I'll try to keep this short.

The car - 2003 Civic Si, 170,000 miles. So it's dual overhead cam and uses a timing chain.

I had loud valve ticking so I took it in for another valve clearance adjustment. Last one was about 60k miles ago or so. Shop found a really badly worn exhaust cam (i'll post pics sometime, never seen one this bad). So I had the exhaust cam replaced with an OEM cam.

Left the shop, car stalled at every light. Same thing every time, clutch to the floor and RPMs dropped to zero. It restarted fine every time and there was no CEL. Took it back immediately, the guy started it and it idled and drove fine. I took it home, ran an errand that night and went to work in the morning. No issues.

I left work and because I'm in a parking garage I noticed a distinct whine that changes with engine RPM. I did notice this on my way home from the shop so it didn't just start but was not there before I had the cam replaced. Left the garage and it stalled at every light again. Stopped in a parking lot, turned off the car and restarted it and it's been fine since.

There are no obvious vacuum leaks around the valve cover and all sensors appear to be plugged in right.

So my question... although I have an appointment to drop it back off at the shop, is there anything that I can look at myself to avoid having to deal with the BS of getting a ride to work when I leave it? Could the timing be off by one tooth and still run fine some of the time? Is the "ECM Idle learn procedure" from the factory service manual necessary?

Any input is appreciated. I'd really like to avoid having to bring it into the shop again.

 

timing could be off, hard to say if it was its usually evident immediately and constantly though. i sure hope you took it to a honda dealer.

 

Nope, independent shop. The car has only seen the dealer (except for tires/alignment) up until this time. I went to an independent shop after having them install aftermarket springs/struts since they were listed as a tirerack installer. They treated me well so I gave them a shot for this cam replacement. They've been good to me so far. He told me to bring it in tomorrow even though he was already booked so he can look at it before the holiday weekend.

I kind of thought timing would be a constant problem, not intermittent.

edit: maybe it's time for a new car. I've owned this one since it was brand new. I'm liking this no car payment thing