I have a 1999 Honda Accord and one of the day's the timing belt jumped as I was making a turn at about 10mph. I stopped the car and toed it a mechanic. The guy opened it and said your timing belt is broken and put in a new belt / water pump. He confirmed that only timing belt was broken and no other part was affected when it jumped.

When I picked the car it seemed to have some kinda vibration and he said that is because of it being cold for so long.

I drove about 10 miles on local roads and the car started showing check engine light mid way and with rough idling on stop signs.

After getting back home I kept the car idling for about 5 minutes and the check engine light started flashing.

I took it to Autozone and they read 5 codes - P1399, P0300, P0301, P0303 and P0304.

Has anyone else noticed similar behavior after replacing timing belt and water pump.

I never had check engine light on my Honda and it was not there even when I picked it from mechanic but came on with in a few miles of driving.

I called the mechanic and he said bring it back and we will look. Something else must be wrong.

I was googling and saw people speak about issues related to timing belt not being correctly installed. I am fearful that the mechanic will fleece me if I go back without any info and it may be his mistake to start with.

Any suggestion or how you might have handled this would be hugely helpful.

 

Those are all misfire codes, so the timing belt is likely installed 1-2 teeth off.

FYI, I bought an aftermarket timing belt for my 95 accord (almost identical engine as yours) and it had an extra tooth. I didn't install it and bought one from the dealer, but it might have caused an issue. Just incase the mechanic can't figure out what is going on.

 

Thank you for a quick response. Do you know how many tooth the original timing belt should have? Since has already installed, is there an easy way to count the number of teeth on the installed belt without taking it apart.

 

-OR- engine valve damage has occurred, if you verify the belt is correct and installed properly, a compression check is the next step.

 

Thanks a lot.

I hope the mechanic did that before returning the car to me after timing belt replacement

 

Thanks everyone for your help and guidance. Took the car to mechanic on Saturday and he as expected said something else is wrong. Belt is right. I countered him that it is most likely the belt and if he thinks otherwise, I am happy to take it to another mechanic and get it fixed and send him the bill if it is related to timing belt. He asked me to leave the car behind.

Called me today and said timing definitely need to be adjusted (other areas to be determined) and that he is calling expert from another branch to do it right this time. No charge to me.

Thanks again. I am hopeful this will resolve the issue.

 

I still think you should have the compression checked; even at 10 mph, there is a very good likelihood of at least one bent valve.

 

Thanks. Thats a great idea

 

Got a call back from the car fix shop. They claim that timing belt was done right first time. There were no issues. They said when they ran compression check they found 3 cylinders having 120 pressure but one cylinder was only 30 psi and all the issues are only due to that cylinder. They also told me - we do not do engines so pretty much take your car back, we got nothing to do with it anymore.

I asked them why would a low compression in one cylinder cause misfiring in the other three and they say, it could happen. I don's know what to say on that.

Second - asked them why is it that the other 3 cylinders are showing only 120 pressure instead of 160 and they said it happens with mileage.

What options exist for me now?

 

It sounds like you had engine damage when the timing belt originally broke.

The next step is to figure out what was damaged. You can repeat the compression test and make sure you push the gas pedal to the floor, so the throttle body is wide open to get accurate numbers. You would want to pull the fuel pump fuse and unplug the distributor when doing this test.

You would need a leak-down test to determine what component is damaged in the engine. Odds are the valves are damaged, so the cylinder head would need to be removed and taken to a machine shop for repair. It is possible the pistons got damaged too.

It is a tough call on what you should do to repair the engine. Replacing/repairing the damaged parts vs installing a low-mileage used engine are two options.

Are you planning on doing the work, or are you having a shop do the work?