Recently ran into my cel coming on and reporting a TDC sensor. Since removal of the timing belt is required to replace the sensor, we figured might as well get it out of the way at 160k miles. As oppose to forking out the $1200 to a shop to work on a car thats only worth 3k, me and my father decided to tackle the job ourselves.
in the end we replaced the following:

TDC Sensor
Crank position sensor
Harmonic Balancer Bolt
Timing Belt
Serp belt
pass. side motor mount

upon the initial run while the car was in the air, it sounded fine considering it was still stuck in limp mode, once we got the car on the ground however, im noticing a fairly rough idle, and slightly more vibration than i remember. i havent road tested the car above 20mph yet, but if i give it any gas it goes away. putting it in reverse it gets higher pitched.

My next test is to put the car back in the air and make sure the belt didnt jump on me at all.

Really hoping i dont have to take everything apart again, as most of us know honda doesnt make cars with the home mechanic in mind. What are your guys' thoughts?

 

Don't know of anyone who thinks that.

 

I've had a very good experience working on my car. try working on European cars; so much stuff needs to be removed just for an oil change.

did you get it up to running temp? There's a section on rough idle in the manual; IAC, fuel pump relay, coolant temp sensor are just a few things to check.

 

haha more meant with how tight everything is, i have large hands and used to working on older cars and trucks.

we got it up to running temp while it was in the air, wont go above 3k rpm (like i said codes still need to be cleared)

theres no symptoms of anything major going on, but the timing belt being so crucial im just being cautious.

thought maybe i installed the motor mount incorrectly but that wouldn't effect only the idle would it?

 

I'd clear the codes and see what happens. the motor mount on the timing belt side of the engine is not vacuum controlled from what I recall, so I doubt that's at play here.

 

Correct, only the front and back ones have the vacuum nipples on them. I've spent way too much time looking at mine so they're ingrained in my head

 

*UPDATE*

Found the crank sensor wasn't plugged in all the way. Was able to finally clear the codes (and keep them cleared) However that didn't solve the issue.

Finally gave in and gave it to the mechanic for a few weeks so they could narrow down the problem.

Turns out the heads are damaged. Still not clear on whether we inadvertently damaged them while we were working on it originally, or if something else caused it. Will probably sell it for cheap as is.

Thanks for the responses everyone!

 

how are the heads damaged from changing timing belt and cam sensors? Did you pinch the cam sensor wires?

 

sounds like the timing belt was overdue and some teeth were jumped...