And so begins the likely death of our 330k Accord. I woke up this afternoon (work nights) to a text from the dear wife that her oil light is on. I immediately call her on the phone because I know she's supposed to be out and about running errands. As soon as she answers I tell her to pull over, shut the car off and check the oil. She reports nothing on the dipstick. Tell her to hold tight and I'll be there in a few moments as she's only about 4 miles out from the house. Get there, dump 4qts in the car and it barely gets on the stick. Crank the car, it runs, but its puking oil out from behind the timing cover.
Little did I know, there's an issue with the F-Series Honda motors where they will all of a sudden, for not much reason, puke out the balance shaft seal. Several people make a retainer to keep it from doing that. Didn't know that was an issue. Do now.
Have the car towed to the house and proceed to tear into it, sure enough, seal is just hanging out nearer to the pulley than its home in the block. Push it back in, Autozone actually stocks the retainer ($10), put everything back together. Car starts and runs, no noises other than ones it already made. Trek to Walmart and pick up two boxes of Havoline 10W30, since I figure we'll go a little thicker now and its actually cheaper than SuperTech. Drain oil. Its sparkly, to be expected. Refill, drive around the block, repeat one more time with a fresh filter as well. Its certainly shedding metal, but no chunks. No idea what the bearings would look like, but they're not making any noise at the moment.
I'm under no illusion that the car is ok. I'm sure the other shoe is waiting to drop in some form or fashion, which is why I just put it back together and didn't bother doing any timing belt maintenance. I just hosed everything down with brake cleaner and let it roll. I'll probably be driving it to work for the next little bit and she can drive my ugly 2003 since she's now a little scared of driving the 2000.
Later on in the day while running to Advance Auto I notice the trail that starts just past our house that I didn't notice before. Call and ask the wife which way she went earlier, yep, its her oil trail. Can follow it all the way to the 4 lane highway where she said the light came on and she continued on into town and almost all the way back. Total distance of maybe 10-15 miles.
So, yay, that's my one day off this week. Didn't really want to, but I guess I'll start looking for the Pilot she wants to replace the Accord with. At least J-Series motors don't tend to spit out seals.
Little did I know, there's an issue with the F-Series Honda motors where they will all of a sudden, for not much reason, puke out the balance shaft seal. Several people make a retainer to keep it from doing that. Didn't know that was an issue. Do now.
Have the car towed to the house and proceed to tear into it, sure enough, seal is just hanging out nearer to the pulley than its home in the block. Push it back in, Autozone actually stocks the retainer ($10), put everything back together. Car starts and runs, no noises other than ones it already made. Trek to Walmart and pick up two boxes of Havoline 10W30, since I figure we'll go a little thicker now and its actually cheaper than SuperTech. Drain oil. Its sparkly, to be expected. Refill, drive around the block, repeat one more time with a fresh filter as well. Its certainly shedding metal, but no chunks. No idea what the bearings would look like, but they're not making any noise at the moment.
I'm under no illusion that the car is ok. I'm sure the other shoe is waiting to drop in some form or fashion, which is why I just put it back together and didn't bother doing any timing belt maintenance. I just hosed everything down with brake cleaner and let it roll. I'll probably be driving it to work for the next little bit and she can drive my ugly 2003 since she's now a little scared of driving the 2000.
Later on in the day while running to Advance Auto I notice the trail that starts just past our house that I didn't notice before. Call and ask the wife which way she went earlier, yep, its her oil trail. Can follow it all the way to the 4 lane highway where she said the light came on and she continued on into town and almost all the way back. Total distance of maybe 10-15 miles.
So, yay, that's my one day off this week. Didn't really want to, but I guess I'll start looking for the Pilot she wants to replace the Accord with. At least J-Series motors don't tend to spit out seals.