Timing belt broke on red light

I was waiting at a red light and my car died. Could not start it again.

Had to be towed back home. The timing belt is ripped.

Do i just need a new timing belt or is my whole engine destroyed?

My car is a 2001 3.0 V6 Honda Accord Sedan

Not all interference engines go kaboom when the timing belt goes.

Put a new one in, see if it starts.

Yeah it mostly depends on if it's interference or not. Interference is whether the cylinder and the valves ever cross paths.

Its guess-work until you can get a look at the top of the pistons and see if there is any damage

If you were waiting at the red light then you would've been at idle, which is a good thing

yes, i was in neutral and just standing in front of the red light.
the engine shut off "normal"
no sound, no bang, no smoke etc.


should i tow my Honda to a dealership? right now its standing at my rented parking place of my apartment. i have no equipment or garage.

i have that feeling that these fuckers will just tell me "yah man ur car is wasted. yah need new engine gib 4000 $ "


do i just need to remove the headpart of the engine and look at it? how do i check if my valves are okay or bent?


sorry if my english is not so good.

Rent a boroscope or hire a mechanic to use one

A quick bit of googling suggests that this is not an interference engine, meaning all you need is a new timing belt. I would take it to an independent mechanic because this is a routine operation and you don't need to pay extra for a stealership to do the work.

If you don't have tools, there's no real way for you to find out on your own if the engine is #rekt. If it is damaged, the shop should be able to give you the results of a compression test (very inexpensive) or some other very obvious reason why they know for sure it's toast.

listen to this man

okay, thank you very much. i will look around my place for independent mechanics.
i will give them a call or show up at there location and talk with them about my problem.

thank God im able to use the car of my mom for a while.
i need a car! I have to drive over 30 miles to get to my job!

better i ask 2 or 3 or even more mechanic shops and then decide.

" the shop should be able to give you the results of a compression test"

>compression test
okay


thank you all very much

i thought i have no problem with buying "good old honda"


what is the endgame for me? i bought the Honda Accord for "only" 2 500 $
should i just buy an other used car instead?

J series Honda engines are interference. nearly every Honda engine is interference besides a select few, every Honda we had towed into the shop with a busted timing belt had bad valves and needed an engine. out of my years in a shop i saw 1 interference engine not blow up when the timing belt broke

you can use a scope or whatever to look at the valves but for all that fucking around id be looking for a cheap used engine

also the guy on the picture is not me. is just some foto i found on the internet.

you americans and you stupid huge trucks....

>foto
>you stupid huge trucks

im not even American and i rip on them but oh the irony

cant you just put new valves into the engine instead of putting a whole new engine into the car?


the timing belt broke as i was just standing at a red light. i was in neutral. 0 mph only idle RPM about 800 or 900 RPM

Valves are a bigger fuckaround than dumping a motor in.

Most honda motors are non interference when they’re off vtec so you should be ok.
Go get a new belt put on and post results.

if the valve bent hard enough it could score the head deep, the piston head could have damage from contacting the valve, etc. or you could just simply need a timing belt and the valves somehow were fine. worst case you need a engine, could just need the head machined, could just need new valves, maybe just new timing belt and tensioner.

especially if youre paying a shop, by the time they pull the heads off to check the valves, pistons, etc thats basically the same labour time for a new engine. Honda engines are dime a dozen i personally would swap in a new engine. rare cars where engines are hard to come by and expensive i would look at a rebuild

should add to this you can just pay a shop to try a new belt too, often times when a car got towed in for a broken timing belt we would make sure the tensioner and water pump spun free, if so we just put a new belt on and see how it ran. if it ran fine, we changed the tensioner idler etc and put it back together. ran like balls, new engine

>foto

You deserved to lose your car, stupid spic

im not a spic im slavic (czech)

silly beaners and their shitty hondas. enjoy buying a new engine faggot

okay, thank you.

If it just shut off and you didn't feel any horrible shaking or metal grinding, then you're probably fine.

Maybe maybe not. When the belt slipped on my interference engine, it just sputtered a bit and then had no power. It didn't even make bad sounds trying to start it again.

But I agree with the other user that a cursory check and a new belt and seeing if it still runs right is probably the most sensible approach, especially if that can be done without paying for a new belt if it turns out the engine is trashed.

Agreed. I actually have experience with this. Buddy bought a D series Civic for $200 because the timing belt broke. Owner said it happened while driving in a neighborhood. He went ahead and threw a new belt on to see if it ran fine and it runs like a top now. He didn't even check the valves. I'd definitely just get the belt replaced. It should be fine since it was just idling.

I guess I left off the part where my engine never ran on its own power again after that, and because oldcar that sent the whole thing to the scrap yard. But hey maybe czechanon gets lucky.

can't really tell you user

the tensioner failed on my 4.7 and allowed enough slack to bend valves

had the timing jump enough on my nissan to shoot flames and nothing ill came of it

it is like Russian roulette

New timing belt and it will run or not.

If not check valves and piston

Sell the car cheap on ebay and buy an other 3000 $ car.

an old honda accord is not worth all this trouble

Most likely not. Valve collision with a piston always bends them, even when idle. Non collision engines are rare nowadays.