So I have a Honda Accord 2004 4 cylinder EX that wouldn’t start up in the Missouri heat the other day. Took a 5-hour road trip the night before. Came home at 3:30 a.m. was working fine for the trip. Even took a pit stop. The next morning I got up around 9:00 a.m. and went out to start the car to go somewhere and it started up then died immediately. I’ve tried diagnosing everything I can but it doesn’t seem to be turning over, I’ve changed the fuel injectors, the spark plugs, the starter has been bench tested and replaced, I’ve also changed the alternator and the battery with no luck. The car seems to be making a whirring noise like a drill when I try to turn it over and the starter is engaging properly and the flywheel is okay. I’m completely out of ideas and would rather not pay for it tow and a mechanic at this point, was hoping someone on here could help!
Sounds like the timing chain broke. Check if the camshafts are rotating, inspect through the oil cap or remove the valve cover.
It sounds like either your timing belt or timing chain (whichever your car has) may be broken. You need to take off the oil cap and look into the hole while someone cranks the engine to see if the camshaft is turning.
True. Should b able to tell if cranking sounds normal.
If the problem is a broken timing chain/belt, that may have also resulted in piston/valve interference, & damaged the valves. With some luck, they may not be damaged — yet. Suggest to discontinue trying to crank the engine until you know the condition of the timing chain/belt for certain.
My guess, the timing chain/belt will check out ok, and the noise is due to some sort of fault with the starter motor.
RE timing belt tensioner failure: Is 19 years of life a premature failure?
Okay so I tested the timing belt without removing the valve head cover and the intake camshaft shaft is turning an be the exhaust camshaft like it’s rocking, not sure what to do with this now as it would seem like the timing chain is connected. Would a defective tensioner cause this to happen?
Edit: I should probably add that it looks like the timing chain cover is in fact covered in some fluid like maybe leaky oil
Edit 2: is it possible the camshaft position sensor died?
The crankshaft turning is a given… You need to see if the Camshaft is turning… The cam(s) are under the valve cover…
I’m sorry, you’re right, the intake camshaft is turning, the exhaust camshaft is rocking.
Both camshafts should be turning.
Tester
Took the valve head cover off and both camshafts are turning, looks like the timing chain is intact.
It’s a timing chain.
Not a belt.
Tester
Yep, looks like it’s all intact.
So is it possible the camshaft sensors went bad?
I recommend doing a compression test next, if that test good then see of you have spark and fuel… Probably have a bad crank sensor… But while a part, now would be a good time to do some more testing just incase…
Yeah I think I’m outside what I can do now from here so I had a tow drop it at the mechanic and I’ll post the results.
I replaced the starter motor on my Corolla some years ago with a parts-store replacement. It failed right out of the box, made a whirring noise w/key in “start” but didn’t crank the engine. A Denso-branded starter motor is what did the trick.
Well looks like a mechanic did diagnosed that the timing chain did go bad and the valves were in fact bent so unfortunately it’s out of commission, thanks for the help guys.
Once you get everything repaired, good idea to error on the side of replacing the engine oil and filter too frequently than not frequently enough. Timing chain mechanisms, esp if variable vavle timing is used, are very sensitive to oil level and oil cleanliness. Suggest to use Honda oil filters, and of course use whatever oil spec Honda recommends for your car. Oil changes are very cheap insurance against this sort of problem.