I’ll try to keep this short and sweet but just wanted to talk about the AISIN timing belt kit for my J35 Accord. 2 1/2 years ago and under 30,000 miles ago I had and Indy shop replace my timing belt, water pump and blah blah with the AISIN kit. I didn’t feel like messing with it at the time and the AISIN kit was way cheaper then Honda parts but high recommend. Car alway made a strange warble noise with this kit but didn’t think much of it because it was faint. Lately it got to the point that I could hear it with the hood closed and I didn’t like that so I bought a Honda belt, water pump, and tensioner.
Yesterday we were slow at the body shop so I started the job in the afternoon as I tore the engine down first thing I noticed was the tensioner was wet. Great that’s already leaking and failing. Now this is where it gets good and I made a bone head move. I didn’t rotate the engine to TDC before taking the car apart. I had the crank shaft pulley off along with the alignment key and it didn’t dawn on me that the timing belt sprocket would spin freely on the crank shaft. I then set the timing of the engine up top by lining up the cams to TDC. Then when I went back down to the crank shaft area I seen that the sprocket moved but the crank didn’t. My stomach immediately turned to knots because I assumed that I caused bent valves. Now I went ahead and lined up the crank in the timing marks and made a couple phone calls to a mechanic friend to discuss what I had done and he said that I should be okay. Nonetheless still worried, I continue on with the job because IF the damage was done it’s already done and I won’t know until I start the car. I finish the job and rotate the engine assembly a few times to make sure that everything was in time and all looked good.
Time the cross my fingers and start the car. The car starts right up with no issues what so ever and is running like a sewing machine. I let it warm up and check coolant and also no more weird warble noise. So in the end everything worked out and saved myself a ton of money by doing the valve adjustment, timing belt and water pump myself.
TLDR
AISIN timing belt kit made a warble noise and tensioner was leaking at low mileage. I didn’t correctly set time on engine while taking car apart and about had a heart attack thinking I destroyed my engine. End result is that everything is okay and no more noise with Honda parts.
Yesterday we were slow at the body shop so I started the job in the afternoon as I tore the engine down first thing I noticed was the tensioner was wet. Great that’s already leaking and failing. Now this is where it gets good and I made a bone head move. I didn’t rotate the engine to TDC before taking the car apart. I had the crank shaft pulley off along with the alignment key and it didn’t dawn on me that the timing belt sprocket would spin freely on the crank shaft. I then set the timing of the engine up top by lining up the cams to TDC. Then when I went back down to the crank shaft area I seen that the sprocket moved but the crank didn’t. My stomach immediately turned to knots because I assumed that I caused bent valves. Now I went ahead and lined up the crank in the timing marks and made a couple phone calls to a mechanic friend to discuss what I had done and he said that I should be okay. Nonetheless still worried, I continue on with the job because IF the damage was done it’s already done and I won’t know until I start the car. I finish the job and rotate the engine assembly a few times to make sure that everything was in time and all looked good.
Time the cross my fingers and start the car. The car starts right up with no issues what so ever and is running like a sewing machine. I let it warm up and check coolant and also no more weird warble noise. So in the end everything worked out and saved myself a ton of money by doing the valve adjustment, timing belt and water pump myself.
TLDR
AISIN timing belt kit made a warble noise and tensioner was leaking at low mileage. I didn’t correctly set time on engine while taking car apart and about had a heart attack thinking I destroyed my engine. End result is that everything is okay and no more noise with Honda parts.