- Joined
- Apr 29, 2020
- Posts
- 701
- Reaction score
- 1,701
- Location
- NW Florida
- Ram Year
- 2005 SLT, 2018 Sport
- Engine
- 5.7L Hemi
My neighbor has a 2001 Honda Accord, mileage unknown (odometer quit working). Her husband had a stroke around last Christmas, and is unable to do much of anything anymore. The car has had a lot of problems recently, and thought I’d share what I’ve done with it.
There was some coolant leaking from somewhere behind the engine. Turns out it was a faulty heater hose. Easy fix.
About a month later, they returned from a shopping trip, and they told me they saw steam from underneath the hood when they were downtown. They added water and drove it home. The car also began running really rough.
I lifted the hood, and saw about a 6” crack in the radiator. I replaced it, as well as the hoses and thermostat. The old thermostat was broken in half, and was blocking the water passage. No wonder the engine was overheating!
The engine was still running rough, and I spied another water leak.
The neighbor then took the car to a local mechanic, and he said he couldn’t fix it because when the engine overheated, it actually melted the spark plug wires to the spark plug tubes. ( On this car, the spark plugs are inserted into tubes attached to the valve cover.) it seems he didn’t want to deal with it until after that was remedied.
I volunteered to take a stab at it. Out of the 4 plug wires, 3 were melted. I yanked on the wires, and two broke within the tubes. After using a hook-type tool to remove the debris, I attempted to remove the spark plugs. Two of them broke! After wrestling with them for awhile, I finally succeeded in replacing all 4 spark plugs, along with new wires.
The engine was running fine now, but it still had that other water leak I saw earlier. It turns out it was coming from the water pump weep hole. Research told me the water pump was going bad. It also told me while everything is apart, I might as well replace the timing belt. I’ve never done anything like that before, but after “graduating” from YouTube university, I successfully accomplished the mission. The engine was running great, and no more leaks!
However, there was another problem the owners wanted addressed. When the car was stopped and in gear, the entire car shook. I immediately suspected bad motor mounts. After inspection, I saw the front mount was broken. It was easy to replace it, so I did. Unfortunately, the shaking was still there. Further investigation told me it was probably the rear mount, which is controlled by engine vacuum. The amount of vacuum applied varies the stiffness of the mount. I checked the operation of the vacuum solenoid, and it was functioning correctly.
After viewing YouTube again, it would be a lengthy process. Most YouTubers said it was about a 4-5 hour process. Right. It took me about 1-1/2 days just to remove the old mount. Even with the other mounting bolts removed, and the engine jacked up as high as it could, there still wasn’t enough clearance to remove the mount.
An alternate procedure was to remove the rear motor bracket. It looked simple in theory, but proved time-consuming. There was very limited clearance, and multiple things had to be removed to access all the bolts.
I finally got 4 bolts removed, but the last one was really stubborn. I tried different ratchets, extension, sockets, and even my impact driver—it just wouldn’t loosen!
I had decided to put everything back together, and give up. I didn’t feel good about doing that, so as a last resort, I sprayed the bolt with a good jolt of PB Blaster. After waiting about an hour, I tried one last time—success!
The old mount was definitely bad, and putting everything back together took only a few hours. The vibration is now gone.
The owners are now glad their car is fixed. A mechanic would have charged several thousand dollars for what I’ve done. I charged them only for parts, and very little labor. I learned a lot, and am thankful I’ve been blessed with mechanical ability. I’m not a master mechanic by any means, but I’m glad I’m able to repair most things.
I hope this was enjoyable to read.
There was some coolant leaking from somewhere behind the engine. Turns out it was a faulty heater hose. Easy fix.
About a month later, they returned from a shopping trip, and they told me they saw steam from underneath the hood when they were downtown. They added water and drove it home. The car also began running really rough.
I lifted the hood, and saw about a 6” crack in the radiator. I replaced it, as well as the hoses and thermostat. The old thermostat was broken in half, and was blocking the water passage. No wonder the engine was overheating!
The engine was still running rough, and I spied another water leak.
The neighbor then took the car to a local mechanic, and he said he couldn’t fix it because when the engine overheated, it actually melted the spark plug wires to the spark plug tubes. ( On this car, the spark plugs are inserted into tubes attached to the valve cover.) it seems he didn’t want to deal with it until after that was remedied.
I volunteered to take a stab at it. Out of the 4 plug wires, 3 were melted. I yanked on the wires, and two broke within the tubes. After using a hook-type tool to remove the debris, I attempted to remove the spark plugs. Two of them broke! After wrestling with them for awhile, I finally succeeded in replacing all 4 spark plugs, along with new wires.
The engine was running fine now, but it still had that other water leak I saw earlier. It turns out it was coming from the water pump weep hole. Research told me the water pump was going bad. It also told me while everything is apart, I might as well replace the timing belt. I’ve never done anything like that before, but after “graduating” from YouTube university, I successfully accomplished the mission. The engine was running great, and no more leaks!
However, there was another problem the owners wanted addressed. When the car was stopped and in gear, the entire car shook. I immediately suspected bad motor mounts. After inspection, I saw the front mount was broken. It was easy to replace it, so I did. Unfortunately, the shaking was still there. Further investigation told me it was probably the rear mount, which is controlled by engine vacuum. The amount of vacuum applied varies the stiffness of the mount. I checked the operation of the vacuum solenoid, and it was functioning correctly.
After viewing YouTube again, it would be a lengthy process. Most YouTubers said it was about a 4-5 hour process. Right. It took me about 1-1/2 days just to remove the old mount. Even with the other mounting bolts removed, and the engine jacked up as high as it could, there still wasn’t enough clearance to remove the mount.
An alternate procedure was to remove the rear motor bracket. It looked simple in theory, but proved time-consuming. There was very limited clearance, and multiple things had to be removed to access all the bolts.
I finally got 4 bolts removed, but the last one was really stubborn. I tried different ratchets, extension, sockets, and even my impact driver—it just wouldn’t loosen!
I had decided to put everything back together, and give up. I didn’t feel good about doing that, so as a last resort, I sprayed the bolt with a good jolt of PB Blaster. After waiting about an hour, I tried one last time—success!
The old mount was definitely bad, and putting everything back together took only a few hours. The vibration is now gone.
The owners are now glad their car is fixed. A mechanic would have charged several thousand dollars for what I’ve done. I charged them only for parts, and very little labor. I learned a lot, and am thankful I’ve been blessed with mechanical ability. I’m not a master mechanic by any means, but I’m glad I’m able to repair most things.
I hope this was enjoyable to read.
