I have a '94 Accord Ex Coupe. I was driving through an intersection from a stand still and stepped on the gas and the car did not move forward. It did sound like there was a "slip" at about the same time I stepped on the gas. The car has 216,000 miles on it and I had replacing the timing belt on my to do list but did not get to it yet. I bought the car with around 80,000 on it and it had been replaced. I had the car towed to a shop and they did a fule pressure test and spark test and both tested good. When they cranked it over it sounded like there was no compression. At that point they spent a half hor on it and would need to charge more to further diagnose. They recommended removing valve cover to examine timing belt. At this point I towed the car home to see if I could spend some more time on it since It wasn't obvious if I could donate it. I pulled the valve cover off and about half the width of the timing belt had slid off. The belt also looked frayed on the edges. It is quite obvious that it is a timing belt issue. I looked around for obvious damage within the valve train and I did not see any. My question is - would it be immediately obvious if there was piston to valve contact? Would any valve damage be viewable by removing the valve cover? I did not hear any major noise whatsoever when the car did not move forward when I stepped on the gas. Is it at all possible that the timing belt can be replaced and that no major engine damage took place? The car has been great otherwise despite the age/mileage. I would like to get it back on the road if nothing else is damaged. If you have any experience or knowledge with slipped timing belts and the range of things that can happen I would like to hear from you. One other thing I haven't tried yet is to rotate the crank by hand to see if there is any binding. I haven't been able to get at the bolt yet. If the crank rotates in both directions - is it safe to say there is no engine damage?

 

One other thing. The engine still ran but the car would not move forward. I was under the impression that there would be a loud noise and the engine would possibly kill if there was major damage or valve to piston interference.

 

Yeah, if the pistons hit the valves, it probably wouldn't be still running. Still, what you described as fraying timing belt = that means replace it.

 

What you describe with the timing belt is odd. Obviously the timing belt requires replacement, but I have been a mechanic for over 15 years and I have never heard of a timing belt causing the vehicle not to move. Sounds like you also have a transmission or clutch issue also if its manual transmission. Let me know how things turn out after replacing the timing belt. I'm curious to hear the outcome. If the engine still rotates and it runs you should be able to get away with just replacing the timing belt and not have any major engine damage though. Hope this helps!