vtecprelude

Balancer shaft oil seal blew causing oil to pour out of the engine whenever it was running. It just happined out of nowhere as I started the engine. This has got to be some deffect, good thing it was on my driveway and not any where else.
The timing belt and everything else inside was soaked in oil. Machanic is putting in a new seal, he also said he would wash the timing belt to remove the oil.

Would there be any side effects now that everything was soaked in oil? Also what he and I noticed is the timing belt was off center on the cam gears and had wear on the side, I guess someone who installed the timing belt priviously forgot to put something back.
Is there suppose to be some plate or something to prevent the timing belt from moving?

marcucci

Can't speak for the old work, but the timing belt doesn't sit perfectly in the center.

Get new belts. Be sure that everything is cleaned up well. You should also go for all new seals on the front of the motor if that balancer one popped.

wu2001ok

If it is a 97 prelude i think they had a recall about that problem go check out hondaprelude.com out. it tells you if it had a recall

gills

This was a recall on many honda models including preludes all the way up to 97(can't remember which year it started). Basically, what happened to you could've been prevented if you were on these boards more than a year ago. I had the service done at a local Honda dealership for free since my cars VIN was in the list of the recall. What they basically did was install some kind of clip or backing to keep the balancer shaft seal from popping out to prevent exactly what happened to you. You don't have to pay for what happened to your car. Do some research and find out more information. Try going to your local honda dealership and ask them to bring up recent recalls for honda cars and mention it has something to do with the balancer shaft seal backing out. They should have something in there computers. If they do, give them your VIN number and see if your car is one of the cars in the recall. If if is, by law they have to fix it for free regardless if the car was bought used/from another state/ 3rd owner...etc It's supposedly not an easy job and if you were to get charged i think it's in the area of 500-700 bucks. Sorry i couldn't be of more help.Good luck,

Tom

schwett

mine looked like this fresh from honda, never cracked open :



you can see that it's off center noticeably.

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vtecprelude

Mine is a '94. The machanic who is working on the car told me something about that recall but he wasn't sure about my car. I wish I new before hand about this. I'll go to a honda dealer and see what they have to say about it. The thing is I also started using Mobil 1 oversized oil filter for about 15k mil. untill this happined.

The belt does look like it off center slightly, since I can't the see the other side how close is it to the edge of the sprocket? Mine was right on edge.

marcucci

You certainly won't get Honda to fix it or pay for it- on a '94 that wouldn't be unheard of since you likely have 150k miles or more on it. There is a slight chance that the seal was installed wrong if it was replaced previously, though proving that would be just about impossible.

gills

There might be a possibility. It doesn't hurt to try vtecprelude. When i had mine done, my car had 68k miles, it's 95, i'm the 3rd owner and they fixed it for free at a dealership it wasn't bought at. But of course my car was running and nothing had happened to it. I can see them not buying your story at all and laughing you out of the shop. But like i said, try anyway, it won't hurt.

Good luck,
Tom

vtecprelude

Well my mechanic fixed it for $300. I needed the car quickly since it's my only ride. I didn't bother going to a Honda dealer aspecially having bad experience with them.