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I am working on a friends 2007 civic ex i think it is, trying to swap water pumps. the problem i have and been having is the belt tensioner bolt. to make a long story short, had to cut the bolt head off but cant turn the bolt, only moves a little in each direction. dont want to heat it to much beings it has an aluminum block. cut remaining bolt off and been trying to drill out the bolt, its not working. can only get in on a angle and drilling is slow. please help with any tips, tricks what ever. thankx mark2w1

 
Rep Power: 518

You're talking about the bolt that takes an Allen wrench, pivot for the tensioner pulley?

You may have opened a huge can of worms there, you can't put the lid back on that one.
Threads may be galled.
IF that hole strips, the next correct step is to replace the block.
A heli-coil may not get installed perfectly straight and then you may be faced with repeatedly snapping off that bolt if the thread insert isn't perfect. And that bolt was already a problem area to begin with.
I sure as hell don't want to deal with a comeback like that, and 99% of customers just don't want to understand it, "It only needed a water pump, why do you say it will be $5000 now?"

FWIW, I'm well aware there is almost no room to work in that area with the engine in the car......but I can have the engine and trans sitting on the floor in about 2 hours.






OTOH, are you positive it is a water pump leaking coolant?
Water pump has been rare for me here.
These crack the block casting and leak coolant. I have had a couple customers come in thinking the pump must be leaking.....but it wasn't.
Warranty covers cracked block for 8 years/unlimited mileage in the USA.

 
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yes positive it is the water pump and yes it is the tensioner belt pivot allen wrench bolt. how hard is it replace the block? was able to drop right side on to the fram, and was able to drill out (somewhat ) the bolt. but i got to thinking about maybe replacing the block due to what the bolt does. how hard is it to swap the block? i dont have a facility just a drive way. it looks like it is attached to the bottom half of the block not the top? thankx mark2w1

 
Rep Power: 518

What would happen at the dealer level is probably far different than what can happen in your driveway or an independent shop.

I really don't know because I don't ever deal with this negotiation area directly, but I think it may go like this: If it were in the dealers shop, phone calls would probably be placed to the district rep, along with an evaluation of the customers' service history in the shop, mileage, and other pertinent info. Looking for any possible warranty consideration or participation. At this point it is all between the service manager and factory reps, and the customer. Some sort of deal may be struck, some agreement between all the parties involved (except me). Or no deal at all, for any number of reasons.
Might be worth a call to the 1-800 customer assistance number to see if they will help the owner.

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Like I said before, that bolt is critical and if you can't get a thread repair perfectly straight, you will probably continue to break that bolt repeatedly. Then it's YOUR fault since you were the last one to touch it.

If you can't get the broken bolt and threads in the block fixed any other way, you would be looking at a used engine. Get one from a late 09 or newer since those have the updated blocks.

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You would need a lot of room under the car to do it my way. The subframe comes out first.

Then I drop the engine and transmission together as a unit, they go out the bottom of the car pretty easy compared to many other cars. Set the engine and trans on a movers dolly, raise the car up off of the assembly and roll it out, then work on whatever you need to.

Takes a good day and a half or two days of continuous work in the shop to replace the engine block. A complete engine replacement would be a bit quicker (no engine teardown).

No clue how long it would take someone in a driveway, or what a independent shop might charge.


HTH

 
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ok thank you this is what i thought. thankx for your advice. i noticed that the hole might be slightly oval at the start of the hole. could a oversize bolt with thread insert work? thankx

 
Rep Power: 518

It's not oval unless you drill it that way.
Oversize bolt? No. The bolt still must pass through the hole in the tensioner, plus there is no room for anything but the Allen head in the recessed hole.
IDK if the aftermarket has anything for these either, but I kinda doubt it.

 
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ok yes i probably did oval it slightly, my knee slipped on ice while drilling. but not sure how bad. ok what is the average cost of a motor? did they make 2009 1.6/1.8l motors and do i need to make any modifications? it currently has a 1.6 in it now. thankx

 
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Answer these questions please:

 
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very funny. most have a 199x vic and posts on the 8/9th gen forums, this is the first case ever that someone with an 8th gen posts on a 1-5th gen forums

 
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Yes north american car, 1.6l ex, not sure of the engine code exaclty. ill find out.

 
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It's a 1.8

 
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hi I have 2008 civic tensioner bolt wouldn't come out strip after lowering motor tried torch after lowering motor still no go cause flames tried to go light every thing else air hammer to cut tensioner away from bolt no dice so tried to fill in with mig welder and a nut broke welds 5 times! Finally took plasma and cut tensioner away pulled it away think heat from plasma is what did it bolt screwed out by hand!!