It actually seems most new cars are changing back over to chains from what I have noticed. Not all, but many. Particularly in the 4cyl motors. Alot of dohc v6’s still use belts, but I think that has alot to do with weight, and rotational mass. At least that’s what Honda tells us.
Whether to buy a scan tool depends upon your financial state. A lot of people just don’t want to spend money on anything if they can avoid it. I was that way in my younger years.
When I bought my 2002 Sienna, I bought a simple scanner, which in those days was expensive enough. As someone said, it is good to have a tool with me if I break down in strange places, which for me is Mexico.
Last year, I had a strange problem on that car, the cat converter gave me a code for a while. I forked out a couple hundred dollars from Amazon for an Equus 3140. I could have used a cheaper one, but the 3140 will read some OBDI cars, and here in Mexico are many older cars still on the road.
I like this one because it lets me read lived data, to see what happens as it warms up. I can even check things such as coolant temperature.
If you are short on funds, or simply don’t want to spend the money, then taking it to a parts store for a free scan is obviously a valid choice, too. This is strictly personal choice. To me, it was worth it.
Good input on that, though if I get one I will probably just get a basic OBDII one. I am not all sure on the differences.
And as a potential last car update - it seems like my car is a little check engine light happy. At about 30 miles after i got the car back from the service department, mentioned above, the check engine light came on again. This time the error code is P0420 - O2 sensor, or catalytic system.
This I don’t think is related to the timing belt job but I have to say it is beautiful timing.
Honda is still hanging onto that old block V6 design that dates back to the 1990’s. It is still relatively competitive/powerful/smooth/efficient etc and is going to become more fuel efficient next year with direct injection.
Sounds like the cam sensor may be shot and not feeding the correct information to the ECU. The cam position sensor on some cars/maybe all help determine that the the fuel injectors fire at the correct time in the ignition cycle. There should be a procedure for testing the cam sensor. I know on my Fords the cam sensor can be tested using jumper wires and a digital voltage meter. If you have a Chilton’s manual for your car it will probably give you the testing procedure, mine did.
I am not saying I trust the service dept I was going to, but according to the last repair the cam sensor was replaced. The P0420 code happened after that work was done.
When I returned with the Check Engine Light/P0420 error code the Adv Auto associate told me that it was likely due to bad gas. They have had a recent influx of people coming to them with the same error code. He blamed the ethanol mixes in the area - though I am skeptical. At any rate a lot of places seem to be buying into this story, one way or another, as there are a lot of new marquees in town with adverts for sea foam and fuel cleaners.
I am still a little on the paranoid side regarding the work the service dept has done, timing belt to present. I hope to be able to take the car to another mechanic when I can afford to do so, to have a new set of eyes look at it, maybe check the timing, etc.
If the cam sensor error happens again I will have to take it into another garage sooner rather than later.
PO420 is a catalyst inefficiency code. It could be caused by several things. Could be a bad downstream 02 sensor, bad catalytic converter, vacuum leak, exhaust leak or probably other possible causes. The ethanol shouldn’t have any effect on the P0420 code. I along with most people on the road run E-10 gasoline without problems.
It’s not possible to tell over the internet of course, but this sounds to me like the car’s overheating time after time has finally blown the head gasket. Loss of power is one of the resulting symptoms.
Did the timing belt/water pump replacement contribute to this problem? Maybe, but it’s hard to say. The timing belt could have been put on incorrectly, over-advanced say, which could cause overheating. But a dealership wouldn’t usually do this. It is fairly simple to put it on correctly. No more difficult than correctly dialing one of those combination locks kids put on their school lockers. Since Honda dealships service nothing but Hondas for the most part, I can’t imagine they’d make that mistake.
The new waterpump could have been faulty, or they could have introduced some foreign object while doing into the cooling system, or they could have not bled the cooling system correctly. But again, I can’t imagine a Honda dealership screwing-up something so simple as that .
I’m thinking you’ve had a faulty switch which controls the radiator fan all along. And it just happened to fail after the work was done. This is a temperature sensitive switch, and these switches do in fact fail and get stuck in the off position, especially if the coolant isn’t changed out every two or three years. It may be that the coolant change they did after the water pump dislodged some gunk which stuck to the switch. But that can’t really be blamed on the Honda folks. From the OP’s comments, I think it is likely Honda’s suggested maintenance intervals has been deferred on this car. Be sure to follow all of Honda’s suggested maintenance and their intervals going forward. (Cheaper at an independent Honda mechanic .)
Hopefully this is something else, but if it turns out to be the head gasket, you might ask them to try tightening the head bolts and see if that works. It probably won’t, but it doesn’t cost much to try. If not, you are looking at a replacement engine probably.
BTW, when a car overheats, the first thing the driver should do it turn the inside (passenger compartment) heater to the full “hot” position, and turn the heater fan on to max. This can help cool the engine when the radiator or radiator fan aren’t working correctly. The next thing to do is pop the hood and check whether the radiator fan is spinning like a banshee. It should be. If it isn’t, that’s the first thing to fix. In any event, overheating is a symptom that can’t be ignored. When it happens, Get thee to a Honda-nunnery!
A head gasket was one of my concerns but I think I have ruled that out. When the cam sensor was replaced the problem went away. I have seen no more overheating and no loss of power or rough idle. The only problem that popped up immediately after the service dept replaced the cam sensor was the P0420 code.
From what I have been able to learn / gather there was an out of the ordinary problem with 2001-2005 Honda civic and the cam sensors. When they went bad they would sometimes cause false readings to be relayed to the temp gauge in the dash. In short, the car appeared to me, and mechanics, to be overheating but it was not in actuality. The cooling system, and thermostat, in the car were working correctly. The fan did not immediately come on in all circumstances because the engine was not actually hot enough yet, even though the temp gauge in the dash showed the heat approaching red-line.
Given that the problems with the cam position sensor happened almost immediately after the timing belt was replaced and that the cam sensor is located just under the timing belt shield/cover I think it is likely that as the timing belt work was being done the sensor was damaged carelessly as has been suggested.
Oh and for clarification, if it helps, I of course turned on the heat when the car was appearing to overheat but nothing happened - the cabin fans would blow air into the cabin but it took some time for it to get hot and it had no effect at all on the overheating problem.
And as pointed out in my comments, I do observe the regular scheduled maintenance detailed for my car. As I said in one of my comments it was the 100k mile scheduled check-up that first started this mess. That was when the service dept told me that the newly replaced water pump was leaking.
It actually seems most new cars are changing back over to chains from what I have noticed. Not all, but many. Particularly in the 4cyl motors. Alot of dohc v6's still use belts, but I think that has alot to do with weight, and rotational mass. At least that's what Honda tells us.
I wonder how many people called the car makers and complained after their belt snapped and killed the engine. Maybe that’s why more engines are coming with chains these days