get after the belt in my Accord. It is the car I've always wanted and it goes like stink for what it is, and gets good mileage when it (I) need to.

[stevej37]

Had the timing belt and water pump replacement done last summer at the dealer.
The job looked like too much for me to tackle.

It had 120K miles and it's a 1998 Prelude. Shop bill came to $880
Since then, I've put about 4K more miles on it. It's been a great car.
Local Honda Dealer

[fastfredracing]

Those preludes were probably the hardest of all the Honda timing belt jobs . I did a couple of heads on them back in the day also .
Its hard, but you could have handled it Steve ! Just gotta take a blue bunny break when you get frustrated

[SCadaddle]

I think the later Subarus with a timing belt spec'd 110k or 110 months. I replaced all the timing components in my new to me 05 Legacy wagon in 2015 when I bought it showing only 66k miles. About $750 for deep discounted OEM dealer parts from online dealers in either the Northeast or Northwest USA.

At the time, I had a friend that worked for Gates travelling the country giving seminars to Indys using Gates products. Told him I found a Youtube video of a Subaru owner ripping Gates by outing their component kits, supposedly pitched as OEM stuff and sold online, as actually being inferior chinese garbage. He watched the video and had his upper management look into it. That resulted in many major changes in their kits/suppliers/tech support.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I pretty much only use FCP Euro for reasons exactly like this.

[stevej37]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Its hard, but you could have handled it Steve ! Just gotta take a blue bunny break when you get frustrated

After watching a couple youtube videos on it....I realized I would be making at least 6 different trips for parts and tools. (closest one is 5 miles) and I might screw something up.
Instead, I waited for the dealer to call...while eating BB Load'd Bars.

Plus..He fixed those aggravating leaks.

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6

I pretty much only use FCP Euro for reasons exactly like this.

Does FCP sell Asian parts also ?