I have a 96 accord with ~ 136,000 miles on it. I bought the car with about $100 k on it. Moderatly good records. I had the car in the shop for a few things, one of the things I mentioned was startting to hear a few wird nosies. The car sometime sort of grwols wehn it first starts. This has only happened recently and just a couple of time. The engine has always sounded rather ticky. Gas mileage is still very good. well in to the 30's on long freeway trips.

My comments about the noise led the garage to do some checking and they think that either I need some valve work or the timing belt changed. I don't have any records to show the timing belt being replaced. The th

The garage says that to change the belt they would have to do much of the same labor as the valave job, removing parts and such, so that I should replace the timing belt and serpentine belt at the same time.

I asked about the urgency and they said the job would be to repair what I would have to replace if I wait too long and the valve goes.

So after this long winded message, I am looking for a sanity check on whether or not I need to do this work. I typically trust this garage but I know they are slow these days an while I don;t beleive I would be ripped off, I can see them pushing to do some work that would be good to do but perhaps not completly necessary. They are saying about $600 for the valve work, replace the timing belt and replace the serpentine belt.

thnaks for any feedback.

 

If you do not know when the timing belt was replaced, have it and the waterpump replaced. If the belt fails the engine is an interference type, meaning the pistons will hit any open valves if the belt breaks.
As for valve job, are you sure they did not mean valve lash adjustment?

 

I am calling the garage back shortly, they are doing some brake work while waiting for me to tell them what to do so I will verffy the valve work. Does the ~$600 sound right for this type of work, I am sure most of it is labor.

 

I don't know what the shop pricing on parts will be, but probably in the $150 range for the belt kit and another ~$30 for the valve cover gaskets. A few hours, depending on shop rate, and yeah it could be a $600 job to do the belt and adjust the rockers.

 

Ok, the price was for a valve adjustment and to change the timing belt. The belt was changed at 65k so my (regular) mechanic is recommending waiting until 155k miles or so before changing the belt. He says I can wait to do the valve adjusmtent until then as well and in the mean time I can lsiten to see if it getting any nosier or if I start to feel it misfire.

There are a lot of opinions in this forum and on the net about whether or not the valve adjustments really need to be done. I am leaning towards having it done when I do the timing belt in a few months but I did see one post that says if it has never been done, not to mess with it becuase you can start to indroduce other issues on cars this old. Any one here have any thoughts on this?

 

Well I'm an advocate for re building heads. Don't know why it's just always been a pet peeve of mine. If the head comes off rebuild it. If it was rebuilt not to long ago at least re surface it.

Rebuilding a head on an older car with lots of miles on it, and if it was driven hard can push the bottom end to fail faster. Not always the case but re adding compression back into the top end can be hard on the bottom end. Prior to rebuilding a head everything is broken in and worn down together.

For some sick reason all of my previous cars, first thing i did was rebuild the entire engine. But my civic D16Z6 that i recently got i haven't (probably due to not having a job and living off of my wife's income).

All that wind behind me. If it doesn't need to be worked on then don't. If it does then do. Don't fix what ain't broke (unless it's a water pump or timing belt, never hurts to keep on top of those)


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There is a lash or clearance that is needed to be allowed for expansion. Prior to hydraulic lifters this is how the rocker clearance was maintained. If the clearance is too tight the valves will not close, if it is too loose the rockers rockers will make noise and begin to beat on the tip of the valve stem and if left long enough will mushroom the tip. This is a combination of wear from the rockers interaction between the cam lobe and valve stem tip. The clearance can be reduced if the face of the valve or valve seat has worn which will then require the gap to be opened to allow correct seating of the valve.

If resetting the clearance causes issues with engine running there are other problems that have to be fixed. Correct clearance will not cause running issues, it is the specification given for proper valve train operation.