My mom has a honda prelude that I'm getting, but long story short, it was making this grinding/creaking sound comming from the engine so she put it in the honda shop. Well they said it was the Timing belt tensioner and that it was rusting and had to be replaced. They also said they were going to replace the timing belt and water pump too since they had the engine apart already. Well, they want $1200.00 to do the work and parts. Is that diagnostic right? Is that price right? Is that repair needed? What would a DIY mechanic do??? Please help asap. Its in the shop right now and their just waiting on a part before they start on the engine.

 

Anytime you do something through the dealer, you're going to get an inflated price. I had my timing belt, accessory belt, and water pump changed and it came to $800. That was at a local performance shop. Don't know if that helps you, but I would maybe look around for any local performance shops in your area...If you have the time...see if anyone here knows of any good places in your area

 

Basicly, the water pump is fine. So is the timing belt. They just reccomended that we change it cause the tensioner is getting changed. So basicly, I'm asking how much it should cost, parts and labor, to change the timing belt tensioner alone.

 

If you are mechanically inclined at all I would just go for it. Pick a good weekend and tear in to it! Unless you have had the timing belt and water pump done recently I would reccomend going ahead and replacing them. If you dont feel comfortable DIY then I would definitley find another shop....anywhere BUT the dealer. THE DREADED "D" WORD!!! lol

 

they should harldy be charging any extra labor to replace the tensioner. if they already have the covers off, belt removed it should be much more over just hte cost of the tensioner which isn't much.

a typical waterpump/timing belt job at even a honda dealer around the ny/nj area runs around $475-$600. can't see it being much more in your area.

so another $600 is a little high. however, find out how much they are charging you just to diagnose the problem which would ad to the costs.

 

damn, that's a rip-off. the extra labor is pretty much BS since it would only take about 10 minutes to swap out the tensioners once everything is apart.

a DIY would DIY, so the total cost for the tensioner, timing belt, and water pump would be less than $300, and i would swap the h22 auto tensioner for the h23 manual tensioner.