Sorry for the newbie question, but I haven't owned a car with a timing chain before. Quick question about an 2003 Accord, ~105k miles.

A few days ago I had a slow start (older battery + cold, I think), but it started with a little gas. Right then, the CEL came on, but I was able to drive home. Once I got home, though, I noticed the engine stalled right away. Since then, I've had a similar symptom - engine starts and runs ok (in park, drive, and neutral) but once the engine temp raises and the idle RPM drops below 1k it stalls when I stop. Unfortunately I don't have a code reader, so I couldn't pull off the error code. It's cold out, and I don't have time to start troubleshooting myself (originally thinking a random sensor needed replaced), so decided to take it in.

I took it in to a dealer today, and he just called saying that the issue was that the timing chain skipped. I haven't driven on it much since this happened, so he didn't think that it any further damage was done. He quoted ~$1400 to replace the chain, tensioner, and VTEC accuator. Sound about right?

Poke around it seems like this isn't common, but not unheard of. Besides the sticker shock, I'm a little concerned about any other damage. He seemed to think everything looked fine, and the engine was well maintained, but I thought I'd ask since it doesn't seem like a common problem.

Thanks in advance

 

well its not a very common problem but i have replace a few of those chain tensioners and usually depending on how many teeth it jumped it could have bent some valves.