Need advice!!!!

how many miles on it?

I would throw in the towel

Your Honda sounds like a money pit...I'd get rid of it

Consider leasing if you drive a lot
I've been leasing for years and I beat these Fords like they owe me money

Show up with a decent down payment ($2500 works!) and pay for the extra milage and damage insurance during the signing

Beat the hell out of your insured lease and get a new one in 2 or 3 years👍

I owned a Honda way back when. Great little vehicle until the timing belt stranded me. That was just the beginning. Get rid of the darn thing! Throw in the towel as far as you can! You are fortunate it’s lasted this long and 143,000 miles? It should go into the records books!

Sounds like many of the people who've replied aren't very familiar with Hondas. 143k isn't bad.

I've had 2 Hondas and loved them both. The last one finally gave up the ghost at 310k, and I rarely had to have repairs done on it. Best car I've ever had. The other one had rust, probably a car from the east coast, and that caused problems with the radiator and other related issues. Even so, it made it to over 200k.

$1200 sounds like a lot to replace the timing belt and fix leaking valves. Do you trust your mechanic? If you've been good about making sure the oil and water levels are up to where they should be, and you trust your mechanic enough to give you the straight dope on what he thinks your best move is, you may be better off keeping it. If he says it's time to bail, bail.

andreaahr, I also have a 2003 Honda CRV. It's the best car I've ever owned. I go in the dealer a couple times a year for maintenance, oil change, etc. It's worth it!!! Plus the new Hondas don't have a cd player. I don't know why. . .

Some info for you:

http://tbk-garage.timingbeltkit.com/honda-timing-belttiming-chain-complete-list/


BTW, my husband confirmed...throw in the towel. He recalls once the timing belt went we started having more problems.

I don't think you said what model of car it is, just the make and year. I only skimmed the thread so if you did specify the model, I could have missed it.

One thing you need to investigate is whether your car has a single overhead cam (SOHC) or dual overhead cam (DOHC) engine. If the timing belt fails, the results are different.

When the timing belt fails with a SOHC engine, the various parts of the engine which were formerly working in a coordinated pattern will instead fire separately, without coordinating with each other. In other words, the engine will still operate very briefly, igniting gas in cylinders, etc, but during those few moments it will be fighting against itself. Your engine, with the full force of its raw power, will try to tear itself apart and might well succeed. A *lot* of damage! And of course you'll be stranded by the side of the road afterward.

With a DOHC engine, a timing belt failure will cause the car to immediately die. You'll be stranded, etc. But the problem with the engine tearing itself apart, that can happen with a SOHC engine, doesn't generally happen when the timing belt fails on a DOHC engine. It's very likely that you'll just have to replace the timing belt, then you'd be good to go again.

Neither of those outcomes is guaranteed. It's theoretically possible, I suppose, for a timing belt failure to not damage a SOHC engine. And if a timing belt breaks on a DOHC engine, it's possible for it to do damage in other ways. But what I described above are the most likely outcomes for timing belt failures with those two types of engines.

So, if you're thinking of keeping the car but postponing the repairs ... or just continuing to drive it until you decide what to do ... I'd suggest finding out what kind of engine it has. The financial risk you're taking might be considerably different depending on the engine type; better off knowing what you're chancing.