I'll take my belts over this any day of the week....... 
Honda timing belts........
- Thread starter dan_erickson
- Start date
You and me both.
The choice is made, and many are very happy with Aisin belts on Honda engines. I have nothing bad to say about the Aisin parts. I simply note that Aisin is not the OEM for Honda timing components, and the Aisin parts are visibly different than the Honda parts for the J35.
Also, as has been mentioned, the job isn’t all that bad, at least on the pickups. The worst part for me is getting the new accessory drive belt on. (-:
Also, as has been mentioned, the job isn’t all that bad, at least on the pickups. The worst part for me is getting the new accessory drive belt on. (-:
Hahahah. I know that feeling. I'll usually stand there and curse at it for a good 15-20 min before I give up and go look at the service manual, smack myself in the head and say 'duh'.
I don't know why on earth it confuses me like it does.
For those that have never seen it, there's a motor mount right in the way that you have to snake around (Right there under the top steering pump pulley). For some reason, standing over the car, my brain just doesn't get it right. (Looking at a picture now of the Ridgeline, it is almost identical)
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You don't have to suspect. LOL
I have never done one of these but it is claimed to work very well and last by the people that own them and service them.
Aisin kit is not completely OE, but is as close to OE as you will get. The only OE parts in that kit are the idler pulleys and possibly the hydraulic tensioner. The w/p is Aisin (which has not been OE for Honda for over 8 years) and the belt is Mitsuboshi. The kit is a fantastic value but the w/p can sometimes be problematic due to how it is casted; some of the vehicles will get a "warbling sound" with the Aisin water pump.
The job is pretty easy - about a 2 hour job once you have done a few.
The job is pretty easy - about a 2 hour job once you have done a few.
I used the "starter method" on a friend's Mitsu Lancer a few years ago, after we'd tried everything else. Scared the heck out of me, but worked great.
On a transverse DOHC V6, the timing chain is long and complex, and is typically not designed for easy replacement. As well, most timing-chain-equipped engines are of the interference sort, whereas a lot of TB engines are non-interference. I'd far rather do a scheduled timing belt change every few years than have a timing chain fail.
Unfortunately, J-Series motors are interference, but you just don't hear about belts breaking all that often. Tales of people driving 150-200k on an OEM belt and it still looks pristine. I'm sure they are designed to go their service life under the worst conditions and there just aren't that many vehicles out there that drive in those conditions.
I've never had a Honda so I've never changed a timing belt on one. I done several Ford timing belts and always use a 1/2" drive electric impact from Harbor Freight for removing the crank bolt on them. Doesn't take but a few seconds to break them loose. Harbor Freight often runs their 1/2" impact for under $50. and if I recall correctly they're rated at 210 ft. lbs. or torque.
Honda crank bolts give more trouble than any other make, I use a Proto 3/4" impact @ 150 psi to break them loose which is well above 1000 ft. lbs......If you really want to rate Impacts that way. It's all about the Hammer/Anvil Size/Weight & that's why Weighted Sockets "can" work with a 1/2" drive impact.
Lol, Honda crank bolts would laugh at that, even with the Lisle socket. I bought one the first time I ever tried to do a timing belt, no-go, not by a long shot. Like Cline said, they are seriously tight. Don't know why it seems to be that way. Even my Accord was crazy tight and it had already been off once. Just one of those things you have to deal with. I certainly never worry about one falling out.
There's a procedure in the service manual on where to lube the bolt/washer. I'll be interested to see if it makes any difference when I do the next belt on my TL since I know for a fact I lubed it when I put it back together. The only thing I didn't do was torque to spec. I simply zapped it on with my IR 1/2" gun and rolled with it (I have a fairly weak HF compressor so not much more than 100psi).
As I said I never owned or worked on a Honda. I was just trying to help out the OP'er without breaking the bank. I've read on forums of lots of people using the starter or a long cheater bars on their Ford crank bolt. I don't think I've ever had to hammer at one for more than 5-10 seconds with my impact. Ever tried putting anti seize on the crank bolt to see if it makes it easier the next time out?
I don't know that the other aftermarket makers are that bad, but if you go from the AISIN TKH-002 at ~$180 with known good parts to an 'Ultra Power' kit at $100, so you save $80 but they're an unknown. You might get good parts, you might not. You do the job every 100,000 miles, is it really worth the $.0008/mile you saved going with the cheaper kit? If it were a non-interference motor, I would probably be the first one to give the cheaper kits a shot, but, at least in the case of my TL, I'm not wrecking what is actually a reasonably rare motor in the Honda world to save that little bit of money. (Truth be told, I would feel bad about wrecking the J30A4 in the Accord as well, but at least those are readily available)
One thing I would NOT do is buy supposed 'OEM' parts on eBay or Amazon. There's nothing wrong with buying OEM stuff online, but I would stick with known legit online dealers. Two that I regularly use are Curry Acura and OEMAcuraParts. Both of which are based out of real brick and mortar Acura/Honda dealers.
I'll have to find it, but I sent an Amazon Honda 'OEM' supplier an email about their parts and the response I got was comical. Something along the lines of 'we are factory Chinese Honda parts you can trust us'. Yeanothanks....
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For my son’s 2008 v6 accord I purchased a kit on amazon for $189 which included
AISIN Water Pump
•AISIN Hydraulic Tensioner
•Koyo Idler Bearing
•Koyo Tensioner Bearing
•Mitsuboshi Timing Belt
•Water Pump O-Ring
+ serpentine belt
+ coolant
+ long low profile wrenches
40k miles later, no problems thank God.
Additional notes:
AISIN Water Pump
•AISIN Hydraulic Tensioner
•Koyo Idler Bearing
•Koyo Tensioner Bearing
•Mitsuboshi Timing Belt
•Water Pump O-Ring
+ serpentine belt
+ coolant
+ long low profile wrenches
40k miles later, no problems thank God.
Additional notes:
- This was the most involved repair job I ever did. Took more than a few hours, slow and methodical. There’s a few useful YouTube videos.
- I borrowed the 50 mm crank pulley tool from Auto Zone to save a few dollars.
- As others have mentioned, the crank nut is a challenge. I didn’t have any power tools, only breaker bars. I sprayed liquid wrench but it didn’t help. I even bent one of my Dad’s old breaker bars. What worked? I applied a MAPP gas torch for 3-4 minutes on the nut, then used a 18-24 inch breaker bar. There was a loud crack when the nut loosened. I thought “Either the nut is loose or I broke something“. This job takes commitment. It was interesting to me that the bolt threads and nut were free of any corrosion, I thought that would be the reason it was so difficult to remove.
- Before removing the old timing belt I marked the belt using White-out In three locations. After removing the belt, count the teeth and mark the new belt in exactly the same locations based on teeth count.
- I estimate that I saved my son $300.
Those and the GM 3800 cause me the most trouble trouble, big impact is a must.
