2000 Accord Engine Died - help!!

[lpseaton]

Yesterday my 2000 Accord with only 89K miles on it died.
Apparently, the balance shaft seal had broken and there was a serious oil leak and this damaged the engine. However, the oil light didn't go on prior to this - otherwise I definitely would've had it checked. There were no "symptoms" of the problem until yesterday when my car just stopped on the highway.

Is checking the balance shaft/cam shaft part of routine maintenance? I want to know if there's ANYTHING I could've done to prevent this.
The auto shop says I can get an "older" engine put in for $4,000 or a "newer" one for $7,000. Both of those are huge chunks of change and I'm really stuck as to what to do. Do those prices seem too high? Do you think my warranty covers this?

Other than this happening, my Accord has been great with no major problems. I'm SO annoyed!!!! Please help!

[jeffcoslacker]

So it locked up? I've seen a lot of those seals blow and start blowing oil into the timing cover pretty rapidly, but never so fast that the engine would grenade instantly.

Are you sure you even need a motor? Maybe the shop is trying to gank you.

I remember when I was a kid, our Datsun 510 seized up while driving through Death Valley. The shop it got towed to said the engine was locked up, needed a new one. That wasn't an option, so my mom's friend drove out from Denver with a car dolly to haul it back for us.

He looked under the hood, listened when we tried to crank it, then took out his knife and cut the belt off the smog pump. The smog pump was seized, and had fought the motor to a stop. Once the belt was off, it ran fine. We thought he was gonna go use the knife on the mechanic next, he was so pissed.

I would seriously question needing a new motor before buying one. It would have sounded like a .50 cal machine gun under the hood for some time before destroying itself.

[lpseaton]

Thanks for your input! I really didn't hear anything unusual prior to the engine stopping. We'd driven back from Los Angeles (5 1/2 hour drive) to Phoenix the night before and the next morning I went to get some coffee before this ordeal. It sounds like I would've noticed some problems prior to it stopping. I don't get why the oil light didn't even go on. Could that be faulty too?
Is there anything I could've done to prevent this?

[jeffcoslacker]

Not really, it's a common occurrence in that engine....saw a lot of that in the shop...the seal itself is a relatively easy repair...that and a new timing belt was all it took to remedy it in all the ones I ran across...

It's not real likely the oil light would fail...the way the sensor works, when they fail it usually results in the light coming on when there's actually no problem, not the other way. It's possible, I guess, but would be rare.

It quit running on the road, or what? Did you see oil coming out of it?

[00accord44]

they wanna charge you $7k for a "newer" engine? What do they classify as "new"? I'm sure they mentioned no mileage. You should definitely be able to find a cheaper f23. It sounds to me like somebody is trying to get over on you a bit. Hell, you could have mine for $2500 with the same mileage if i had time to find a good h22 to drop in.

But in any event, get an explanation of what exactly went wrong to lock up your engine like that.

[lpseaton]

Thanks guys.
Yea, I was going down the freeway when I heard a faint grinding noise and so I pulled off on the next exit. My car died on the offramp.
No, I didn't see any oil leaking anytime and again, the oil light didn't go on.
You mentioned the timing belt. Would that be apparent that it would need changing? Is this a routine thing? I'm positive I got the routine 60K tune-up.
As far as cost goes, the guy is charging me $300 for checking out the engine and finding the problem as I know it's a tough area to get to. The $7,000 figure is for a re-manufactured engine.

Needless to say, I'm not going with the $7,000 option. My husband's co-worker hooked me up with a mechanic who has a 80,000 engine for $1,100. He'll do the labor for $500 so I'm only out $1,600. That's a huge relief when compared with $7,000. I just hope it runs okay. I've never had to do this in my life and I'm a bit nervous.

Should I talk to the Honda dealer where I bought the car about this?

[jeffcoslacker]

The timing belt drives the balance shaft sprocket, and the seal in question is just behind that, so when the seal blows, it barfs oil into the timing cover and contaminates the belt...so it has to be replaced after...

The grinding noise and stalling are kinda scary....it may have burnt something out in the top end that actually brought the motor to a halt, cam bearings overheated from lack of oil or something...usually when you oil starve a motor the bottom end will knock and rattle first, but it's possible the top end may have gone first...not knowing much about how the Accord's oiling circuit is routed it's hard for me to say...there are a few Ford engines I'm familiar with that will burn out the cam bearings and seize without warning when oil pressure is lost, could be something similar happened here...

If the 80K mile swap engine deal works out, it sounds like a good compromise.

I would still be interested to know exactly what the problem is inside the motor...for $300 they should be able to list exactly what they believe was damaged or destroyed....

[00accord44]

Originally Posted by jeffcoslacker

...for $300 they should be able to list exactly what they believe was damaged or destroyed....

werd. but $1600 installed sounds much better. An f23 is NOT worth $7k