Timing belt or timing chain...
03-25-2008
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Timing belt or timing chain...
I have talked with Honda and did a ton of research and I keep getting conflicting reports on whether or not a 2006 EX has a timing belt or maintenance free chain. So, for the record, does an 8th gen LX/EX/DX have a chain or a belt? If you don't know 100%, please don't reply.
Thanks!
Thanks!
03-27-2008
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Re: Timing belt or timing chain...
well the shop says the si uses a chain and ex uses a hybrid chain/belt. and on majestic honda, the ex pic does show elements of both. im pretty sure the SI is full chain, but the ex seems to be something different. honda parts says they are both chains tho...
but really, idk why you care either way. belts are quieter and last 100k miles or longer, and they are lighter. if i had to choose, i would take a belt anyday. most hi end cars and racecars all use belts.
but really, idk why you care either way. belts are quieter and last 100k miles or longer, and they are lighter. if i had to choose, i would take a belt anyday. most hi end cars and racecars all use belts.
Last edited by gearbox; 03-27-2008 at 10:23 AM.
03-28-2008
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well the shop says the si uses a chain and ex uses a hybrid chain/belt. and on majestic honda, the ex pic does show elements of both. im pretty sure the SI is full chain, but the ex seems to be something different. honda parts says they are both chains tho...
but really, idk why you care either way. belts are quieter and last 100k miles or longer, and they are lighter. if i had to choose, i would take a belt anyday. most hi end cars and racecars all use belts.
but really, idk why you care either way. belts are quieter and last 100k miles or longer, and they are lighter. if i had to choose, i would take a belt anyday. most hi end cars and racecars all use belts.
I guess when one snaps on you prematurely and the engine needs to be overhauled it changes your view on the subject. I'd take a chain anyday, not to mention.. who wants to pay $300 every 60K miles (105K if you are brave) to have it changed. BTW, Gearbox, do you plan on upgrading to an 8th gen?
03-31-2008
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Rep Power: 237 Re: Timing belt or timing chain...
I'd rather have a belt.....I want control & servicability out of ever part.
Chains are loud and sure they might last longer.....you pay me $300 bucks every 100k for a timing belt or 1,000-2,000k for the chain at 150,000 miles....you're choice. I mean how long do you think you'll own the car? You can get 3-4 timing belts for the price of 1 chain.........
Plus doing headgaskets suck w/ chains! just my 2 cents
Get a chain drive 4 cyl. corrola & one of our civic next to each other.......that corolla sounds like a freight truck!
Chains are loud and sure they might last longer.....you pay me $300 bucks every 100k for a timing belt or 1,000-2,000k for the chain at 150,000 miles....you're choice. I mean how long do you think you'll own the car? You can get 3-4 timing belts for the price of 1 chain.........
Plus doing headgaskets suck w/ chains! just my 2 cents
Get a chain drive 4 cyl. corrola & one of our civic next to each other.......that corolla sounds like a freight truck!
Last edited by FoSho; 03-31-2008 at 04:23 PM.
Re: Timing belt or timing chain... 
04-02-2008
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think about it.. all race cars still use motors that were "designed" with belts to begin with. Think b-series and d-series. im talking 2001 and older in general. rsx was the first motor to use the new chain design.
K-series allows u to make power the entire rpm band range. which is why u can have variable cam angles at different rpms. The older delt driven cams had to be locked in. If you set the cams for low end power u lose mid and top end power. u set it for mid range power u lose low end and top end.. most adjustables cams like in the b-series where all tuned for top end assuming we are talking about race cars.
in a k-series you can tune your car for top end while having variable cam angles to make more power at a certain cam angle WHILE still maintaining driveability
K-series allows u to make power the entire rpm band range. which is why u can have variable cam angles at different rpms. The older delt driven cams had to be locked in. If you set the cams for low end power u lose mid and top end power. u set it for mid range power u lose low end and top end.. most adjustables cams like in the b-series where all tuned for top end assuming we are talking about race cars.
in a k-series you can tune your car for top end while having variable cam angles to make more power at a certain cam angle WHILE still maintaining driveability
04-09-2011
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04-10-2011
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Rep Power: 338 Re: Timing belt or timing chain...
like there are acutally bike engines that uses gears instead of chains...
