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View Full Version : Diz/Cam/belt/rings/ucu!!!



jazzman
09-07-2003, 04:18 PM
Hi, I am feeling a lot of frustration, and anger about the situation regarding our beat.

Since the distributor failure in May (see post http://www.u-ukhbc.co.uk/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=304), the Beat has not been seen, and is still at the Dealer - unrepaired!!!

I was told that the siezure of the distributor stripped the gear on the end of the Camshaft, and as this gear was not available as a separate part (WHY NOT !!!), then I needed to replace the entire camshaft!, this required the top end of the engine to be opened........ more time, then, after replacing the cam, that no compression was being made.

This came, after the distributor cap had been replaced twice in relatively quick succession, with no suggestion offered as to what was causing the failure.

Also, only a few thousand miles earlier, the cam belt had been changed along with a full (£800) service.

The cambelt was now replaced again.

The lower end of the engine was now stripped, to check for bent valves - NO BENT VALVES WERE FOUND - however, the piston rings all needed replacing!!!??!!!

The engine was rebuilt, only the engine warning light would not go out (at this point, we were still in may!), so Honda UK had to
source a piece of test equipment in order to test the ECU.

This was duly found, only the indications could still not be interpreted, and the light would come on shortly after starting the engine.

The latest suggestion is that the ECU should be replaced (although that is not necessarily the problem!), and that the cost could be in the region of £1500 for the part plus fitting!!!!, or perhaps I could source one somewhere cheaper on the internet!
although, of course, this would void the warranty on the other work, and then we could proceed from there.

Whilst I appreciate the dealer's best efforts, it would seem that their hands are tied, by Honda UK and the "total lack of any information on ths car......in English!".

I am now really dispairing as to what to do, as to what the final cost will be, and as to how much of this work was/is absolutely necessary, and can the ECU be made to fail by recieving fault codes? which was surely the job which the unit was intended to do in the first place :explode:

Any help/suggestions/advice would really be appreciated, as it looks as if the original distributor failure (which I'm staggered could be responsible for all of this) is going to lead to writing off the car, and still being faced with a potentially huge bill!

Dave
09-07-2003, 04:33 PM
Hi Jazz,

I really hope someone can offer you some good advice - I'd be pissed if I were you at those prices!

Someone gave me this link for a site selling Honda motorbike and Beat parts -

http://www.cmsnl.com/

I really hope you have some good luck with all this - sounds to me like you need it!

Best Wishes,
Dave

adrianp
09-07-2003, 06:45 PM
Hi Jazz,

The first thing I will say is "Don't Give Up...." it sounds like the garage just don't want to do the work and are finding more bits wrong so that you give up on it...

Hopefully Steve M will read this tonight and give you some advice on what to do next...

The piston rings needing replacing could be genuine, the Beats engine does work pretty hard almost all the time so it is possible that they are out of tollerence to the figures they are using... (Doesn't mean they were knackered though...) Was it using much oil when it was running???

The engine light can be read without the need for fancy equipment by connecting the 2 pins together on the loom in the engine bay, (see rough pic attached for location).

If you join the 2 pin sof the connector together and turn on the ignition then hopefully the engine light should flash the relevent code to you...

It might be as simple as they haven't set the timing up properly... This can show itself as fault code 9 (Cyl Position Sensor) so check the timing first if this one comes up...

I can't see how you sourcing an ECU would void the warranty on the parts fitted, It's often known for dealers to rob bits off cars on the forecourt to diagnose problems... so I can't see it being much different...

I hope this helps

Adrian.

P.S. If all this does write it off... I'll give you a fiver for it...:p :p :p

Steve_M
09-07-2003, 08:52 PM
£1500 for an ecu + fitting!!!

Mmmm an ECU is £600 thats a lot for fitting it.

I can believe that the cambelt snapped if the distributor seized, and that also the drive gear broke off the camshaft (drive gear bing part of the shaft so no not available seperately)

Cant see that the piston rings needed replaceing dur to it, more likely that water from taking the head off, or fuel from it being turned over and not starting had washed the bores and all it needed was some oil down the bored to sort the low compression.

As Adrian says it a simple procedure to read out a code from the ecu. special tool required = bent paper clip.

Get the code out of the ecu and then it time to see what is causing it and diagnose from there.

HTH