I just took my 1990 honda prelude si into the shop (EconoLube) to get some work done. They were to replace the two front CV Joints, change transmission fluid, and change a couple belts under the hood. The reason for changing the belts is that there was a fairly loud squeaking noise coming from under the hood especially when i was in idle. This was gonna be $600....

So we agree and tell them to go ahead... One of the guys calls back in a couple hours and says when they were changing / taking off the belts, the "Harmonic Balance broke loose and fell to the floor." He goes on and on about what it is, what it's connected to, and then tells me it's gonna be an extra $250 for parts/labor to fix this. Does anyone know if this sounds legit?!? Damn, pretty soon it's not gonna be worth the cost of fixing! I am so fustrated, the total will now be over $900... Any suggestions??

 

Guess what man, you're getting FUCKED

 

Yea, i pretty much figured that much, thanks... Can you elaborate please? Do you know anything about the 'harmonic balancer'?

 

Harmonic balancer is sealed inside the block, at least on Hseries motors it is.. I call bullshit on this one, randomly show up and ask them to show you where it fell off...

 

There's Harmonic "Dampener" on the H-series crank pulley...did they drop your crank pulley? If it fell how is it your fault such that you have to pay for it?

 

The crank pulley and the harmonic dampener are the same thing. On the late model Preludes the crank pulley happens to also be a harmonic dampener so the term can be used interchangably.

What they are saying is that your crank pulley was loose, or not bolted on properly, or something to that effect, or even that the rubber spacer has seperated the two halves of the pulley. All these things seem unlikely to the point where the pulley would just drop off.

 

i'm fairly certain that the harmonic balancers are internal on B21's and old school B20's as well. i call bullshit, BIG TIME, tell those guys that if something "fell to the floor" that they have to replace it b/c they dropped it, and that's what made it **** up.

if push comes to shove, tell them you will have your lawyer contact them and see what they say!

 

Actually now that I reread the original post, I'm pretty certain none of the 3rd Gen motors had harmonic balancing crank pulleys.

FYI, there's no such thing as an internal harmonic balancer. I'm not certain what you guys are thinking about, but it's probably the balance shafts, which are different.

 

Not all that unlikely. I see two or three a year that come in with the two halves seperated. They are usually accompanied by a complaint of a noise or the battery light is on.

 

that's actually what i meant, H22 have 2 harmonic balnce shafts

 

There is a difference between balancer shafts and harmonic balancers. They are not the same thing.

 

i know that, i laready said that, but i meant that... you know what nevermind...... i didn't think that older preludes had a harmonic balncers, i thought they had shafts like the H22, i've never worked on one of those, but i've seen pics..... regardless , i think someone is probably getting scrwed on thsi deal