05-28-2011
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I sold my 2004 LX Accord 4cyl, 5 speed manual and bought a 2010 LX Civic automatic. A stupid move on my part. I can find no online resource that tells me if the '10 Civic has a timing chain or belt, nor is there a reference in the WORTHLESS owner's manual to timing belts.
05-28-2011
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Rep Power: 338 Re: Timing belt or timing chain...
LX is NOT a K-series engine, so timing belt
05-29-2011
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sorry, got caught on the 04 LX...
06-19-2011
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After reading this message, anybody can tell whether a vehicle has Timing Belt or has Timing Chain by him/her-self. And nobody needs to remember anything to make the Timing Belt or Timing Chain judgment, he/she get the conclusion by figuring out.
First let me outline the rules, and then explain why.
(1) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is made of separated plastic material, then the engine has Timing Belt.
(2) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is actually an integrated portion of the engine body, and it is therefore must be made of Metal, then the engine has Timing Chain.
Here comes the explanation:
Timing Belt (TB) should never be contaminated by any grease or lubricant.
Timing Chain (TC) must be lubricated by engine oil.
Timing Belt (TB) is made of artificial rubber. Typically, a TB has hundreds of teeth, each tooth is of about 1/6” depth. Because the depth of the teeth is so shallow that any oil, grease contamination to the TB could make the TB suffer from the “teeth slip/jump” risk (which will cause Timing Error issue). And inside the engine body, there are paths/tunnels for engine oil to flow from oil pump to all the mechanical moving/rotating parts like piston rings, bearings, rocking arms and etc. in order to offer lubrication services. To make sure that the engine oil cannot sneak into the TB housings from the engine main body, the best strategy to design the engineer is (1) safely seal the crankshaft & camshaft bearings (2) using separated Plastic Housing to protect the TB from being damaged by foreign material like dirt and water. Therefore, we have Plastic Housing to cover the TB.
Timing Chain (TC) is made of metals. Whenever there is relative motion between any metal surfaces, lubricant is used to extend the life-span of the contacting surfaces. It is the most economical idea to just make use of the already existing engine oil and oil pump system of the typical gas engine to provide the lubrication service to the TC. Everybody knows (i) temperature of the engine oil could be very high when the engine is running normally, and (ii) engine oil Leak is a very common headache to the engine. For fact (i) the TC protect housing can not be made of Plastic Material. For fact (ii), if the TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body itself, then the oil seals of the TC housing can be much more reliable implemented than it will be if a separated housing design is adopted. What did I just say? TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body? Is that clear to you that the TC housing must also be made of Metal?
First let me outline the rules, and then explain why.
(1) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is made of separated plastic material, then the engine has Timing Belt.
(2) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is actually an integrated portion of the engine body, and it is therefore must be made of Metal, then the engine has Timing Chain.
Here comes the explanation:
Timing Belt (TB) should never be contaminated by any grease or lubricant.
Timing Chain (TC) must be lubricated by engine oil.
Timing Belt (TB) is made of artificial rubber. Typically, a TB has hundreds of teeth, each tooth is of about 1/6” depth. Because the depth of the teeth is so shallow that any oil, grease contamination to the TB could make the TB suffer from the “teeth slip/jump” risk (which will cause Timing Error issue). And inside the engine body, there are paths/tunnels for engine oil to flow from oil pump to all the mechanical moving/rotating parts like piston rings, bearings, rocking arms and etc. in order to offer lubrication services. To make sure that the engine oil cannot sneak into the TB housings from the engine main body, the best strategy to design the engineer is (1) safely seal the crankshaft & camshaft bearings (2) using separated Plastic Housing to protect the TB from being damaged by foreign material like dirt and water. Therefore, we have Plastic Housing to cover the TB.
