See this thread from December 2010:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubb...343#Post2109343
Saturday 12/3/2011: Normal 3K RPM shift from 1st to 2nd gear. Let up the clutch. Loud pop followed by engine shudder, then a screech. At the same time CEL comes on. Engine loses all power and shuts down. Coast to the side of the road. That sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach that something serious just happen. Cranking the starter confirms it. It is freewheeling like there is no load. Call tow. They bring it to their shop but state they can't look at it until Monday.
Later that day I go to the shop to get some personal items out of the car. Decide to scan the ECU to see what DTC it stored. It spits out P0335 which is crankshaft position sensor. That is puzzling. I would have expected camshaft position code if the timing belt broke.
Monday 12/5/2011: Shop calls. Camshaft is not turning and there's no compression. They suspect the timing belt broke and most likely there is valve damage. Ask for my OK to tear it down. I say OK.
Tuesday 12/6/2011: Shop calls again. Confirmed. Shredded timing belt. The tech working on it suspects that the spring in the tensioner assembly came off and lodged itself in the belt causing it to shred. He found the spring down by the crank gear. But of course that's just a theory on his part. The head was also removed and all 8 valves are bent. The head is being sent to a machine shop for rebuild and won't be back for at least a week. The pistons have slight divot marks on the crowns but otherwise the bottom end of the engine is OK.
So this timing belt lasted one year and 16,340 miles. Not very good.
Tuesday 12/13/2011: Everything is back together and in the shop's word the engine runs great. I drive it and agree. That evening after driving for about a half hour the CEL comes on. But engine is running fine and no drive-ability issues. I scan the ECU and it spits out P0401 which is EGR insufficient flow. I reset the ECU and DTC does not return.
Wednesday 12/14/2011: That morning the CEL comes on again. Scan it and it's P0401 again. The EGR is all electronic and I make sure the wiring harness is secure. It is. Bring it right back to the shop and even though they were busy they take it right in. They blow out the ports in the EGR lines with compressed air and discover that the port to the intake manifold is blocked. The tech is puzzled and decides he has no choice but remove the intake manifold and see what the problem is. Oh joy. He removes the intake and discovers that the intake manifold gasket he installed had no provision for the EGR port. In other words the gasket had no hole and was blocking the port. He compares the new gasket to the old and discovers several ports for the EGR were missing. More confusion and head scratching as they check the parts book again. The engine is a D17A1 which is the gasket they ordered. But then they discover there are 3 variants to this engine. Mine was an A6 variant which required a different gasket. They put in a quick order for the gasket. Later in the day it was installed which fixed the EGR issue. The shop said that this wrong gasket was their issue and did not charge me for this work.
In the weeks since the repair I have been keeping a close eye on oil and coolant levels. No problems. There have been no other issues. Engine has same power as before and runs fine. The shop did change the oil and filter after the repair. It was bulk 5W-30 and a NAPA filter. I've gone about 1300 miles since the repair so this past Saturday I changed the oil with my usual PP 5W-30 and I'll go back to 6K mile OCI's.
And now, what I'm sure everyone has been waiting for. Pictures of the carnage. Here they are.....
Shredded belt jammed in the tensioner
Mangled tensioner spring
One of the 8 bent valves
Collateral damage. This is the crankshaft position sensor. It is located on the pulley end of the engine rather than the flywheel. The timing belt broke it off it's mount. This explains the P0335 DTC I pulled earlier.
Moral of this sorry story. The timing belt and water pump installed in 2010 were OEM from Majestic Honda. The tensioner was aftermarket made by Dayco which came from Advance Auto. Dayco is a sponsor of this site. I decided to go with aftermarket rather than OEM because it was $25 cheaper. Is this the smoking gun? Who knows. But my advice to anyone doing a timing belt especially on an interference engine. Use all OEM parts only.
Mangled tensioner spring
One of the 8 bent valves
Collateral damage. This is the crankshaft position sensor. It is located on the pulley end of the engine rather than the flywheel. The timing belt broke it off it's mount. This explains the P0335 DTC I pulled earlier.
Moral of this sorry story. The timing belt and water pump installed in 2010 were OEM from Majestic Honda. The tensioner was aftermarket made by Dayco which came from Advance Auto. Dayco is a sponsor of this site. I decided to go with aftermarket rather than OEM because it was $25 cheaper. Is this the smoking gun? Who knows. But my advice to anyone doing a timing belt especially on an interference engine. Use all OEM parts only.
