1999 Honda Accord Died Today

While driving on the highway, I lost my power steering , alternator,
etc. Pulled over in a safe place, popped the hood and the belts are off to
the side NOT BROKEN - I checkout the alternator, looking for a seized pulley
etc then finally discovered my bottom pulley very loose and wobbley - looks
like the belts had come off because the waterpump bearing crapped out! Looks
like I'll be having fun fixing this one tomorrow!

John
1999 Honda Accord LX 2.3 VTEC

 

Pump worked as designed. Not the throwing off belts.
Notice your cooling system did not empty. That pump bearing
would have been defective for quite some time. Your service
person should have noticed the wobbling water pump and
replaced it - before you would be left stuck.

This has long been a Honda feature. GM cars, for example,
would have immediately emptied the cooling system as soon as
that bearing failed. Unfortunately your Honda serviceman did
not inspect and observe that pump failure. The pump failure
had occurred long ago and was not verified. If he had seen
the indication of failure, then you would not have been left
stuck.

 

This is very interesting as the water pump is driven by the timing
belt on a 1999 Accord. The pump is NOT visible externally without
taking off the upper timing cover. If the lower pully is wobbling
then you have a front CRANK SHAFT PULLY that is loose. This could be
caused by a loose crank bolt or a damaged crankshaft. Have you had/
done any work on the timing belt? If so then you need to take it back
and demand a free repair.. This could be a major repair.

 

Retrieved the car on my car dolly today and checked it out in my garage.

Took the drivers side wheel off and when I attempted to take the bolt off

that holds the main bottom pulley in place found it to be so "loose" I could

remove it with my fingers! Took off the pulley and found the key had been

sheared, keyway damaged and bored hole in pulley damage. Could this have

been an assembly issue??? Maybe an incorrect torque setting?? Looks as the

bolt came loose over a period of x amount of time causing the pulley to

strip the key and inside bore. Hmmmmmmmmm.........Honda will here about this

Monday and perhaps should pay for my new pulley , key, and 2 belts!!!!

 

I agree with other intelligent posters that told you that this was not a
problem caused by Honda or the people on the assembly line that put
together the Honda. The problem you mentioned appears to me to be a
problem that has taken a long time to develop. The blame should be placed
on whoever conducted the last tune-up. You should take the car to that
person and demand that they repair it. If the mechanic refuses to repair
it for free, take the car to a Honda dealership and have them repair it.
Take the mechanic that failed to find the problem to small claims court
and ask the judge to order him to pay the exact amount listed on the
repair bill.

 

Last tune up? Isn't that pretty far fetched? Who checks the torque on the
crank bolt at a tune up, or at any other time for that matter? The only way
that bolt would be loose is if somebody has removed it for some reason.
Maybe a timing belt or water pump job? If either of those things has been
done, whoever did it is the one who should be called to answer.

If neither of those things have been done, did you have the recall done to
the balancer shaft seals? If so, they could have mis-torqued the bolt then.

That bolt does not come loose by itself if it has been properly torqued.

 

Crank bolt is used to rotate engine when performing valve
adjustments. If mechanic rotated crankshaft in wrong
direction, then that bolt could have been loosened. But
'excessive' torque would have been necessary to break that
bolt loose.

 

Not exactly. When looking at the front of the motor, the crank normally turns
counter clockwise. Turning the engine in this direction is the correct
direction even though it's in the direction that could loosen the bolt. One
should note here that turning the engine over with hand tools during a valve
adjustment should never loosen a properly torqued crank pulley bolt.

However, there's another problem that can occur if the tech left their socket
and ratchet on the crank pulley bolt and tried to crank the engine over using
the starter motor. This action would typically cause the ratchet to tighten the
bolt as it swung around and locked up on the suspension. It's easy to break the
crank pulley bolt if this mistake is made especially if 1/2" drive hand tools
are used.

Eric

 

I do not know about the Accord, but on the Civic the bolt is pretty stuck on
with a couple (maybe even few) hundred foot-pound, and there's no way
turning the engine would loose the bolt.

 

Crankshaft bolt is normally torqued to something like 70
foot pounds. Yes, it takes quite a sharp force to break this
bolt loose. However it can be broken loose if, for example,
the mechanic gave the shaft a good quick jerk to move valves
into next position. We don't know why that bolt is loose, but
we do know that it takes a strong rotation with a torque
wrench to loosen it AND that mechanics rotate the crankshaft
by attaching a torque wrench to that bolt. From those facts we
can only speculate.

 

70? No. Try somewhere in the neighborhood of twice that much. There is no
way it is coming loose by giving it a "quick jerk". Loosening this bolt
normally involves air wrenches or 4 foot long breaker bar extensions and
lots of cursing.

The only scenarios that have been put forth here that would have it loosened
are 1) recently removed by someone for access to the timing belt/water pump,
or 2) some clown left a wrench on it and tried to crank the engine.