drumjunkie05

i have a 99 prelude that died on me out of nowhere while driving today. when i went to try and start it back up it didnt want to turn over at all and instead just gave off a steady hissing noise. all the lights and radio work just fine so i dont think its the battery. the car showed no bad signs of anything prior to this happening, it really just died out of nowhere. the car does have 240,000 miles on it but i take real good care of it and it has been running strong ever since iv had it. a couple people seem to think its the timing belt but wanted to see if anyone knew of any other possibilities it could be. also ive heard that when a cars timing belt snaps while driving it could mess up a lot of stuff. wondering if this is always the case and how to tell when it is the case. thank you.

RaysBoomBoomLude

Gas, and spark.


Does it have that?

please search for screw driver trick to find spark.

and well, just crank it a few times, pull the spark plugs.

if it is wet, you got gas.

Jago

you can check the timming belt by removing the oil cap
have sombody crank the engine. while there doing that
shine a light into the valve cover and watch and see if the
intake cam is turning if its not then the belt broke.

jay24k

It's hard to see anything moving in your oil cap. Take your distributor cap off. I think it is like 3 or 4 bolts. Crank the car. If it spins, most likely not your timing belt. If it doesn't spin, timing belt. I say most likely because my auto tensioner failed which might of happened to yours. The cams got off because of the slack in the timing belt. In about 15 minutes you can figure it out.

1. remove dizzy cap.
2. remove valve cover and check the timing belt.

drumjunkie05

thanks for all the relplies. i have confirmed that it was the timing belt but i still dont know if the preludes have the type of engine that bends valves when this snaps. its the 1999 prelude base with v-tec. when it went out i was only doin 25-30 miles an hour and was probably only at around 2,000 rpm when it died. nothing happend to make me think the valves went out but i know there are cars where vavles bend when the timing belt snaps, just dont know if my car is one of them.

jay24k

Many will say yes, but mine did the same at the low gear. Did your timing belt snap or come loose?

The only way to really tell is to replace and do a compression test.

Do you plan on doing this yourself? If so there is a good write up. Takes awhile but you can save a bit unless you know a good mechanic.

I would recommend doing the following since you are replacing it. (This is what others recommended)

Replace these:
Timing Belt
Water Pump
Cam Seals
Crank Seal
Oil Stick Rubber (not sure of the name)
Valve Cover Gasket
Accessory Belts
Auto Tensioner (You can do a manual tensioner mod but more work and Honda replaced the faulty part with a better one)

You are going to need to drain your radiator so get new fluid. I would also do a valve adjustment while you are at it. It's fairly easy.

If you have any questions, feel free to reply. The good people on this site helped with me alot. I'll pass along my experience in doing it. Oh, get all OEM too. You can find the parts at a good price if you google honda auto parts. Forgot the site name, but you can buy everything there. Or call your dealer and ask if they can give you wholesale price. Mine did and it was just a few bucks more.