Hello Everyone,

Hope someone can advise me with this problem.
94 Honda Accord LX 125k miles
Timing Belt replaced @ 88k miles

A week ago while driving at about 45mph my car made a loud sound and shut off.
I was able to coast until I got to a store's parking lot. I tried to start car with no luck.
I ended up towing car to dealer.

After checking car dealer told me that my timing belt jumped three teeth, due to lack
of oil to cam. and that engine has sludge build up causing poor oiling. They were able to get car to start.
They also told me that I need a new engine.

After moping for a day, I decided to remove valve cover. It was ugly, 6 of the 16 valves
were encased in a harded sludge. Just like if it were coal! Also there was no oil at these
6 valves, the other 10 had oil.

So what I did was plugged pathways so chunks of the harden sludge wouldn't go down to engine,
and I loosened the hardened sludge while sucking it up with a power vac. after doing this these 6
valves were able to draw oil. I was thinking of adding Auto-Rx in order to help break down the remaining
sludge.

Today I took car for a drive and after going 4.5 miles my engine oil lamp began to turn on and off. About
2 more miles my car began to tremble with oil light flickering so I quickly pulled car to a parking lot and quickly
I shut car off. In order to get home I had to continue to park car and shut off for 20 minutes before I could resume.
At no time did my temp guage go any further then maybe a 1/4 of the way.

Can any give me any advice, what to look for as far as damage, or anything else... this is my only car ...and I am desparate!!

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

if there was that much sludge and build up on top then you need to drop your oil pan and clean up that as well, then drop the oil pump and clear all those pathways, to do this right you might as well just pull the head while you're at it and take it to a shop that can put it in a cleaning tank for you or, soak it in a tank of gas overnight then scrub and clean it well, then replace all the gaskets/o-rings on it, clean the oil passages that go from the head down into the bottom (gun cleaners work well for this...) and re-assemble everything. Breakdown below along with manual link for free service manual.

Remove head
Clean (possibly dunk tank and replace gaskets/seals)
Remove Oil Pan
Remove Oil Pump
Clean all of it
Clean passages from head on down
re-assemble with new seals/gaskets

http://www.hondahookup.com/manuals/

 

Your problem reflects very poor maintenance by previous owner, no oil changes for very long periods or never. There may be heavy sludge in the crankcase that is blocking oil pump intake screen and causing reduced oil pressure.

It could be a failing oil pressure switch, but given your other problems I would suspect oil starvation from pump suction blockage. May be worth time to replace the oil pressure switch to rule this out.

Low oil pressure is not good as it prevents main and connecting rod bearings from being supplied w/ oil at correct pressure. This prevents oil pressure from "floating" the crankshaft and connecting rods to prevent excess bearing wear.

I would pull the oil pan to check oil pump intake, unless you find a failed oil pressure switch.

If timing belt was not re-aligned, you need to fix this also.

Auto-RX won't hurt anything, but I doubt it will remove any hardened sludge. There's a long thread on bobistheoilguy.com about a heavily sludged Toyota Camry engine. Guy did everything right to allow ARX to work and barely dented sludge. Still some claim it's wonderful stuff anyway. As long as oil passages are clear, valves & camshft are free to turn w/o restriction, the gunky buildup is more a cosmetic irritant than a real problem. I think you did the right thing to manually clean as much as possible and open oil passages.

You may be able to salvage some miles from the engine w/ a little TLC.

good luck

 

I was a affraid of this anwser ... I'm kinda of handy however I think this is over my head.
I feel like removing my head!

Thanks for the help, and for the link for the manual!

 

Would a bad oil pressure switch cause oil lamp to turn on and make car cut off? Would a bad
thermostat cause this??

Sorry I'm handy but I'm no mechanic, so please excuse me if I'm not the sharpest pencil in the box.

 

Oil pressure switch could cause the oil pressure light to falsely illuminate, however given other problems identified, this is less likely than a blocked oil intake. However, it's probably worth either checking oil pressure or simply replacing the oil pressure switch since it's inexpensive.

Oil pressure switch should not cause the car to cut off, however Honda may have a safety engine kill to protect engine when oil pressure light is on steady. Some cars do have this but I'm unsure about Accords. Oil pressure switch closes &Oil Light illuminateswhen oil pressure is < 5 psi, quite low.

good luck

 

Texashonda,

Is there a way to test oil pressure switch before replacing?

Again thanks!

 

You could remove the oil pressure switch, substitute a oil pressure gauge and directly measure oil pressure. This would cost more than simply replacing the oil pressure switch, unless you have the tools. Oil pressure switch is available for < $15. Put car on ramps or jack stand to access the switch (behind engine, just above the oil filter. You need a large socket (24mm) or probably 1" will work to remove the switch. The rubber connector cover can be difficult to remove w/o tearing.

good luck

 

Texashonda,

Thanks for all your help, I will give the oil pressure switch a try. However a search at autozone.com it's $59.99.


Thanks again!

 

I would get the oil pressure switch at the dealership for around $15, since the Autozone part is too expensive.