1990 Honda Accord Timing Belt
I need to replace the timing belt on my mothers Accord. Anybody know how difficult that would be? It doesn't look like there's a lot of room to work in there. Will the Chilton iinstructions and diagrams be enough? The last I checked Alldata didn't carry Honda information. Something about the manufacturer not wanting that. I've never replaced a timing belt before, but I've seen it done a couple of times. Doesn't look too complicated. Should I endeveour on such journey, or should I just pay the shop the $700 they asked. This is a old car.... I kind of feel bad about paying that much money. It can be done, but you might want to take 1/7 th of that money and buy the Honda OE manual. NOW you're ready to do it . Replace the water pump at the same time you do the job. Is Alldata not listing specs just for the DIY, or for the commercial service also? Not sure about that. Might want to contact them. I'd say go with the factory manual on this. Can probably pick one up used on the web quite reasonably. Well worth it. I'll try to do that... although I planned on replacing the belt this Saturday. Can't get the manual by then. I'm really not looking forward to this job... just changing the oil on this car is difficult. Plus, it looks like I have to remove an engine mount, hope the oil pan holds This is actually a pretty easy job. The toughest part of the job is removing the harmonic balancer bolt. Honda torques the bejesus out of 'em they're tough to remove if you don't have a GOOD impact wrench or the Honda special service tool. Once you get the balancer off, you can remove the cover, timing belt, balance shaft belt and water pump. The labor guide allows about 4.7 hours for this job assuming your car has A/C and you're going to replace the water pump. As Joe_F said, get a factory manual. If you can't get one in time, try your local public library or Big Box book store. Chilton Total Care or Haynes manuals should also have enough info to complete this job. The Harmonic Balancer Removal tool can be purchased from Ontool.com or you can make your own if you're handy with a welder. Harmonic Balancer???? As a quick question, I had my 94 Camry's belt replaced a few days ago. $220. When I asked for the same job on the 90 Accord, I was quoted $450. Why such a big price difference? The belt itself is pretty much the same price. And replacing it on the Camry looked pretty difficult.... The crankshaft pulley serves double duty as both the harmonic balancer and lower accessory drive pulley on this and many other 4 cylinder engines. The price for the Camry is cheaper for at least 2 reasons. 1. The Camry 4 cyl. is easier to work on than the Honda. 2. The 4 cyl. Camry engine does not have a balance shaft belt. 3. It's possible that the estimates were not similar...that is, the Honda estimate likely included a water pump replacement, balance shaft belt replacement, oil seal replacement, etc. The Camry doesn't have a balance shaft, ( 1 less part to buy less labor) and may not have included water pump replacement in the estimate. That's true, the water pump was not replaced on the Camry. It only has 60K miles, and the mechanic said it looked fine, and generally they don't fail at this mileage on the Camry. The only thing he replaced was an idler pulley I believe. Almost $60 for that thing. With that the total was $280. Not bad I thought. And that looked pretty bad to work on, I was there pretty much the whole time looking at the mechanic work. The Accord on the other hand looks like a nightmare to work on. I was quoted $450 just to replace the belt. The water pump is an additional $50 plus 0.5 hours of work. It also looks like it has 2 belts from looking at the Chilton book. Maybe I'm just mistaken, but after looking at what I have to do I decided not to try it myself. I don't believe I'll be able to remove all of those bolts, and I would hate to get half done and get stuck. If you're not confident you can do the job it's best to drop back punt now. Too many DIYers are overconfident end up breaking or damaging expensive parts before they bail out have it towed to a shop. IMHO, the service manual makes the job seem more difficult than it really is. I'm sure anyone with reasonable mechanical aptitude could replace the Timing belt Balance shaft belt on one of these engines if equipped with the proper tools and information. I'm confident I can do it.... I just don't believe I have the proper tools to do it. My impact wrench can barely take the lug nuts off the wheels. Grrrrrrr.... my cars are driving me nuts! I started up the car today only to find out that I can't take the car out of park. A quick investigation reveals that I have no brake lights. I was going to remove the brake light switch connector and short it, but I could not bulge it. Am I right to assume that's the most likely culprit? This is a 94 Camry by the way. I'll look on AllData later today for the wiring diagram. Either a brake light switch or a shift interlock switch/problem causes that. Shut off the car. Turn the key forward, shift it manually to neutral. Usually that means a bad brake light switch or interlock switch. Replace it and you should be fine. Happened on my cousin's 93 Taurus and it was a brake lamp switch. I can't take the car out of part. When it works, when you put the key to the on position, press the brake pedal and you hear a click. Then you can move the gear selector out of park. However, there is no click, and there is no brake lights. The whole brake circuit looks very complicated on AllData, hopefully its only a bad brake switch. Sure sounds like it. Let us know what you find. Got the brake light swith. $50 for that thing. Unbelievable. I'll replace it tonight when I get back from school. I should be done by midnight. It's good to have a second car in case the first one breaks down. I can't take the car out of part. When it works, when you put the key to the on position, press the brake pedal and you hear a click. Then you can move the gear selector out of park. However, there is no click, and there is no brake lights. The whole brake circuit looks very complicated on AllData, hopefully its only a bad brake switch. I finally finished replacing the brake light switch. It seems to work now. I hope it still works tomorow morning. The funny thing about the old switch is that is still seems to work. If you release the button the circuit is complete (no resistance), so there is continuity. If you press the button in the circuit opens. But if I plug it in it won't work. Anothe puzzle on this car. I can't believe Alldata says this is a 0.8 hour job. Even I, with no expertise on this car, was able to finish it in about 20 minutes. That with spending 5 minutes figuring out get the connector of. Glad you got it working. Alldata might be a little optimistic in their time. Remember, that's for professional techs .
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