Acura / Honda 3.5 v6 timing belt frustration!

Basically, the belt should only be slightly slack on the “west side” - which is the side with the tensioner. Everywhere else, it should be tight.


Maybe Jim can FaceTime you while he is rechecking all his work and you give him some pointers ?
 
Basically, the belt should only be slightly slack on the “west side” - which is the side with the tensioner. Everywhere else, it should be tight.
Right. That's how I installed it. It was tight everywhere except where the tension pulley is at when I installed it. I only noticed it had some slight slack when I went to check it after I got the code read and was inspecting the marks, which were still in the correct position. I moved the car into the garage and pulled the plugs. I didn't recheck the belt for the same sack. I then rotated by hand to align marks before doing any further work. That when I noticed the slack between the top sprockets was gone.
 
You need to get the specific code read out again to know exactly what you are dealing with. It really sounds like the timing belt and tensioner were installed correctly and the trouble code might suggest the adjacent crankshaft postion sensor was damaged or has failed since it is critical to managing timing on a J35 motor.
 
Rock Auto sells them but my local parts wholesaler sells them to me.
Many of the local parts shops stock/sell Aisin kits around here (by local, I don't mean the O'Reilly here in town or Autozone nearby). Checking O'Reilly, they sell the TKH002 but will take 2 days to get. It's $350 from them though ! I remember buying the same one from Rockauto, though it was years ago, and it was just under $200.
 
The last honda timing belt i did the tensioner pulley arm was longer than the sleeve and I had to
Sand it down like 1/2mm to make it move freely. If your tensioner pulley can't move freely you might get loose belt symptoms.
 
You need to get the specific code read out again to know exactly what you are dealing with. It really sounds like the timing belt and tensioner were installed correctly and the trouble code might suggest the adjacent crankshaft postion sensor was damaged or has failed since it is critical to managing timing on a J35 motor.
I'm hoping you're right, but what about that slight looseness of the belt that I had between the cam sprockets that went away when I pulled the plugs and rotated the engine by hand. That has me a little concerned.
When you stop on a incline, put a transmission in park, let off the brake and the car rolls back like an inch and stops on its own (understanding that at that point the transmission should be completely disengaged from the engine) can that cause the engine to rotate backwards slighty, putting a tiny bit of slack in parts of the belt?
That's the condition the car was in when I felt the slack in the belt.
 
For a replacement pin, use a drill bit.

My first thought is that you did not remove all of the slack between the two cam pullies, but that usually results in the cam (or the crank) jumping a tooth - which you confirmed was not the case.

The only other possibilities are: 1) timing belt is out of spec in some way, 2) need to perform the CKP relearn

Personally I'm a little weary of Aisin kits after my bad experience last year - a Pilot jumped several teeth after 10k+ miles for no apparent reason.
Agree with the CKP relearn
 
I have read on a few forums that the OEM Honda timing belt made by Unitta (i.e., Gates Rubber - Japan Factory) is slightly "tighter" than the aftermarket belts, including Mitsuboshi, Gates Rubber - U.S.(not Unitta), Continental & Dayco. Allegedly, the overall belt lengths match up, but the shape/dimensions of the teeth vary enough to induce an insignificant amount of slack under certain conditions similar to what you describe. By most accounts, this has no bearing on the operation or durability of the timing belt.

I believe the Aisin TKH-002 kit typically contains the Mitsuboshi belt as shown in the SMA video. While I have not experienced it, there are some claims that the tensioner supplied in the Aisin kit is not identical to the Honda OEM part.

FYI, the Unitta Gates-Japan belt is what the Honda dealerships sell for ~$80 MSRP.
 
I know people will mark the old belt and the sprockets. They transfer the marks to the new belt and use those to line up the timing. Since all these belts are supposed to be identical, why aren't they just marked from the factory to line up with timing marks on the sprockets? Shouldn't there be a known number of ribs/teeth between the timing marks?
You beat me to it. My TB changes all went so much better once I marked the old belt, still in place, with a paint pen, removed the belt, and transferred the marks to the new belt.
 
No matter the outcome, the dealer "owns" the repair. Would have been money well spent.
Right. No offense, but that's obvious. That's the benefit of any dealer repair...or paying any professional to do a job. I can pay a plumber $500-$1000 or I can spend $0 on labor and no up-charge on parts to do whatever job it is and any issue that might arise is my problem. That's the entire point behind DIY. By all accounts, most of the people I've run across on the forums have completed this job with little no issues and saved $1000-$2000. This includes my neighbor who gave me a little help based on his experience doing this job on his v6 Honda van. After checking the timing marks, I'm 99.9% sure I did this job correctly. The car runs fine. Just gotta track down the source of this code.
 
Have you done the crankshaft sensor relearn yet ?
Unfortunately been stuck in classes the last couple days.
The parts numbers for the tensioner for the Honda part and Acura an interchangeable, right? I can imagine the essentially same part would be more expensive at my Acura dealer. Lol.
 
Unfortunately been stuck in classes the last couple days.
The parts numbers for the tensioner for the Honda part and Acura an interchangeable, right? I can imagine the essentially same part would be more expensive at my Acura dealer. Lol.
You seem hung up on replacing parts when many have said to do the relearn first as you might not have a mechanical issue at all.
 
You seem hung up on replacing parts when many have said to do the relearn first as you might not have a mechanical issue at all.
I have to reassemble everything before I can do the relearn. Remember earlier in this thread when I said I thought I heard that failing tensioner rattle sound once on one of the start ups after replacing the parts? $80 on a new oem tensioner is "worth it" to me versus finding someone to slowly compress this Aisin tensioner that "might" have issues and thet has been removed from the motor so I could test repositioning the belt.
 
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I have to reassemble everything before I can do the relearn. Remember earlier in this thread when I said I thought I heard that failing tensioner rattle sound once on one of the start ups after replacing the parts? $80 on a new oem tensioner is "worth it" to me versus finding someone to slowly compress this Aisin tensioner that "might" have issues and thet has been removed from the motor so I could test repositioning the belt.
 
If you have already torn it back apart, I can understand. I didn't realize you may have already done that (and could certainly have missed a comment saying you did).
 
I have to reassemble everything before I can do the relearn. Remember earlier in this thread when I said I thought I heard that failing tensioner rattle sound once on one of the start ups after replacing the parts? $80 on a new oem tensioner is "worth it" to me versus finding someone to slowly compress this Aisin tensioner that "might" have issues and thet has been removed from the motor so I could test repositioning the belt.
New OEM hydraulic tensioner is a lot more than $80.
 
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