Greetings from a first timer! I greatly appreciate having access to information from like minded individuals. I have a question pertaining to the cost of maintenance on my recently purchased 2008 MDX, which I absolutely love. I had a situation with the vehicle that I could not resolve on my own, thus leading me to require assistance from my local Honda dealership. While they had my vehicle they performed a complimentary inspection on the vehicle which, to me, was very thorough. The technician discovered a couple of small issues, one of which I will attend to myself. I will need there expertise for the others, one of which being a recommendation to replace the timing belt. Their estimated cost for this service is $1300. I do not know if this is a high price estimate, as this is my first venture into having dealership service department assistance with my vehicle. If this is a reasonable estimate from them, I would accept it. From the best of anyone's knowledge, is the timing belt service an item that would be safely handled by a local repair shop, rather than the dealership service department? I have a shop that I trust implicitly when it comes to diagnosing and making repairs to my vehicles. They do not attempt to upsell me services which I do not require and they are very reasonable with their hourly repair fees and parts costs.

If anyone has a comment or suggestion regarding this, I would certainly appreciate any input that I could receive. Thank you for your time.

 

I think $900 - $1300 is pretty standard. If you're gonna have a shop do it at least use factory Honda parts or the Aisin kit from Napa that has factory parts for cheaper.

 

The timing belt service is recommended at either 105,000 or 7 years...which ever comes first.
It's good if you have either the used parts from the job or a reciept, when you go to resale the MDX.

I had mine done at 82,000 miles at 9 years. Though my belt was in great shape, it's not only the belt that can fail. The hydro tensioner can fail causing the belt to slip and tear, then the valves hit the pistons and the engine is ruined.

Because the job is so expensive, shops will quote a price using the absolute minimum parts.

Here's the (internal to the engine) parts list that you should look for, on your 2008 MDX quote:
timing belt 14400-rca-a01 = $82.97
water pump 19200-rdv-j01 = $153.44
hydro tensioner 14520-rca-a01 = $146.22
idler pulley 14550-rca-a01 = $52.22
tension pulley, for timing belt adjust 14510-rca-a01 = $117.50
exterior serpentine belt 38920-rca-a03, if you haven't replaced it recently = $44.18

The subtotal without shipping, without the 2 gallons of antifreeze, and without labor is = $596.53

These ($596.53 worth of parts) can be had quite cheap at NAPA Auto Parts as a ASIN TKH-002 kit, for $272.00, but you'll need to find someone to install it, as shops mark up parts to make money and won't let you bring your own parts. They say something like they don't know where the parts came from and can't/won't guarantee them, so go away.

I used Facebook to find an Acura or Honda car club in my area.
I asked for mechanic recommendations, for my TB job and several members said that there were 2 Honda ASE mechanics that did timing belt jobs on the weekend, if I had the parts. I contacted them and they both wanted $300 and would return my old parts to me. I chose one based on our schedule matching up.

$300 + $273 + 2 gallons of antifreeze = $610ish
$300 + $597 + 2 agllons of antifreeze = $930ish

Check your quote and see which parts were not included in the $1,300 price.

 

Get the AISIN KIT from RockAuto as its the cheapest source I know at around 175 bucks for the Kit you will also need 2 gallons of Honda Type 2 Antifreeze as well and optionally a brand new Honda OEM Timing belt.. If you are mechanically inclined you can try and DIY the change and that's about it. If you cant do it then an independent shop should ask at the very least around 500 bucks for LABOR ONLY as the job is around 4-5 hours for someone with experience.

-Dealerships will ask even more as they tend to over-estimate the labor charge at around 7 hours or +700 bucks for labor only but dealerships will 99.9999% of the times deny you of any warranty because you are not using OEM Parts (If you buy the Aisin Kit or any other Kit instead of buying their OEM Parts).
-If you are going with a mom and pops shop you absolutely need to be confident that it is a SERIOUS business and that they will give you warranty on the LABOR procedure (Most shops will deny you any sort of warranty though).

In any case DO NOT BUY THE AISIN KIT from AMAZON! they will send you used parts or a box with missing parts.

 

4-5 hours for someone with experience? Ouch...book time is 4.5, no money made if you're flat rate! Experienced people should be able to do them in an hour haha

Also that Rock Auto price is good! I'll keep that in mind for sidejobs, thanks

 

1 hour to change water pump, hydro tensioner, idler, antifreeze and belt? I would pay to see that..
I think you are confusing the "el-cheapo" procedure of just changing the T-belt only.

Doing the 105K in 1 hour I think its physically impossible.

 

Well a 105k includes spark plugs, oil change, tire rotation so yeah no, not an hour for sure, maybe 2.5. I can assure you everyone at my dealership is capable of doing t-belt jobs in an hour with water pump. When you do enough of them multiple times a day/week for years and years it's cake!

 

Acuratech81...Do you or any of the other techs at you dealership do side TB work on the weekends? How do you get your name out there...Facebook, MySpace, Grindr?

 

Occasionally, side work sucks. Too much liability but sometimes money is hard to say no to lol

 

Oh

 

Thanks for the info, acuratech481! Next question: are there horizontal axis headlight adjustment screws on the MDX? I have searched for but not found them if there are.

 

Only on non-US models as far as I know. Sometimes bulbs are just jammed in and not sitting straight. Especially HID's like in these cars. That would cause horizontal alignment issues or dim lighting because they're projector style.