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I bought a 2001 Civic with only 26K miles. It meets the "replace at 7 year" period, so I bought the belt and water pump, but not the tensioner at the dealer.

Is this an overkill to replace these parts with only 26K on them?

I've also noted the hard time to remove the crankshaft bolt; I remember how hard it was to remove the bolt on the Accord V6.

Would a 300 ft. pd. Milwaukee electric gun be strong enough to do the job?

Thanks for any advice.

 
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You're not supposed to use an impact gun on the crankshaft. Get the pulley tool and a long breaker bar, do it by hand.
I think its probably not too necessary to change that stuff with 26K on the car. I couldnt see either being worn out, unless you're seeing leakage from the waterpump.

 
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that sounds like something that they should have taken care of BEFORE you bought the car...

...unless you bought it from some corner-used car lot...

 
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stuff like that is age dependent too, belts get old from just sitting too. and if it were me, id rather have a higher mileage car than one with too little for how old the car is. daily driving is much better than letting car sit for long periods of time.

 
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Dude.. u dont have to change no timing belt maan.. 7 years of drive appr=90,000 miles u have long way to go.

 
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personally id just look for cracks in the belt and if everything is good, id leave it alone nice car find though!

 
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If you are concerned with the age of the belt then that would be all i would replace. In this case only, I would leave the tensioner and water pump alone as these wont go bad with age.

 
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Thanks for the replies. I bought the crank pulley tool last week because of the advice on this forum. This car was bought through a Honda dealer and was owned by one owner locally. The oil was changed every 3,000 miles. It is Q certified, but they didn't change the belt before the sale.

I'm not a Honda mechanic, but I have been a mechanic for 35 years, so I'm not afraid to do the job; I just want to have everything ready ahead of time, so I don't get half way through the job and find out that I need something special.

I'd hate to get so far and then not be able to get the crank bolt loose, after reading some of the stories on this forum.

Nice forum.

 
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a service manual helps alot too. and just be sure you know exactly how to set the timing and make sure its correct before starting motor.

 
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yeah definitely change the timing belt My dad's 99' Prelude had only 60 thousand miles on it and it was 6 1/2 to 7 years old so he didn't worry about the timing belt cause he figured that it didn't need changing till at least 85k and the stealership never suggested changing it cause it had such low miles. The belt just jumped a couple of teeth on a cam gear one day and bent half the valves in the engine (didn't even break the belt). And Honda charges a $1000 just to pull the head on the engine. Ended up costing a little over three thousand to fix everything, He was pissed!!!

 
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Yes, I already bought the factory Honda shop manual. Something I always do.

 
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What tools do I need to do this? I don't want to spend the $415 for a mechanic to do this. I have the Hayne's manual, so I can follow directions pretty well.

Looking from the front of the car, is the water pump on the right side of the engine? I know it's under the timing belt cover.

 
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No one knows the answer to these questions? About how long will this take if I've never done this before?

 
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baymee, good luck with q certified, they suck, i have that on one of my civics, u have to have prior approval to do any warranty work, its bullshit, i hate em, they are cheap as hell, and dont like to warranty anything

 
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i'm not familar with doing it on a d17, but on a d16 it's seriously just a simple matter of sliding old belt off, sliding new one on. well, with removal of a few things of course, but you don't have to mess with timing or anything.

someone else on here will know better about the d17 than i though.

 
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I know in the Hayne's manual it says to drain the coolant out of the radiator. Anything else I have to do?

 
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honestly i dont think you'd need to replace the water pump, it doesnt seem like it would go bad with age. but yeah, if you're replacing the water pump, you're gonna want to drain and refill with new coolant.

 
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Crap. Oh well. Thanks for the reply. What about special tools to take off the drive belts? Anything I can buy at a local Autozone?

 
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I finally got around to replacing the timing belt and water pump today, after two years of procrastination. I replaced the alternator and power steering belt at the same time while it was apart. My impact didn't budge the crank bolt and I know I'm not supposed to use one anyway. I had the crank holding tool and with a short pipe I was able to free the bolt without too much trouble.

All in all, it took 9 hours and generally speaking, nothing was really difficult about it.

The car has 40K on it, but it's over the 7 years limit.

One thing for sure, I could NEVER have done it without the factory shop manual.

 
Rep Power: 353

^u know u could have downloaded it from this site...lol didnt have to buy it.