01 Prelude Timing Chains

a while back, gfretwell was asking about whether he should have to
replace his timing chain because it is seven years old. His Prelude only
had 45,000 km on it, and he wondered if this were really true. Has
anyone else figured out the answer to this?

My '01 Prelude has even less mileage - 55,000 km. Do I really have to
replace the timing chain, just because it is old?

 

belt, yes. chain, no. chain is pure mileage. belt is mileage /and/ time.

 

Pardon my ignorance about how my car works. Is changing the timing belt
an expensive undertaking? I seem to remember paying a lot of money for
these timing belt/chain issues.

 

the belt is ~$35 online, ~$45 full retail. the job gets much more
expensive though because you get charged book rate for labor - that's
about 4 hours. and there's all the other stuff they like you to do at
the same time like coolant pump, seals, etc. i generally don't do the
"fluff" items because i do the work myself and keep close tabs on
everything. and i don't change oil seals unless they're actually
leaking - it can be bad for the sealing surface. same for the pump if
it's oem honda and i know its history.

call around your local honda dealers for quotes and say you're shopping
on price.

 

Around $400 or so.

Don't confuse belts and chains.

Belts are made of fabric (Kevlar?) and rubber. They require periodic
replacement to correct for normal fatigue.

Chains are made of steel, sort of an extremely elaborate version of a
bicycle chain. Under normal circumstances, these assemblies last several
times as long as the longest-lived belts. For many people it's a lifetime
item.

 

You are due now. My dealer recommended 75k miles when I owned mine rather
than the 90k in the book -- probably to be safe because the Prelude runs at
a higher rpm at speed than your typical Accord (think it was 4200 at 80).
The manual says 7 years which means you are due now. The cost at our local
dealer was $550.00 for all belts (includes drive belts) water pump and so
forth. But that was a couple of year ago.

 

I will call around again but Naples Honda said $800 for the belt job
(and the other "fluff" they insist on/recomend). For $400 I would not
have hesitated.
It is still worth $800 to to me see it done in an hour. ;-)

 

It depends /very/ much on what they're changing for that price.

If you're getting a new water pump, coolant, tensioners, belts and such,
then that $800 price might make more sense. And those are good things to
change, by the way.

If I were you, I'd get a second quote from another dealer.

Even if they do the job in one hour, you're not likely to get the car back
for three or four hours.

 

if you're changing all the fluff as well, it will take more than an
hour. especially if you want to do a decent job cleaning up the mating
surfaces for the new coolant pump.

 

Does the water pump qualify as "fluff"? Every shop I've met recommends
changing both at the same time.
Some Honda specialty shops only do a "package deal" including those two plus
cam/crank seals and "some other belts" -- would these be fluff?

 

If you're having a shop do the work, by all means change the water pump
at the same time. IIRC, the timing belt gets changed at around 100K and
that's pretty close to the life of the pump as well. If you don't, the
labor charge will be close to what you already paid to change the belt.

Regarding seals, if this is your first belt change, the seals are
probably OK. If it's the 2nd or later, change 'em out too, especially
the cam seal.

JT