Ariah J. Davis

Car: '04 Civic 1.7L Standard Transmission

So I was driving down the road at about 35- 40 mph when I experienced engine failure. Pulled over and tried to crank it. I didnt realize it at the time, but when I tried to turn it on, the only noise I was hearing was the starter spinning. Initially I thought it was a fuel related issue, and tried to fix the problem as it were. Luckily I didnt get as far as to mess with the fuel pump before I stumbled across some people having the same problem. Some people said it could be the timing belt, I do a youtube search and lo and behold, my car is doing and making the same sounds. I'm 100% sure my timing belt snapped now.

I know its going to be a pain to do it myself. I'm fairly mechanically inclined, not so much to know that the timing belt requires occasional maintanence, but enough to work on the car if a single part needs replaced. I'm not sure if I can tackle this issue solo, but willing to give it a try and take the necessary precautions to do so. My question is: Is there any way to check for valve damage before tearing into anything? and if there is valve damage, how hard is it to change out the valves yourself, or is this going to be a non serviceable part?

Also, how likely am I to have valve damage? The engine pretty much immediately died and then I coasted maybe another 500 ft before turning into a neihborhood to park the car.

ezone

#1 inspect and verify the camshaft is no longer connected to the crankshaft.
My first check is to remove the oil cap and look inside (flashlight) while someone else cranks the engine over. IF the pieces of the valvetrain you can see through the hole (rocker arms) never move, that's bad.

Then you can remove the valve cover and upper timing cover if you wish, look inside and see what you can see.

With the valve cover off, you can check valve clearances and if there are some with HUGE gaps, those valves are bent.

In the interest of efficiency, I'd remove the head and send it to a reputable machine shop and let them do it along with all the other inspections a head should receive when it is pulled from an engine.
If the belt let go while driving, I'd say it's a 99.99% sure bet.

If no valve damage, go invest in lottery tickets.

You also need to determine what caused the timing belt to let go. Neglect?
Tensioner pulley or spring failure?
Something locked up?

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

+1 to that. I had my TDC sensor bolt fall off and proceed to eat my timing belt. Left a 1/4" wide strip of timing belt left connecting the cam to the crank. I guess I didn't properly torque the bolt down after changing my head gasket. Needless to say, when I discovered it, the crank pulley was 3/4 turn advanced.

The result: all 16 valves bent. Ended up doing a headgasket job again, complete with replacing all 16 valves, seals, and a trip to the machine shop to make sure the valve guides were all happy.

Pro tip: use hondaautomotiveparts.com or hondaautomotiveparts.com to get all the OEM parts you may need. I'd recommend the former if you're located east coast, the latter if you're west coast.

ezone

Both of those went to the same place? (Majestic Honda)