I was not at the failure event, as this is my son's car and I got the info second hand. For the past few days, he had been hearing a whine that sounded like a belt or pulley. We made plans to look into that as soon as we got a relatively warm day, but hadn't gotten to it yet. That detail could be a complete red herring. I have no idea if it's relevant. After the event, the timing belt is still intact. Anyhow, he drove to school, everything fine (except the slight whine). That afternoon, he started up and instantly there was a loud grinding sound. Obviously he should have shut it down, but he tried to pull out and within seconds he heard a loud thud and the engine died. He tried to start it back up and it did turn over and run, again with the loud grinding. He shut it down and we had it towed back to the house. There's a fair bit of oil on the underside of the car and at the back of the engine bay, seeming to emanate from the passenger side. My first thought was a blown seal of some sort. He tells me he checked the oil level a couple weeks ago and it was fine. I haven't dug into this process yet, it being cold out and everything in a civic so tightly crammed together. I wanted to get a plan for troubleshooting first. Any thoughts?

 

The engine has a timing chain, not a timing belt.

 

Thanks for the roast. Would you like to offer some help?

 

Does it still have oil on the dip stick?

Remove the accessory belt and see if the noise stops?

Check the block for new windows.