ELHatchyBlanco

I jus got my car back from my mechanic, he put on a new dizzy cap, wires, spark plugs, and ignition rotor. Now he's telling me that my timing belt skipped a tooth or 2. I never had any problem with my timing belt before, and before i sent my car to the shop it was sittin infront of my house for a month and a half b/c it wouldnt start. How can it skip a tooth while not even being used? He said it was from trying to start it over n over again. (my car was cranking but had no spark)
Is my timing really off b/c of that, or did he try and make some extra $$?
My car is backfiring bad, is really slow, and the engine shakes real bad when i'm sitting still and press the gas. It's a dx motor by the way. I rather jus buy a swap instead of fixin this but i need to kno for sure.
He had to retard my distributor by loosening the bolt and moving all the way to one side. If it moves from that position the car shuts off. IS THIS ALL JUST THE TIMING BELT??

B18C5-EH2

If your timing is off a tooth of even two, it will run like ****.

It is possible that the belt jumped timing from trying to start the car if the belt was loose.

Have you tried to see if the timing is off by using atiming light?

Sprfreek

yeah he's right ... a mechanic knowing WTF he's talking about with a honda ... intresting ... but yeah get it fixed .. i'd tell you to fix it yoursaelf because ti's easy but yuou coulden't so cap rotor and wires so ... have him fix it

HondaFanatic708

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Sprfreek &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">yeah he's right ... a mechanic knowing WTF he's talking about with a honda ... intresting ... but yeah get it fixed .. i'd tell you to fix it yoursaelf because ti's easy but yuou coulden't so cap rotor and wires so ... have him fix it</TD></TR></TABLE> Check your timing with a timing light like B18C5 said. If you notice any discrepancies there then remove the inspection covers... I would recommend having the dealership in your town take a look at it if you don't feel confident taking **** apart. If you don't know what you are doing don't touch it... Honda motors are "interferance" meaning that iff your timing is too far off your valves will be pounding your pistons, no good...

Sprfreek

simple way is take the valve cover off and then set the crank to TDC (top dead center) it's the far off mark on the crank ... you'll see 3 together and 1 way off by itself that is TDC.

then you'll see a line in the timing belt cover .. line up the TDC mark with that line ...

now take off the valve cover and make sure the lines on the [cam] sprocket are at 9, 1, and 6 .. or is it 9 11 and 6?i can't remember ..

ELHatchyBlanco

My timing belt wasn't loose. There was no problems with my belts at all. There's something about this mechanic thats alil shady. He specializes in hondas and he has a real nice bubble. And he knows what he's doing, but it seems like he's trying to make extra $. For ex: my door latch was broken, so when i brought my car in for the new dizzy cap etc., he said he'll fix it for me, he didnt even put it on da bill. Then when my car is done he tells me he didnt fix it cuz its not on the bill. Then i pick it up, and he's charging me $97 for putting a used latch in my car which he had in his garage. My belt wasn't loose n I didn't have timing problems before. Maybe cuz of the cap n rotor the timing was thrown off but isn't he supposed to handle that when he put in a new rotor?
How tight is the timing belt suppose to be anyway (so i can be sure )

SOHC_MShue

if your car is running like **** then it does sound like your timing is off. This isn't something that is hard to fix so why not get a helms manual and learn how to do it yourself. You'll thank yourself for spending the $50 on a helms manual because you won't be getting *** raped by mechanics charging you probably a good bit of money just to change your plugs, wires, cap, and rotor .

Sprfreek

bring it to buffalo Ny i'll fix it

CardDealer

Modified by CardDealer at 4:03 PM 11/17/2006

Who Said

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by schlit &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How do you know your timing belt isnt loose? you dont even know how to put a cap and rotor on. Do you know what a timing belt is and how you know it isnt loose? When did your car start running like crap? This guy sounds like he's right from the symptoms you briefly described. You seem to have already judged this guy.</TD></TR></TABLE>
agreed

if you think hes giving it to you in the ***....take it to a honda dealer theyll give it to you in the *** with no lube

00CIVICwB18C1

when he replaced your distibutor he may have misaligned it on purpose when he put everything back together. If your belt was tight and you didn't have problems before, it's probably something as simple as adjusting the position of the distributor and he just wants more money out of you.

B18C5-EH2

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ELHatchyBlanco &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> For ex: my door latch was broken, so when i brought my car in for the new dizzy cap etc., he said he'll fix it for me, he didnt even put it on da bill. Then when my car is done he tells me he didnt fix it cuz its not on the bill. Then i pick it up, and he's charging me $97 for putting a used latch in my car which he had in his garage.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Dude you have NO idea just how difficult it is to replace a door latch. My shop's labor is probably like $250.00 or so, plus the price of the latch.

Consider yourself lucky.

(That is if you really meant the latch, and not the inner handle or something minor.)

ELHatchyBlanco

I could have replaced the cap n rotor myself, and the plugs and wires. But i took it to this mechanic because I'd be assed out if that wasnt the reason my car wasnt getting any power. My timing belt never seemed loose and never gave me any problems. It's just that this mechanic seems shady sometimes. I don't know everything about honda motors but I know enough to know when something doesn't seem right. I just don't wanna spend over $300 to fix something thats not broke. If the timing belt jumps a tooth or 2, then isn't it still good? Can't I just get it re-aligned?

struppi

I don't see why the timing belt would have skipped just from starting and restarting if it has proper tension. Why don't you check the timing first if you think he is scamming you? If you don't have a light, mark the current position of the distributer and just loosen it and rotate is a little in both directions to see if you can get it running better. If the timing belt is on okay, you should be able to adjust it well enough to at least stop backfiring. If you cant, your timing belt is probably off.

Sprfreek

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by riversideguy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I don't see why the timing belt would have skipped just from starting and restarting if it has proper tension. Why don't you check the timing first if you think he is scamming you? If you don't have a light, mark the current position of the distributer and just loosen it and rotate is a little in both directions to see if you can get it running better. If the timing belt is on okay, you should be able to adjust it well enough to at least stop backfiring. If you cant, your timing belt is probably off. </TD></TR></TABLE>


d00d .. weak belt tensioner .. plus the craZy torque of an electric honda starter motoR = maddd tooth skippin with madd starts y0

evade this honda

it sounds like hes tryin to make some extra funds, if it was in his hands when this happened then hes responsible to fix it if he broke it

BeerMan

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SOHC_MShue &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">if your car is running like **** then it does sound like your timing is off. This isn't something that is hard to fix so why not get a helms manual and learn how to do it yourself. You'll thank yourself for spending the $50 on a helms manual because you won't be getting *** raped by mechanics charging you probably a good bit of money just to change your plugs, wires, cap, and rotor .</TD></TR></TABLE>



Learn to DIY. You never have to worry about labor charges anymore.

Its not like you could really do anything about it anyway. If he screwed you he screwed you. Everbody gets taken to the cleaners once.

It definately sounds like your timing belt is off. Just fix it yourself and never go back.

I bought a $500 dollar CX once and it turned out the timing was off 180 degrees. It ran how you describe your car running.


Modified by BeerMan at 3:56 PM 4/14/2004

swaplighter

d00d .. weak belt tensioner .. plus the craZy torque of an electric honda starter motoR = maddd tooth skippin with madd starts y0

thats a joke right? belts dont just loosen up. they just break. but dont just loosen up. unless previously fucked with and not done properly. how in the hell is you trying to start the car going to loosen a timing belt?
im drunk...