Timing Chain (TC) is made of metals. Whenever there is relative motion between any metal surfaces, lubricant is used to extend the life-span of the contacting surfaces. It is the most economical idea to just make use of the already existing engine oil and oil pump system of the typical gas engine to provide the lubrication service to the TC. Everybody knows (i) temperature of the engine oil could be very high when the engine is running normally, and (ii) engine oil Leak is a very common headache to the engine. For fact (i) the TC protect housing can not be made of Plastic Material. For fact (ii), if the TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body itself, then the oil seals of the TC housing can be much more reliable implemented than it will be if a separated housing design is adopted. What did I just say? TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body? Is that clear to you that the TC housing must also be made of Metal?
06-19-2011
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Only if when you are talking about the Harley-Davidson motor bike, then the output power of the belt-driving bike MIGHT be weaker than that of the chain-driving ones could achieve.
Unlike the motor bike’s power transmission system, neither the Timing Chain nor the Timing Belt of a car is to drive the output wheels directly; it is the other end (other than the end that is to drive all the peripheral devices like alternator, power steeling, air-condition compressor…) of Crankshaft that is to output the engine power to the gearbox/torque-converter.
The Timing Chain/Belt is only responsible to overcome the strength of the engine valve springs as to open/close the in-valves and out-valves at precise moment. So long the Timing Belt/Chain can do a perfect job in handling valves opening/closing TIMING-ly, the output power of the engine will automatically be generated.
The burden of the Timing Belt/Chain won’t be different whether the car is cruising without any loading on the flat highway or climbing uphill with tons of loading on the steep mountain area.
Unlike the motor bike’s power transmission system, neither the Timing Chain nor the Timing Belt of a car is to drive the output wheels directly; it is the other end (other than the end that is to drive all the peripheral devices like alternator, power steeling, air-condition compressor…) of Crankshaft that is to output the engine power to the gearbox/torque-converter.
The Timing Chain/Belt is only responsible to overcome the strength of the engine valve springs as to open/close the in-valves and out-valves at precise moment. So long the Timing Belt/Chain can do a perfect job in handling valves opening/closing TIMING-ly, the output power of the engine will automatically be generated.
The burden of the Timing Belt/Chain won’t be different whether the car is cruising without any loading on the flat highway or climbing uphill with tons of loading on the steep mountain area.
06-19-2011
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After reading this message, anybody can tell whether a vehicle has Timing Belt or has Timing Chain by him/her-self. And nobody needs to remember anything to make the Timing Belt or Timing Chain judgment, he/she get the conclusion by figuring out.
First let me outline the rules, and then explain why.
(1) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is made of separated plastic material, then the engine has Timing Belt.
(2) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is actually an integrated portion of the engine body, and it is therefore must be made of Metal, then the engine has Timing Chain.
Here comes the explanation:
Timing Belt (TB) should never be contaminated by any grease or lubricant.
Timing Chain (TC) must be lubricated by engine oil.
Timing Belt (TB) is made of artificial rubber. Typically, a TB has hundreds of teeth, each tooth is of about 1/6” depth. Because the depth of the teeth is so shallow that any oil, grease contamination to the TB could make the TB suffer from the “teeth slip/jump” risk (which will cause Timing Error issue). And inside the engine body, there are paths/tunnels for engine oil to flow from oil pump to all the mechanical moving/rotating parts like piston rings, bearings, rocking arms and etc. in order to offer lubrication services. To make sure that the engine oil cannot sneak into the TB housings from the engine main body, the best strategy to design the engineer is (1) safely seal the crankshaft & camshaft bearings (2) using separated Plastic Housing to protect the TB from being damaged by foreign material like dirt and water. Therefore, we have Plastic Housing to cover the TB.
