I have a 2006 Accord v6, about 150,000 miles. Last week on a road trip I got a flat tire, so we took it to the closest Big O Tires to get it fixed. While they were checking everything out, they said the serpentine belt looked like it was shredding, so I had them replace it just to be safe for the roadtrip (even though it was overpriced).

We got back on the road and about 50 miles later, all the lights on the dash come on and the car shuts off. Very similar to what happened when my alternator went out so naturally I thought the serpentine must've been put on wrong and snapped or something, causing the car to die. Check under the hood and the brand new serpentine belt is starting to shred.

Got it towed to a shop, engine code was saying problem with the crankshaft position sensor. The mechanic takes my car for the day and says the serpentine belt was shredding and the strip coming off got tangled up with the timing belt (image below), so the whole timing belt system needed to be replaced. He fixed all that, but said there was still no compression. Keep in mind i have a non-interference engine so the engine should've been fine even after the timing belt went out.

Checks it out then tells me the engine over heated, causing some of the belt to melt into the engine (i think he said into the crankshaft but can't really remember). Says I need a new engine.

Does this sound like a plausible explanation or is this guy messing with me?

Also worth mentioning - he charged me $480 labor + $250 parts to replace all the timing belt stuff and the serpentine belt. He will charge me $720 labor to replace the engine and thinks i can find a used engine for about $1000. This seems oddly cheap to me. He owns a shop in Long Beach for reference. What should I do??

 

Honda V6 engines are ALL interference engines. If it broke the belt it almost certainly bent valves.

Having that ball of accessory belt get wrapped around the crank between the crank pulley and timing cover will generate a lot of friction and heat so it's possible the belt melted.

 

Thanks! My engine is a 3.0L V6 which i thought was non-interference? How can I find out for sure?

 

Service information says the engine is non-interference type.

However I can tell you I have personally replaced the valves in more than a few 3.0 engines,over the past 26 years, where the belt broke and the valves bent.....