So Driving home from working yesterday on the freeway, all of a sudden the car does not accelerate and completely shuts down. I pull over and shut her off and then restart, terrible cranking noise and would not start. Had her towed to the Acura dealer in Tempe. Turns out something related to the timing belt components failed causing damage to the engine (nothing definitive though). I had my timing belt changed at a local shop less than 3 months ago and am starting to regret not going to the dealer. The dealer did not find anything that says the local mechanic did something wrong so basically I am screwed.

In any case we found some engines for around 1300 and the labor is about 1500 plus tax (15 hrs of work and they are giving me a 100 per hr rate vs. the normal 120).

Has anyone on the forum had to replace their engines due to something like this? I can't believe that the engine is done at 70k.

 

Wow, that sucks.

My cousin in law actually had his tranny go, he replaced both the engine and tranny. Picked both up for ~500 and put them in one saturday.

 

isnt there a warranty on the timing belt itself? should be about a year and 12k miles. good chance to sue

 

Where did he get a tranny and engine for 500 bucks? and was it for the CL?

 

why did you change your t-belt before 70k?

 

Yea OP, look around, im sure you will find a cheap one and just drop it in yourself

 

The local mechanic used an ac delco or Gates belt so I am sure there is some type of warranty from the manufacturer on the belt itself. Once I find out what went wrong and its the local mechanics fault I will go back to him to see what he can reimburse me for, highly doubt that he will pay for the cost of the engine and repair. But if acura's diagnostics say that it was the mechanics fault then I will be going to him for sure. He will probably blame the belt and the manufacturer will blame the installer so its gonna be a fun one.

The mechanic was actually pissed that I did not go to him but I didnt have a choice, he was closed when this happend and my insurance only covered a two to the nearest dealer.

 

They recommend changing the best at 7 yrs or 100k, whichever comes first. I waited for 8 yrs and got the work done so something like this wouldnt happen. Lucky me I got to pay for the timing belt replacement and an engine replacement.

 

7 years? Thats not what i've heard.......

 

u shud not have changed the belt at 70k.
believe me smthng is wrong somewhere.
those things can go 100 - 120 k with the original belt.


is that ur original mileage ?
is ur odometer working well ?
how long have u had the car ?
are u the original owner ?
Where did the buy the caR FRM ? (AUCTION, RESALE YARD, LOCAL DEALER)

 

Sounds fishy to me. My suggestion, stop posting anything about it now. So you don't say anything that can be used against you in a lawsuit.

 

a J series motor for 250.00



right.

 

I've seen deals like that. Sometimes you just get lucky.

As for a 9 year old rubber timming belt goes, regaurdless of the miles, should be changed. Can they last longer of course. Some also last longer than 150K miles.

 

They recommend changing the belt at 7 yrs or 100k whatever comes first. The reason you do it is so that something like this doesnt happen. On an Honda/Acura if the belt or one of the components goes, the engine is toast. So I had it changed and something still happened, whether is the installation, a bad part who knows. Hoping to find out when they do the swap. If it is the mechanics fault then I will deal with that.

I am the original owner and the car was in great condition before this happened, odo works great and I bought the car from a dealer back in '01. All maintenance done and then some. Car is just under 72k now.

 

Good point. I will hold off until Acura determines the cause of the problem, they are still looking at the car and when they do the swap they will hopefully be able to see what went wrong.

Thanks...

 

$100/hr is pretty steep. i think my dealer is $65-70

 

he proabably did not replace the t-belt tensioner

 

I am really sorry this happened. I have a great mechanic in Mesa if you end up going without the dealer.

I got this exact attack when I posted I did the major maint at low miles on my 7 year old at the time 3.0 CL.

Good luck.

 

Wow, sorry to here this. Hope you get this resolved. You may want to look for an engine out of a wreaked CL. It might be a lot cheaper than having the dealer repair the motor.

I just had my timing belt replaced in my 03 CLS 6sp. Did it at 104,450 miles. Mechanic not only replaced the belt, but also put in the pulley replacement kit.

 

The dealer has been great, helped me find the best engine from Nexus Engines. Engine has less than 50k has been fully tested (compression testing and leak tested), got it for 1275 including shipping. Also has a 3 yr /36k national warranty for parts and labor up to $2500 bucks. Being shipped as we speak, should have the car back next weekend. A bit nervous but definitely makes sense to repair vs looking into a new car at this point. the car is in great shape otherwise.

 

Glad to hear everything is working out for you!