Timing Chain (TC) is made of metals. Whenever there is relative motion between any metal surfaces, lubricant is used to extend the life-span of the contacting surfaces. It is the most economical idea to just make use of the already existing engine oil and oil pump system of the typical gas engine to provide the lubrication service to the TC. Everybody knows (i) temperature of the engine oil could be very high when the engine is running normally, and (ii) engine oil Leak is a very common headache to the engine. For fact (i) the TC protect housing can not be made of Plastic Material. For fact (ii), if the TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body itself, then the oil seals of the TC housing can be much more reliable implemented than it will be if a separated housing design is adopted. What did I just say? TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body? Is that clear to you that the TC housing must also be made of Metal?
First let me outline the rules, and then explain why.
(1) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is made of separated plastic material, then the engine has Timing Belt.
(2) If the covering house of the Timing Mechanism is actually an integrated portion of the engine body, and it is therefore must be made of Metal, then the engine has Timing Chain.
Here comes the explanation:
Timing Belt (TB) should never be contaminated by any grease or lubricant.
Timing Chain (TC) must be lubricated by engine oil.
Timing Belt (TB) is made of artificial rubber. Typically, a TB has hundreds of teeth, each tooth is of about 1/6” depth. Because the depth of the teeth is so shallow that any oil, grease contamination to the TB could make the TB suffer from the “teeth slip/jump” risk (which will cause Timing Error issue). And inside the engine body, there are paths/tunnels for engine oil to flow from oil pump to all the mechanical moving/rotating parts like piston rings, bearings, rocking arms and etc. in order to offer lubrication services. To make sure that the engine oil cannot sneak into the TB housings from the engine main body, the best strategy to design the engineer is (1) safely seal the crankshaft & camshaft bearings (2) using separated Plastic Housing to protect the TB from being damaged by foreign material like dirt and water. Therefore, we have Plastic Housing to cover the TB.
Timing Chain (TC) is made of metals. Whenever there is relative motion between any metal surfaces, lubricant is used to extend the life-span of the contacting surfaces. It is the most economical idea to just make use of the already existing engine oil and oil pump system of the typical gas engine to provide the lubrication service to the TC. Everybody knows (i) temperature of the engine oil could be very high when the engine is running normally, and (ii) engine oil Leak is a very common headache to the engine. For fact (i) the TC protect housing can not be made of Plastic Material. For fact (ii), if the TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body itself, then the oil seals of the TC housing can be much more reliable implemented than it will be if a separated housing design is adopted. What did I just say? TC housing is an integrated portion of the engine body? Is that clear to you that the TC housing must also be made of Metal?
Honestly TB vs TC to me doesnt matter. Just because you change timing belts often (100k miles) Doesnt mean that you never change a timing chain. I realise its a much longer interval but it still needs to be changed at some point I would imagine at around 250k-300k. I would also imagine it cost alot more. So either way chain or belt there is no such thing as a maintenance free car. If you base your car buying on if the car has a chain or belt then I would say that you are really looking at minor things to save money.
For me MPGs, car reviews, as well as OVERALL cost of parts would be a much wiser way of deciding on what car to buy. However this is just my opinion.
09-08-2011
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I have a Civic EX 08 and I am getting emails from Honda Service promotiong the Timing Belt package. I only have 75,000 miles - Isnt it too early to get that done? How much does it cost generally for parts and maint?
09-09-2011
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Yes Just had Transmission and Brake Fluid changed 60 days ago...
Drive on, you have a chain.
Have you changed your brake fluid ??
Due every 3 years.[/quote]
Drive on, you have a chain.
Have you changed your brake fluid ??
Due every 3 years.[/quote]
09-19-2011
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It is definitely a chain on the 1.8L for 2006 and after. View this cutaway:
http://www.worldcarfans.com/10507058...e/lowphotos#8:
http://www.worldcarfans.com/10507058...e/lowphotos#8:
