Ok so my I've had the 93 for about a month now, most of the time it's been on the road but I've been doing things to it. WhenI bought it the guy said "it just had a new timing belt job and a new rear main done and valves adjustedby a Honda specialty shop about 10K miles ago".

Well they did do that but screwed it all up. There was a really bad clunking noise in the motor. I thought it sounded like a rod bearing and it was still leaking oil at the back of the motorso I just assumed that I would have to pull the motor and rebuild it sometime soon. Turns out to not be the case at all. Driving home the other night the noise got REALLY loud but the motor was running fine. About 2 blocks from the house the temp gauge started climbing. Pulled into the driveway and it dumped just about all of the coolant. SoI figured the water pump went bad. Bad indeed! The bearings pulled through the housing, the gear cameunattached fromthe arbor and was only being held in place ... by the timing cover which was darn near torn to shreds! Luckily the T-belt didn't skip at all between the cam and the crank. A couple more blocks and it would have! I tore it apart and all the parts were Honda OEM and looked brand new.The T-belt was pretty beat up so I replaced it when I put in the new water pump. The balancer belt was still in great shape. They did new balancer seals, cam seal, crank seal and new tensioners. So all I needed was a new water pump and t-belt. ThenI noticed that they never removed the bolt they put in to hold the timing tensioner while adjusting the balance tensioner! Not sure if that had anythng to do with the pump going bad or not but still ... not a good job! Good parts, but lousy workmanship.

Ok so I got that all put back together and decided to do a full valve cover gasket set as one plug had some oil in it. And I'll check the valve adjustment while I'm at it. Motor was cold (about 60* F) and there was NO gap at all between the lash adjusters and the valve stem! ON ALL VALVES!!! No wonder it sounded like a worn out sewing machine. I adjusted them properly (.010 and .012). Pulled the inspection plate off form the bell housing and hmmmm .... looks like the pan gasket leaking at the rear main cap, not the rear main seal. So I drop the exhaust, drop the cross member and drop the pan. While removing the old gasket i notice two things. Fist, not one drop of gasket sealer in the usual places! Ok, well that could cause some leakage. Then I notice that one of the metal washers built into the gasket at the rear main is not "in" the gasket anymore. ok no biggie, must have stuck to the block. Clean the pan, set the new gasket with sealer. Crawl under the car to clean the block and remove the stuck washerand what do I see? Not one but TWO washers on the forward stud at the back of the motor! So when they did the pan gasket they left one from the other gasket still stuck to the block and just slapped the new gasket up there. No wonder it was leaking!!! Removed the two washers, prepped the block, put sealer on the top of the gasket in the usual spots and bolted it on. put it all back together and all is well, motor is super quiet, no leaks at all and is running great!

Not bagging on you all that do this for a living, but some people should never be allowed to work on a car, "professional" or not!

 

Dang....what a story! I sure hope that wasn't really a Honda Certified Shop that did that work! That is aweful! Any Honda Certified shop should know better than to leave that bolt in the tensioner!

 

Amen to that. That's why I do it myself. Technicians are too often pressured to push work through for the sake of profit.And at the current rates, I can't afford poor workmanship.

 

I would agree... It's better to either do it yourself or find a good qualified mechanic. Even dealerships can sometimes do bad jobs since they often times have younger "apprentices" in there that aren't up to speed.... If you can't DIY then do your research

 

maaan that sucks.
makes me wonder why you sent it to a shop when you sound so qualified!

Did you bring it up to the shop owners?
If they didnt start doing some major kissing of my rear end, i would sue them.

and I was pissed when the dealer replaced the spark plug gaskets in the valve cover and there was oil in the tubes within a few weeks. I cant even imagine what its like for you.

 

In the first post he said the work had been done before he bought the car.

 

Yep, what 00AccordLX5spdsaid. This was work done before I bought the car.

And it was a Honda certified shop. but not a dealer shop.

 

everything said here is true! that really sucks, and it sounds like you know what your doing! good job! we do have a few apprentices but they are encouraged to come to any of us with questions and comments on anything. actually, i told the one guy i like to be sure to see me if he needs anything. sure enough, todayhe was doingthe srs felt update on a new civic SI and couldn't get the pass seat back on properly again. i showed him how it aligns and goes back in and he's like....you make it look so easy, wtf..hahah. yesterday it was compliance bushings on an 01 civic... he's cool, hehe

btw, it sucks how they changed that seat back! the clips are no longer removeable using a pair of 90 degree pliers! you have to replace them now, you can't reuse them. b.s....

 

I have to agree. Some people are not mechanics and should not ever be around some elses vehicle. My brother being one.

My dad's accord tranny started having issues. Turns out when he took it in to the shop on a tranny recall the shop forgot a critical seal. It failed after 30,000. He had to pay for labor, Honda paid for the new tranny, and the shop got more money.

 

just curious...the tranny recall comes with a new unit - no resealing of anything. what seal failed?