So my beloved CR-V is pretty much dead right now with a ruined crankshaft end from a loose/failed crankshaft bolt. Heard a terrible vibrating noise from the engine while just driving around as usual, checked it out and saw the balancer wobbling. Turned the motor off, then towed to my shop. I was hoping it was just a failing harmonic balancer, but after taking it all apart, it is much worse than that. It looks like the bolt had come loose and or failed, leading to a loose harmonic balancer. The loose balancer had ruined the end of the crankshaft by gauging the keyway, and rubbing the notches on the side smooth. To make matters worse, the bolt broke off inside the crank when I attempted to remove it. This leads me to believe the bolt may have been the culprit here. Last time that bolt was out was when I changed the timing belt about 4 years/60k ago with all new OEM parts and torque specs.



smooth crank edge


broken bolt


ruined keyway


I am thinking that I will have to swap in another motor. A much easier and economical option in my mind, as opposed to a rebuild/crank replacement. I have seen low mileage (40kish) JDM market engines for around 500 bucks, so not a terrible price.

Still surprised that this even happened, as this is not a common failure point for these B series motors. This is very similar to the early NA Miata short nose crank failures. My CR-V is one of my favorite cars, even amongst my collection of much nicer/faster cars. I want to fix my CR-V, as opposed to selling the shell, as the rest of the car is in perfect shape. It has always been taking care of to the highest standards.

What do you all think about this? And any good sources for a good replacement motor?

EDIT: I fixed this by extracting the bolt, then replacing the bolt and harmonic balancer. Fixed the keyway with a new keyway surrounded by JB weld. No problems so far.