About 8 months ago, i was experiecing the infamous rattle noises from my valve cover. I came to find out that the autotensioner was bad and was causing the timing belt to ratle. This was happening around 2500-3000 RPM. Kinda sounded like a penny being shaken in a plastic bottle...Anyways, i was working to damn much at the time to do all this work my self so i had Honda do it.(Mistake) So they "said" they replaced the tensioner and timming belt. The sound went away but on the way home, the car stalled twice while shifting to neutral while driving. When the RPms dropped they just kept dropping and never idled. The car would turn on right away but always had a problem staying on. I found out that Honda did all this work with out disconneting the battery. I knew this cause the clock and Radio settings (stations, bass/tremble levels..ect.) were the same. There was just to much custom settings on my CD player for the tech to put them on the same....

Well after reseting the ECU, the car ran fine, although idel has never been the same. The car vibrates slightly now.

The problem that i have now is that the rattle noise has returned and the car feels sluggish. The timming doesnt feel right and their is slight hesitation in 1st and 2nd gear through low RPMs. What tha hell is going on? Theirs no way the tensioner could be going again? Not after this short of time? Is there any other parts that can affect the tensioners performance?

It costed me $1000 to get this fixed before and there is no way in HELL that im gonna let Honda touch the car again. The work is gonna be done by myself this time. So can someone help me in a few things:

1. What kinda tests can i do to see if the autotensioner is going bad?

2. How can i make sure the car is timed correctly?

3. Although i own a Helms and plan on using it, to anyone who has done autotensioner/timming before. Any special tools or preventions i should be aware off?

4. Is Honda stupid or what?

Sorry for the long thread but this is ridiculous....

Thanks for your help!

 

NE1?

 

Why didn't u have honda relook at the problem 8 months ago (the stalling thing)?

I would take it back to honda, and say that they basically fucked up and you want a inspection free of charge (i think it's free anyway?)

 

Sounds exatcly like the tensioner is going bad.

The best way to check this is by taking off the valve cover and checking the belt tension on the cam sprockets, and on the belt itself.

Lildrgn had the same problem, the Honda dealership did his timing belt and within 6-8 months the tensioner failed and it jumped time.

GO BACK TO HONDA and raise ******* HELL.

 

Well, screw that and buy the H23 manual tensioner. Save some hardache and do that.

Oh, and raise ****** hell to the dealership.

 

I heard that HOnda has a new autotensioner developed. Should i try this new one or go ahead and do the H23 swap?

Im not about to go through all the bullshit Honda puts you through. I dont have the time or the patience. And i seriously doubt they will replace anything after so long of time. THe mistake i made was not take the car back at the time, but i needed to get back and forth to work, this is my ONLY transportation. I need a second beater car bad.

Oh, and if the timing is wrong, how will i go to set it back after i install a new/H23 tensioner? WIll it set itself?

 

just line up your marks, its gonna be a pain in the ***, unless theres more room in the 5th gen than the 4th

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe all OEM honda parts have a 12 month warranty. Especially if they're installed at the dealer.

OT: Will a F22A1 Lude S manual tensioner fit on a H22 block?

 

If you do stick with the H22a4 auto tensioner then yeah you are going to need a special tool. You can get it from Honda for like $14, it's called a stopper or something like that. All it's used for is when you take the auto tensioner off you turn the screw in the bottom of it to bring the spring all the way back in and then you put the stopper on it to keep it from comng back out. Once you mount the auto tensioner back on and put the belt on you just pull that tool off and it readjust on it's own. And as far as setting the timing goes...as long as you still have all the stock pulleys on it they have marks on each one for top dead center. So just turn all of them to TDC and then slip your belt on and you'll be ready to go. It took me like 3 or 4 hours when I did mine so now you kind of know what to expect. Good luck

 

I had almost same exact problem. I made the same mistake of taking it to the dealer because I was somewhat intimidated by doing the timing belt myself. Had dealer "replace" auto-tensioner back in March and in November same noise started up again. Took it into dealer a couple weeks ago to get them to fix it under 1 year service warranty. They tried to tell me this time that is wasn't the tensioner but that the middle and lower covers were warped and rubbing the belt. BS. They did that to try and charge me for the job again instead of covering it under their warranty.

Well that made me decide to do it myself. I am a mechanical engineer so I'm pretty mechanically inclined but have little to experience in car maintinence/repair excpept for fluids, brakes, other basic stuff. Anyways I bought the new kit 06144-P13-305 that I saw posted elsewhere on this forum which included the timing belt and auto-tensioner with holder tool. New tensioner had different P/N markings that the one I removed, but other than that it looked pretty similar. Replaced balancer belt and water pump while I was in there (make sure to drain the coolant before removing the pump or you'll have to break out the shop vac to clean up ). I also got myself a crank pully wrench to hold pully while removing bolt. With the right tools that 180ft/lbs wasn't as bad as I thought.

Pretty much followed Helms manual with a little flipping around pages to see related areas. Took me 2 partial days going very slowly, cleaning up parts, and triple checking everything. Found a couple things that the dealer hadn't put back quite right last time they worked on it. Intake and exhaust cam gears were 1-2 teeth out of sync and flywheel mark was off alignment some from #1 TDC. Made sure to get it perfect when I put belts back on. Also the lower cover seal was pinched and part of it was sticking inside and rubbing against the timing belt. Middle and lower covers are in good condition contrary to what the dealer was trying to tell me. Although I could see rub marks on both halfway between the exhaust cam gear and timing drive pully where the belt would rub when flapping.

Overall I'm extremely happy that I did it myself. It's running perfectly right now and since I spent a lot of time and triple checked everything I'm not worrying about the dealer not having put something back right. And if something else related starts going wrong I'm confident I can get back in there and figure it out. I'd definitely suggest that you get the parts yourself and go for it over a weekend.