 

Good luck

 

UPDATE: Unreal

Just wanted to give you all an update, as I still do not have my car back. It has been a full month and the vendor has been terrible to work with (Engine Nexus or Auto Parts Nexus). This is a long story which is not over yet:

- 2/26 - ordered engine from Nexus Engines in Jacksonville FL w/ 3yr warranty
- 3/13 - engine arrives at dealership (vendor blamed the huge delay on weather - BS) they did not ship it when they were supposed to. I gave them the benefit of the doubt
- 3/17 - install completed and it is determined that the engine has a bad rear cam. Vendor agrees that the part was bad after talking with the installers and promise to send a replacement engine as soon as the bad one is picked up.
- 3/20 - Bad engine is picked up but vendor is not able to give me details on the replacement engine (miles etc)
- 3/24 - told by vendor that the engine is shipped but they dont have tracking info for me or details on mileage etc.
- 3/26 - speak to supervisor after days of getting the runaround, he tells me he will get on it and make sure this gets resolved and call me back, Never hear from him again
- 3/27 - vendor calls me and says the engine they were planning to send was damaged by a forklift and they do not have another replacement for me and are refunding what I paid for it. Complete BS, they credited my card on the day they told me it was shipped

So at this point I am not getting any calls back from this Nexus place, not sure how a business like this survives. My thought is that since the labor and loaner expenses were above the cost of the engine these tools decided they would just walk away. So I am back where I started (no engine) and almost 1800-1900 dollars in unnecessary labor and loaner car expenses thanks to them sending a bad engine.

I ask for the folks on the forum reading this to get the word out about this company so that others dont get screwed by them. I am sure I am not the first and I am sure I wont be the last because of the way they do business. Folks that are local in Florida feel free to share this info with the dealerships / mechanics you deal with.

As for me I will be pursuing legal action if they continue not to respond.

Company info
Engine Nexus or Auto Parts Nexus
Located in Jacksonville Florida
Telephone # 866-563-7577
http://www.autopartnexus.com/
VP Lee Powers (spoke to me once and never responded after that)
Rich the sales guy (ext 1003)

 

I think it's 105K miles or 7 years...

http://john-perry.com/acurazine/docu...aintenance.pdf

Most people focus on the years, but our cars are getting old fast... My 03 will be 7 years old this august...

 

Mine will be 7 in july

 

Just thought I would give you all an update. I have had the car back for about a month, runs like it did before all this happened. The dealership was great, changed everything that needed to be changed and even kept some good parts from my old engine.

Glad to have the car back, but what a pain in the ass this whole thing was. Also the Better Business Bureau contacted Nexus Engines and they did not respond to them, shady.

 

HOLLY CRAP Nofear. what a shitty turn of event for yourself. But you prevailed!!! I'm sure things will be better now that u got put through the grinder for that long.

For the record that's why I do all my maintenance at the dealership... it's more $ but it's guaranteed you won't pay more, and they always got ur back (i hope). I got a new timing belt and water pump done for 750CAD funds.
Plus they treat you like a king at the dealership and they don't do anything shady nor do you have NO PLACE TO SIT lol or have to listen to some foreign language being yelled in the back of the shop. It's like rolling dice nowadays finding a place for your car that has price/quality/efficiency down pat!

I was told once buy one of my hot tub customers (we sell Beachcombers), buy cheap buy twice. lol which is why he went with the Beachcomber. you're buying piece of mind at that point, and that's worth a heck of alot these times.

Either way you took it like a champ! I hope that new motor runs HARD

 

Thanks man. It truely was a stressful and annoying experience. Hopefully this car has no other major problems cause then I will really need to decide if its worth repairing. Knock on wood this is the only non maintenance repair I have had to do on the car. Tranny was covered under warranty.

 

You re-invested in her man, I think she'll make you proud as long as u treat it good! best of luck... but you don't need it

 

I ask for the folks on the forum reading this to get the word out about this company so is that others dont get screwed by them. I am sure I am not the first and I am sure I wont be the last because of the way they do business. Folks that are local in Florida feel free to share this info with the dealerships / mechanics you deal with.






________________________________________________

 

CLs-6 engine and 6MT together, $200. Some of us get lucky

 

This is why I only buy engines from local yards unless they are going to be rebuild before installation, that way if there is a problem I can go choke the throught personally. As far as yu mechanic screwing up, Gates makes the timing belts for Honda, but probably it was the tensioner, it should have been relaced if there was ANY sighns of leaking, yeah it's a $100 mechanic cost part, but..... Now I have also gotten "brand new OEM" timing idler pulleys that went bad withing a couple weeks of installation, luckily both times they were noisey enough for the owner to pick up on it and bring it back to me where I replaced the pulley and belt again for free. As far as getting good work from a dealer, LOL, I have seen pleanty of crap work out of them just like some regualr shops, it all comes back to the mechanic having both the knowledge and PRIDE in his work.