'16 Pilot - Timing belt replacement questions
- Thread starter parshisa
- Start date
I have done four Aisin timing belt/water pump replacements on Honda vehicles with the J35 engine. The first time took me ~8 hours....the last one took ~6 hours.
None of it is difficult...just take your time and be methodical. Keep all of the bolts segregated and grouped with the respective component it was removed from. I use small Ziplock bags and magnetic parts trays to group the loose items. Take photos before disassembling if you are not certain where the parts belong.
Also, I have never been able to torque the crankshaft pulley bolt to the +60 degrees position criteria on any Honda engine (6 cylinder or 4 cylinder), so don't stress over that step. The owner of a very respected local Honda specialist shop that has been in business for 35 years told me they just use a standard 19mm impact socket with the wrench set on high and gun it 2 times after it will not longer turn. I no longer use the hex pulley holding tool when tightening with the impact wrench...this allows the crankshaft rotation to "give" enough to prevent over-torquing the bolt. Never had a crank bolt loosen or break in over 20 years.
I'm pretty sure the 2016 Pilot uses a mechanical (i.e., not hydraulic) tensioner for the serpentine accessory drive belt. The previous generation J35 motors have a hydraulic tensioner for the serpentine (not timing) belt which requires a very unique and critical air bleeding procedure.
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I did my 2015 for the first time a while back.
#1 - Not a bad idea. The drain plug on a 2015 is along the bottom of the radiator. Look for the opening in the splash guard underneath about 2/3 of the way from the passenger side to the driver's side. You can't really see the drain plug from underneath, but you can feel it. There is supposedly a socket that's designed for it, I reached down from the hood with a crescent wrench to get it started. Take the radiator cap off FIRST, and don't unscrew it too far or it will shoot the drain plug out and coolant will shoot out sideways and make a lake on your garage floor. Ask me how I know. The block drain plug is on the back side of the engine block. You'll still get some coolant spilling out when the water pump comes off.
#2 Yes! If you don't, the engine will sag and it might mangle the threads on the motor mount bolts when they let go if they are still under tension. The engine can support itself without the upper motor mount, but I just left a jack under the engine for the whole job so the mount bolts were relatively easy to take out and reinstall.
#3 Not necessary, but it would make the engine easier to turn. If you don't, take it slow turning the engine up to #1, because the compression will let go quickly and you might overshoot slightly. Ask me how I know.
Good call on the Lisle impact socket, I bought one and the crank bolt came off with no sweat, even with my modest 450 ft-lb air impact.
Only things I can add are:
Pull the pin out of the tensioner quickly. I tried wiggling it out with my finger. Big mistake. I got one end free, and the tensioner slowly extended and bent it into a "Z". It added about an hour and some careful work with a Dremel to cut the wire so I could pull the rest of it out. Others suggested gripping it with Vise Grips and yanking out quickly next time.
I didn't bother with marking the timing belt, but I had no trouble lining it up. Start at the crank, thread it counterclockwise through the idler, front cam sprocket, water pump, rear cam, and you might have to push and pull a little to get it over the tensioner pulley. There should be NO slack between the crank, idler, front cam, water pump, and rear cam. Make sure the belt is inside of the little tabs near the sprockets. It's hard to eyeball the marks on the rear cam, so you might need a phone camera or a mirror to make sure it's really lined up before you pull the pin.
Edit: Start to finish, took me about 15 hours over two days.
I sheared water pump bolts, massively overtorqued the time before, I did some serious Rube Goldberg stuff to get the crank bolt off. I spent hours on the internet trying to ascertain the direction of the crank washer. I had to use heat to unbolt upper motor mount, had to visit the dealer twice and Autozone once. Watched and rewatched YouTube videos. Had trouble burping cooling system to restore heat to the car. Lost some timing cover bolts… but still felt triumphant when the car was running after this repair. Probably forgetting a few separate disasters. Absolutely certain I could do this today in one day.
Huh? Never heard this. Which ones specifically. The tensioner on my accessory belt on both of my J-Series cars is just a standard run of the mill spring tensioner. Unless it was somewhere between 2009 and 2016.
As for torquing the crank bolt. I'm just about of the opinion that you can finger tighten the stupid thing and in about an hour it will have locked itself to 'ohh my god this is tight' pounds of torque.
No, I'm not recommending you finger tighten, but don't lose sleep over it. The stupid thing will get tight all on its own like the above posters have said.
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Wow, way to go Honda. Take something simple and make it stupid.
This is why I'll keep my 2008 until it turns to dust.
Gen 2 Pilot’s and some mid 2000’s Odyssey.
It is actually worse than that...if you don't perform the air purge 4 times exactly as described in the FSM, the main mounting bolt will shear off the middle pulley due to hydraulic shock forces!!! This happened to me in less than 50 miles of driving (thank goodness for AAA towing) and the internet has stories of it happening to some individuals up to seven times! Here is the FSM solution...it works!
Honda J35 Serpentine Tensioner Bolt Shearing
Well, are you done yet?
Looks fine to me.
Looking good!
You are almost home now! I have to commend you on what looks like the cleanest 8 year old J35 block that I have ever seen.
Lol, he's got a 2016, its still another year or two before the oil pump seals and filter seals start seeping.
Not looking forward to that service on my TL. Its not any harder than doing a timing belt, it is just a bunch of little crap...and taking off the oil pan.
Sad but true.
My neighbor's 2017 J35 has had a weeping oil pump seal for over a year. It has 60K on it and has had 5K oil changes using 0W20 since new. No idea why it's seeping so soon, but it does happen.
