Crankshaft slightly bent - Honda Prelude Forum

truspector · 06-17-2011, 01:32 PM

I bought a 98 Prelude base about two months ago and recently had my CEL come on. I put a jumper in the 2P connector and got an error code of 61. O2 sensor, simple enough. I took it over to my buddy's house and we put it up on the rack and replaced the sensor but but also noticed oil accumulating on the bottom of the oil pan. I know for a fact it wasn't leaking when I bought it and since I live on a gravel driveway, it's hard to notice an oil leak so I'm not sure how long it has been leaking now. It's dropped roughly half a quart in the 1000 miles I've driven it. Fast forward to today I've now had two mechanics look at it and they've both come to the same conclusion. The crankshaft pulley was wobbling pretty badly and still wobbles slightly after replacing. It appears the crankshaft itself is slightly bent and the previous owner put a bunch of silicone around the crankshaft seal so that I wouldn't notice the oil leak but that silicone has now been knocked loose thus oil is leaking again. So I'm basically looking at two scenarios (selling the car isn't going to happen, I got a great deal on it, for obvious reasons now, and it's in immaculate physical condition and mechanically sound except for this issue):

A) Replace the crankshaft. My main mechanic has quoted me 800 which includes parts and labor (I think he said rods and bearings were included as well? I'm not very mechanically sound)
B) Engine swap. I'm not sure where I would even get one and what the price would be. I'm also weary of putting an unknown used engine in when another problem may just pop up with it.

Any advice?

IconOfSin · 06-17-2011, 02:39 PM

how many miles are on the motor?

if its high milage it may be cheaper to get a new motor.

unless you plan on building the current one.

truspector · 06-17-2011, 03:25 PM

Assuming this is the original motor in the car, which I suspect it is, 150k.

pineabs · 06-21-2011, 12:58 PM

800 dollars is cheap if he is doing the work right. align hone the mains, and match bearings. for 800 dollars i think he's going to drop your trans and your pan and stick a used crank in there. or for 1000 dollars u can get a low mileage jdm motor.

IconOfSin · 06-21-2011, 01:34 PM

since its gotta be dropped id inspect your pistion rings..since the pistons are out it might be a good idea to replace em too.

pIERCE · 06-21-2011, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IconOfSin

since its gotta be dropped id inspect your pistion rings..since the pistons are out it might be a good idea to replace em too.

I'd be equally as worried about the cylinder walls at that point.

mnman2 · 06-22-2011, 10:11 PM

I got recently screwed in the same way you did. The guy welded the end of my crank to the pulley long enough to sell only to have it come lose on me 4 days after buying the car.. Refer to my forum post i made a few weeks ago about my story. I opted to put a new engine in which is goin in saturday if all goes well. I decided to buy an engine from a local yard instead of ordering a jdm off of hmotoronline or wherever. I got a good deal on a decently low mileage engine.
Id say go with a new engine if you can find someone to put it in at a decent price that knows what they are doing.

maxerbater · 06-30-2011, 02:42 AM

buy new motor 800 from tiger jap. few others with 30k or less better deal by far

truspector · 08-05-2011, 01:22 PM

Update time. I ended up going ahead with the repair. There's a local welding company that was able to bend the crankshaft back straight. I had the shop tear the engine down to a bare block and while it was out anyway they cleaned out the head, replaced the head gasket, new piston rings, etc. Nearly a complete rebuild and it ran like a dream, at least for a few weeks....

Now for the bad news.

I think the curse of the SS tranny is about to hit. I was out for a drive the other night (had been on the road close to an hour, no high revs as I'm just breaking the engine back in) and the car jerked and shifted HARD into fourth. I was only about two miles away from home so I bit my lip and kept going but there were a few more hard shifts.

This was three days ago and while it's been doing much better after cooling off for the night, I've noticed two things. When the car is hot (30 mins plus of driving) when I shift into reverse sometimes it feels like my emergency break is on and the car doesn't want to move. Throwing it into neutral and back to reverse usually corrects it but sometimes it takes two or three shifts. While I haven't had any more of the jerky shifts, it does seem to have a delayed hard shift every once in a while. None of this happens when the car is cold.

I'd like some advice. Is it possible at all that the trans fluid is old and broken down and this might be causing some of my trouble? I've read the debates on flush vs drain and fill, but most of the threads were old and I'm curious if there's ever been a recent consensus. Is it worth my time changing out the fluid or should I just take it to a transmission shop and not waste that $100. My local transmission shop is going to want to charge $350 just to tear it down and give me an estimate on repair. Any sites like hmotorsonline that sell remanufactured or low mileage Prelude transmissions? Selling is not an option as this car is going to be a birthday present for my wife and I don't trust anyone around here (small town) to do a manual swap.

usmcmarc · 08-05-2011, 02:03 PM

Fix the tranny. Don't waste time with the flush.

But you REALLY need to do a 5-speed swap. Your just putting a bandaid on it if you fix the SS. It will fail again

DstryrofWrldz · 11-01-2011, 12:02 PM

I just dropped mine off at the shop. I had gathered all the parts and was going to do it myself but it sat in my garage for a month 'cause I just don't have time.

Something I noticed is that when I start the car and look at it, sometimes it has a bad wobble and sometimes it doesn't. Seems to be worse after running for awhile, and not so bad when started from cold. Which also agrees with a whine from the alternator pulley that is almost silent when cold and gets loud when the engine warms up...like the wobbling pulley is putting extra tension on the belt and more pressure on the alternator bearing.

I'm hoping that since it doesn't ALWAYS wobble so bad that it's a good sign that it's just loose and not a bent crank. Even if it's just loose I'll feel better about it knowing it's got a new pulley, bolt, and key and has been properly torqued and loctited by a mechanic I can trust.

DstryrofWrldz · 11-01-2011, 02:11 PM

no such luck.

New pulley on, still wobbles. Mechanic checked the end play of the crank and it's at .030", which is not quite double what Honda considers the service limit.

He says as long as the bolt is tight and it's not knocking it's not going to hurt anything to keep driving it. I don't think it's worth just changing a crank at 188k miles and if the pulley damages something, I'll need a new engine anyway so I might as well get some mileage out of this one...in the mean time I'll be looking for sources on a low-mileage replacement motor to drop in.