Always Lots of Problems - Dodged a bullet this time.

Mikeman101 · 09-09-2009, 05:08 PM

I bought the car last spring. It was a 1997 Prelude Base 5 speed off ebay with 120k miles on it. I bought it on the east coast and drove it home 1400 miles home to Minnesota, but not before it broke down twice. Once on the New York-Pennsylvania Border when it's bent axle came out of the differential approaching the tollbooth. The other stop was after I blew both front tires in Ohio. Luckily I had 14 autostores within a 2 mile radius and 1 of them had my size tire on hand, 205/45R-17 they are.

Anyways, the problems continued from there. My radiator started leaking shortly there after so I did the unthinkable and tried using stopleak. Well, the stopleak seemed to plug up the radiator after the leak because the leak got 5 times worse, then blocked up the cooling system. The car thermostate went into the red after driving it only 6 blocks. I waited 10 minutes til it cooled, drove it another couple blocks and stopped before it got into the red again, and so on 2 or 3 more times until I got home.

The next day I replaced the radiator and had the coolant flushed. Unfortunately at my next fill up I discovered oil in my coolant.

So that little bit of over heating was enough to blow the head gasket and/or warp/crack the head/block. So I garaged it last August and left it alone until this spring when I got out of school.

Over the summer I did everything I could think of to this car, cleaned the EGR ports, changed the oil, flushed the coolant, replaced the head gasket/IM gasket/exhaust gasket/vtek gasket&filter, polished/milled/x-rayed the head, cleaned the IM/TB/IACV/Vtek Gasket, replaced the Cam seals/timing belt/water pump/balancer belt/autotensioner, and replaced the fuel filter.

I worked on it here and there and finally got it all done a couple weeks ago. Well, I am not very good with cars but was exstatic when the car started with no CELs and purred like a kitten, especially when I did all the work by myself and like I said I am retarded with cars. The car ran great for about 100 miles until the other day. I was about 45 min away from home and going 70 in cruise control when I got the strong smell of gas and the speed started dropping. I pushed in the clutch and the car died. I coasted over to the side of the road and tried to start it again but wouldn't turn over.

Got the car towed to a shop and just got a call. Turns out the Timing belt had slipped off. The belt got shredded but the good news is that they did a compression test and it turns out that I didn't bend any valves!

They are only charging a little over $300 in labor to do my timing belt again, and another $200 for the timing belt kit since the belt got shredded. I feel like I dodged a bullet this time. I really didn't wanna tow it home and put another head on it.

What do you guys think? Am I lucky or what? I am really curious to see how the timing belt came off. I think a bolt or two may not have been torqued down enough, maybe I should have used locktite on some of those pully bolts.

I am curious to see what my compression numbers were. I have always been curious what it would get but too nervous to do it.

Well, sorry for the long story but I have been meaning to share my story for some time now.

Podunkparte · 09-09-2009, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikeman101

What do you guys think? Am I lucky or what? I am really curious to see how the timing belt came off. I think a bolt or two may not have been torqued down enough, maybe I should have used locktite on some of those pully bolts.

HAHAHA No!

Sounds like you bought a car off of eBay without having it checked out at all and are paying the price.

Mikeman101 · 09-09-2009, 06:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Podunkparte

HAHAHA No!

Sounds like you bought a car off of eBay without having it checked out at all and are paying the price.

I was kinda thinking that, but most of the stuff is because of my ignorance like using the stop leak on the radiator. The bent axel would have been nice to know about prior for bargaining purposes though.

h22a4sam · 09-09-2009, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikeman101

I was kinda thinking that, but most of the stuff is because of my ignorance like using the stop leak on the radiator. The bent axel would have been nice to know about prior for bargaining purposes though.

Did you drive the car before you forked the cash over? Seems you bought someone else's nightmare. Sucks but for the most part it was stuff that was fixable. It would suck ass if the title was salvaged and it had a tweaked unibody.

Mikeman101 · 09-09-2009, 09:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by h22a4sam

Did you drive the car before you forked the cash over? Seems you bought someone else's nightmare. Sucks but for the most part it was stuff that was fixable. It would suck ass if the title was salvaged and it had a tweaked unibody.

