Hi, I have been coming to this board for a long time, you guys are very helpful and I used to be able to find most of my answers just by searching the thread but I can't find the answer to my problem. Please read my story and tell me your thoughts, I am very worried right now.
I have 2003 CL Automatic with 107k miles. It is very very kept, never abused, everything used to work flawlessly. Recently I noticed that after 30-40mins of driving if I shut off the car (fuel up, get coffee), when I restart the car it doesn't start from the first turn as it usually does when cold. It takes a few turn overs to finally start and then runs a little rough for a minute, but once I give it throttle it starts running smoothly again. I never had CEL on. I thought maybe it was time to change the sparkplugs. So, I put in Iridium NGK, new air filter. Didn't make any difference, but still never CEL. Mind you, I never drive it hard, it is very rare that I will accelerate fast enough to get RPM above 4k/min.
Anyways I started to think that maybe a new timing belt and water pump would be in order. There is a guy where I do my oil changes who told me that he used to be a Honda mechanic and promised to do a superb job, so I agreed. This is where things started getting fishy.
I dropped my car off at 7am, the mechanic told me he would have it done by noon. Long story short, I was able to pick up the car only at 9pm. He told me that first time he did it the timing was off, so he had to redo it. He told me he took it for a test drive and everything was in order. When I started the car for the first time after timing belt job I heard a new clicking/ticking noise from the engine right away, it was also running louder than the quiet humming engine it used to be. The ticking/clicking corresponded with RPMs and faded out >2k RPMs. But anyway, i drove off without thinking much. 3 days later I was on a 30-40min drive and when I was coming to a stop I felt engine running rough. Soon Check engine light started flashing and it continued to run rough. I know these symptoms of misfire. I pulled over and gave it a little throttle, RMPs evened out and check engine stopped flashing. I started driving again, as I was in the middle of nowhere late at night. I barely made it home, when CEL came on solid along with TCS. I shut it up and didn't drive it since.
I pulled codes next day: P0300, P0301, P0303 and P1399.
I am mad a hell. I am thinking about couple of scenarios:
1. Mechanic put on timing belt on, bent the valves, put it on correct the second time and I am just dealing with consequence of occasional misfires due to slightly bend valves.
2. Valves were slightly bent, but with me driving the car I completely ruined the engine?
3. The mechanic is a complete deuche who doesn't know what he is doing and put the timing belt on wrong and I just need to re-allign the marks on crank, cam's my issue will be fixed?
4. What I am experiencing has nothing to do with timing belt and maybe I just need to clean my EGR ports, check coils, valve adjustment?
I called the mechanic and he said he will take a look at it, but now I wonder if I should risk dealing with that guy again.
please help. I know many of you changed your timing belts at this point. Anyone had this issue before?
Thank you for taking the time to read this! Thank you.
I have 2003 CL Automatic with 107k miles. It is very very kept, never abused, everything used to work flawlessly. Recently I noticed that after 30-40mins of driving if I shut off the car (fuel up, get coffee), when I restart the car it doesn't start from the first turn as it usually does when cold. It takes a few turn overs to finally start and then runs a little rough for a minute, but once I give it throttle it starts running smoothly again. I never had CEL on. I thought maybe it was time to change the sparkplugs. So, I put in Iridium NGK, new air filter. Didn't make any difference, but still never CEL. Mind you, I never drive it hard, it is very rare that I will accelerate fast enough to get RPM above 4k/min.
Anyways I started to think that maybe a new timing belt and water pump would be in order. There is a guy where I do my oil changes who told me that he used to be a Honda mechanic and promised to do a superb job, so I agreed. This is where things started getting fishy.
I dropped my car off at 7am, the mechanic told me he would have it done by noon. Long story short, I was able to pick up the car only at 9pm. He told me that first time he did it the timing was off, so he had to redo it. He told me he took it for a test drive and everything was in order. When I started the car for the first time after timing belt job I heard a new clicking/ticking noise from the engine right away, it was also running louder than the quiet humming engine it used to be. The ticking/clicking corresponded with RPMs and faded out >2k RPMs. But anyway, i drove off without thinking much. 3 days later I was on a 30-40min drive and when I was coming to a stop I felt engine running rough. Soon Check engine light started flashing and it continued to run rough. I know these symptoms of misfire. I pulled over and gave it a little throttle, RMPs evened out and check engine stopped flashing. I started driving again, as I was in the middle of nowhere late at night. I barely made it home, when CEL came on solid along with TCS. I shut it up and didn't drive it since.
I pulled codes next day: P0300, P0301, P0303 and P1399.
I am mad a hell. I am thinking about couple of scenarios:
1. Mechanic put on timing belt on, bent the valves, put it on correct the second time and I am just dealing with consequence of occasional misfires due to slightly bend valves.
2. Valves were slightly bent, but with me driving the car I completely ruined the engine?
3. The mechanic is a complete deuche who doesn't know what he is doing and put the timing belt on wrong and I just need to re-allign the marks on crank, cam's my issue will be fixed?
4. What I am experiencing has nothing to do with timing belt and maybe I just need to clean my EGR ports, check coils, valve adjustment?
I called the mechanic and he said he will take a look at it, but now I wonder if I should risk dealing with that guy again.
please help. I know many of you changed your timing belts at this point. Anyone had this issue before?
Thank you for taking the time to read this! Thank you.