Hi Scotty,
1 owner 1999 Honda Accord EX Sedan ULEV 2.3 Automatic
I have subscribed to your channel for a while now, and have listened to quite a few of your words of wisdom. I have a question of my own. I have a 1999 Honda Accord EX Sedan with a 2.3 ULEV motor and auto transmission. I bought it new so I know all the history of this car. Right around 215,000 miles the harmonic balancer kept flying off and I kept taking it back in and they would put another one on and torque it. Then I would drive a few thousand miles and the darn thing would fly off again. Finally I took it in this last time and they told me that the crank was worn from the balancer being bad and I broke down at 220,000 miles and purchased a very good JDM motor from New York and had it swapped out with my old motor. During this time I had everything completely replaced that could be reached while the motor was out (all new seals, timing belts, water pump, tensioners, hoses etc.) I even had the transmission front pump seal replaced and the torque converter drained and replaced with all new Honda fluid (Honda had replaced the transmission twice, once at 80K miles and then again at 150K so I took very good care of it). The car now runs excellent and drives like brand new. Is this harmonic balancer thing a common thing as I googled it and noticed that there were quite a bit of posts of others saying the same thing. What are your thoughts? And yes, I listen to all your advice and have always serviced everything with nothing but genuine Honda parts/power steering fluid/auto trans fluid, etc. Even the coolant is the blue Honda brand. I appreciate any advice you could give me. Thank you!
Coby
And yes, like you say, the a/c blows COLD and the compressor is the original one that came with the car new. I just had it serviced regularly as well!
I’m curious, did you ever change the timing belt? Before the harmonic balancer fell off for the first time?
Yes, I did. Had it done by Honda at 105,000 miles per their advice. Then again at 210,000 the same thing. Seems after that, the harmonic balancer started it's journey to constantly flying off. I would even notice that once it had been replaced and "fixed", it would wobble a bit and when I brought it to their attention, was told that was normal. I do not remember seeing it wobble before but to be honest, it is not like I made an honest effort to look each time. It would back out the bolt and would even go as far as to finally shear off the woodruff key and ruined the crank.
I think that might be the culprit there. The timing belt change at 210,000 miles. Perhaps the harmonic balancer was re-installed incorrectly. Which inadvertently lead to other problems.
I can tell you I had a hell of a time trying to figure out which way the pin/key went in to hold the balancer in place. And I double, triple, quadrupole checked to make sure it was in properly. I had it in the wrong way, and went to test the stability of the balancer and the pin/key plopped out. Then got it in the right way, and it held.
Possibly. However both times it was done at Honda. And believe me, they do not do anything on your car cheap. I took it back and kicked and screamed but they just kept saying that the engine was high mileage and "nothing lasts forever". I was pissed. I can assure you that engine did not knock, foul plugs, run hot or anything you would expect a high mileage engine to do. It still had pep, not like it was when new, but burned maybe 1/2 qt oil (synthetic, Castrol) between changes. Not a happy camper but I love my car again. New engine and am NOT taking it to that HONDA dealership any more.
That totally sucks. Some dealers are shady.