hey, i have a 99 lude, base, 5spd, and got done doing the timing belt, tensioner/bearing and some other stuff, was a lil tough but got everything done alright, the thing is, I think I tightened the balancer belt a lil too tight but it still has good slack, but I can hear it a lil bit, is this something to worry about or will it eventually loosen up?

 

What tools did you use to do the timing belt? I priced getting it done and it is $600+....expensive!!!! How hard was it? I've got a helm book and it states that you have to remove an engine mount and support the engine while doing this. I'm just really curious as to the real costs associated with it.

FYI: I was told by a Honda Technician that some of the newer Preludes have an auto-tensioner that is faulty and they offer an upgraded tensioner kit for about $128.

 

If you buy a new autotensioner, is it automatically the newer design? Or, is it possible they may still sell you one of the faulty older ones??

 

ok, first off, my tensioner was bad, I only have 57K miles so I didnt want to have to do it, but while im in there I might as well have replaced the belt. There is a reason they charge 600 bucks.... I have done timing belts on civics and integras, and this was nothing close to being the same. The h22 has little to no room in the timing cover area and everything was a bitch to get to. However, once it was all said and done I believe if I were to do it again it would go smoother. I had the helms scanned also. Yes you do have to remove the driver side motor mount, and support it with a jack, and lower the motor a little bit so you can get to the bottom timing components from the bottom of the car, otherwise they will be blocked by the frame etc. And the infamous tensioner prob is this.... it isnt the actual tensioner that is faulty, it is the bearing, the bearing is faulty and it causes the tensioner to go bad, so you need both if you are doing it. Also, there is a little counter balance belt inside of there that you should probably replace. Most of the problems I ran into were stupid little things that had I known the little trick to doing it would have saved me a lot of time, like the bottom piece of the timing cover, there isnt enough room to slide it right down, so you have to slide it back towards the firewall, then down, then forward etc. Anyways, sorry for the book, if you guys wanna know anything else about it let me know, it was a royal beotch, but once you get through it you will feel like you can do it again. Also I had a 30 dollar tool from snap-on that locks the cam timing in place so you dont have to play with it, it was worth every penny, youll still need to do the bottom timing but thats not bad.

 

oh also, I asked the dealer about a new re-designed tensioner and they said they had not offered one, just a better bearing, but since the bearing is the one that makes the tensioner go bad, then thats all that matters.