98 honda prelude - timing belt quest.
 

I bought this car about 2 months ago, and I'm jsut about to hit 115,000
miles.

I did some calling to see if the previous owners had changed the timing
belt and they said they had not. So I'm pretty much way over due for a
tim belt ey?

any suggestions on how to get the best replacement parts/labor?
THANKS!!!

-justin crawley

On 15 Jan 2005 10:51:25 -0800, "cr4wley" > wrote:

>I bought this car about 2 months ago, and I'm jsut about to hit 115,000
>miles.
>
>I did some calling to see if the previous owners had changed the timing
>belt and they said they had not. So I'm pretty much way over due for a
>tim belt ey?

Yes. 90,000 miles or 6 years.

"ey"? Canajun eh? Where are you?

>any suggestions on how to get the best replacement parts/labor?

Use OEM parts. For labour look for an independent, owner-operated
shop in an obscure location. Not a dealer, not a corner gas station.
You want a place that specializes in Hondas or at least Japanese cars.
It should be clean and well equipped and preferably with a factory
trained mechanic. If the guy you talk to doesn't have grease on his
hands go somewhere else. You don't want any place paying union rates
to overworked mechanics in the back where you can't talk to them. You
want the kind of place that is so hard to find it gets NO walk-in
business and depends on satisfied customers for advertising.

Find a local car club and ask them.

cr4wley wrote:
> I bought this car about 2 months ago, and I'm jsut about to hit 115,000
> miles.
>
> I did some calling to see if the previous owners had changed the timing
> belt and they said they had not. So I'm pretty much way over due for a
> tim belt ey?
>
> any suggestions on how to get the best replacement parts/labor?
> THANKS!!!
>
> -justin crawley
>

Preludes are front wheel drive and only 4 cylinders, right? If that is
true there may not be a harmonic balancer shaft that has its own belt
also connected to the crankshaft like Honda V6's do. It should be a
fairly simple job for a competent mechanic with the right tools.

Honda service manuals from Helm Inc. are really nice. I would go with a
Gates belt. The timing belt I bought for my '91 Civic had Honda and
Gates stamped on it. The labor will be the most expensive cost unless
you do the work or a friend. At your mileage I wouild also replace the
timing belt tensioner and the water pump with genuine Honda parts.
Beware the crank pulley bolt. I got mine off with a nice 4 ft. pipe put
over a good quality, long, 1/2" drive breaker bar. You will also need a
long ( 20" for my Civic) 1/2" drive extension to get outside the fender.

You may also want to use Google to search the archives of
rec.autos.makers.honda:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...s.makers.honda



Mark