Thats just it. The body is fine, engine is great (other than the head gasket I fucked up), and the transmission was good. Didn't even have the 5th gear grind that I've read about with those models.

flyinghonda · 09-09-2009, 09:28 PM

you are lucky only for the last part with the timing belt, but for the rest it's been pretty much hell for you.

shaylude01 · 09-10-2009, 03:00 AM

Fuckin spammers. Damn thers alot around here these days...

Not bad though, coulda been worse for you. Couldof basically had to replace the head like you said, or some valves. Not bad not bad.

LOL_RICE · 09-10-2009, 03:06 AM

$200 for a timing belt kit? Explain.

Mikeman101 · 09-10-2009, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LOL_RICE

$200 for a timing belt kit? Explain.

I believe it has the timing belt, balancer belt, autotensioner pully, and some other berings I guess.

09-09-2009, 05:08 PM	#1
Mikeman101 Newbie Join Date: Apr 2008 Posts: 85 iTrader: (2)	Always Lots of Problems - Dodged a bullet this time. I bought the car last spring. It was a 1997 Prelude Base 5 speed off ebay with 120k miles on it. I bought it on the east coast and drove it home 1400 miles home to Minnesota, but not before it broke down twice. Once on the New York-Pennsylvania Border when it's bent axle came out of the differential approaching the tollbooth. The other stop was after I blew both front tires in Ohio. Luckily I had 14 autostores within a 2 mile radius and 1 of them had my size tire on hand, 205/45R-17 they are. Anyways, the problems continued from there. My radiator started leaking shortly there after so I did the unthinkable and tried using stopleak. Well, the stopleak seemed to plug up the radiator after the leak because the leak got 5 times worse, then blocked up the cooling system. The car thermostate went into the red after driving it only 6 blocks. I waited 10 minutes til it cooled, drove it another couple blocks and stopped before it got into the red again, and so on 2 or 3 more times until I got home. The next day I replaced the radiator and had the coolant flushed. Unfortunately at my next fill up I discovered oil in my coolant. So that little bit of over heating was enough to blow the head gasket and/or warp/crack the head/block. So I garaged it last August and left it alone until this spring when I got out of school. Over the summer I did everything I could think of to this car, cleaned the EGR ports, changed the oil, flushed the coolant, replaced the head gasket/IM gasket/exhaust gasket/vtek gasket&filter, polished/milled/x-rayed the head, cleaned the IM/TB/IACV/Vtek Gasket, replaced the Cam seals/timing belt/water pump/balancer belt/autotensioner, and replaced the fuel filter. I worked on it here and there and finally got it all done a couple weeks ago. Well, I am not very good with cars but was exstatic when the car started with no CELs and purred like a kitten, especially when I did all the work by myself and like I said I am retarded with cars. The car ran great for about 100 miles until the other day. I was about 45 min away from home and going 70 in cruise control when I got the strong smell of gas and the speed started dropping. I pushed in the clutch and the car died. I coasted over to the side of the road and tried to start it again but wouldn't turn over. Got the car towed to a shop and just got a call. Turns out the Timing belt had slipped off. The belt got shredded but the good news is that they did a compression test and it turns out that I didn't bend any valves! They are only charging a little over $300 in labor to do my timing belt again, and another $200 for the timing belt kit since the belt got shredded. I feel like I dodged a bullet this time. I really didn't wanna tow it home and put another head on it. What do you guys think? Am I lucky or what? I am really curious to see how the timing belt came off. I think a bolt or two may not have been torqued down enough, maybe I should have used locktite on some of those pully bolts. I am curious to see what my compression numbers were. I have always been curious what it would get but too nervous to do it. Well, sorry for the long story but I have been meaning to share my story for some time now.

09-09-2009, 09:28 PM	#6
flyinghonda True Luder Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: El Salvador Age: 28 Posts: 284 iTrader: (0) View Photos By: flyinghonda	you are lucky only for the last part with the timing belt, but for the rest it's been pretty much hell for you. __________________ 96 Honda Civic EX Coupe (Sold) 98 Honda Prelude Base (DD) 84 VW Rabbit 1.8T (Race car project) To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

09-10-2009, 03:00 AM	#7
shaylude01 boostdBBsex Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada Age: 19 Posts: 1,613 iTrader: (2) View Photos By: shaylude01	Fuckin spammers. Damn thers alot around here these days... Not bad though, coulda been worse for you. Couldof basically had to replace the head like you said, or some valves. Not bad not bad. __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. Build Thread: To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

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