Remember to do your weekly checks!

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Sun Feb 02, 2020 6:14 pm

I was driving back from Oxford earlier - could hear a strange sound coming from the rear (Even the wife could hear it, and she generally wouldn't notice the bottom end falling out a car). It sounded a bit like a wheel bearing but could have been the road surface. I pulled off the slip road which was downhill thankfully, and noticed the tell tale sign of rear caliper getting stuck on (brake groaning when just on the limit of holding, slight dragging when pulling away), probably wouldn't have heard it if the road was flat.

So I get home, whip the wheel off, and notice the newly refurbed motegi wheel nuts are a touch loose. Bit annoying - i'd torqued them to spec, then drove hard and cooled down, retorqued, then the next day drove 10 miles to work and torqued again. hmmm. probably a combination of a little lacquer overspray and the recent heating due to brake issue.

Onto the brakes - was annoyed to think my recently purchased new rear calipers would be seized - but luckily it was just the lower guide pin. Very strange though. The upper was perfect, and they were new pins when the caliper went on (less than 2 years ago), and new boots too. Still - took them both out, cleaned, re lubed , and new boots (again). Brake pads were still nice and flat/true so not been a long running issue thankfully.

So then, just when it's all gone back together, all other wheel nuts checked - were fine thankfully, pat on the back job well done / issue spotted and fixed before tea time - I decide to do my usual weekly checks. It's a good habit to get into and not one I hear of many others doing too often. Starts off with a levels checks, tyre pressures, lights check, look at the brakes/discs for cracks/wear, check tyres outside and inside edges for bulges etc, prod/poke around any hoses and fasteners, then a good look round with the torch to check nothing important has fallen off. Generally I don't find anything of note.

Until today - Whilst checking around the alt/access belts, noticed that one of the cambelt side engine mount bolts has snapped clean off! Ho Lee jobby - there goes me driving to work tomorrow. ft the other bolt head had snapped off, the engine would have dropped down pretty low and caused me all sorts of trouble at anything other than slow speeds.

Glad I spotted it, wanted post going up shortly!

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Sun Feb 02, 2020 7:13 pm

Can someone do a visual on their car for me real quick?

According to the service manual - the mount is held in with a stud (closest to the front of car), and a bolt towards the rear.

part 16 here , shows the stud (41) towards the front of the car.
https://www.lingshondaparts.com/partsca ... f/E__1400/

Parts 15/22 on this pic seems the wrong way around then:
https://www.lingshondaparts.com/partsca ... f/B__4700/

Service manual shows the stud at the front, section 5-9 (engine removal).

So I'm guessing that actually the stud has snapped off. Parts manual shows it as removable, but I bet that will be a bitch to get out. Gonna have to stake it, drill it , and get lucky with a pretty beefy stud extractor, whilst hoping the engine does twist off whatever i jack it up with.

I have a big gap showing between the 2 halves of the engine mount (between part 16 on the first link, and part 8 on the other link). I suspect the bolt is backing itself out, rather than the mount being twisted (these parts are cast, and doubt they are aluminium).

Bloody cars!!!

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Sun Feb 02, 2020 9:24 pm

Well that was quick.

Chap around the corner breaking a 5th gen, he'd already removed most parts including the gearbox. Popped over with the engine crane in the wifes car, we whipped the engine out , and i'm the proud owner of a mount bracket and most importantly the stud!

Can confirm its a bolt at the back, and a stud at the front. Hopefully i can get the snapped stud out OK, then ill be back in business!

Post by **Drax** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 9:15 am

fair play for spotting all that, especially the mount bolt - im really surprised that snapped

do you remember hitting a bump or pole hole really hard recently?

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 3:06 pm

not especially, however the roads i take to work are not the best, and previously the suspension has been quite hard coupled with hard tyres.

You're right though, its not the kind of thing you'd expect to break - I suspect it hasn't been touched in years (i doubt PAW would have had to do anything at the cambelt end whilst doing the gearbox). It makes no sense for it to break now , it's done track days, been driven hard on numerous occasions, and hit plenty of bumps. Perhaps vibration rattled out the bolt a little, putting too much stress on the stud?

Still hopefully an easy repair tonight now i have a replacement stud, just hope the old one comes out without much bother otherwise it will be a pain.

Post by **vanzep** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 4:16 pm

so its the stud that come out of the engine mounting bracket that has gone - pretty rare to see that

if thats gone then you might want to check the front mount as normally its the rubber inner that splits on that first - might be movement in that thats had a knock on effect

good job on the weekly checks - nobody seems to lift their bonnet and check things these days - most folk seem curious as to why i have the bonnet up on the lude when checking things over and they almost all incorrectly assume there is a problem with the car - i had one guy say that i should scrap the lude

Post by **vanzep** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 4:24 pm

found a few brackets - if its the same bracket/stud then it looks very difficult to remove so you might be better getting the whole bracket/stud assembly - anyway hope the pics help in some way

they might be 5th gen ones?

Scott560 · Post by **Scott560** » Mon Feb 03, 2020 9:46 pm

All sorted.

In the pictures posted, it was the very long stud that had snapped , it sticks straight up in the engine bay. It had snapped just above the collared part, so less than a centimeter was sticking out of the mount (which is attached inside the cambelt area, foook that!)

So I jacked the car up from the front towing eye subframe part, onto stands, then jacked up engine with a rubber kneeling pad, jacked up about an inch to relieve the stress on the mount. The gap closed up between the 2 parts of the mount, and the bolt at the back was unscrewed by hand! it was bent! Wasn't going to last long like that...

Got the stud out without much effort, dremmelled a little bit off the sides, then lightly hammered a 12mm socket onto it , and undid it with the breaker bar with fairly little effort.

The new stud went in with the help of 2 nuts locked to each other. All back in and all bolts to the correct torque in the correct sequence. Quick test drive and all seems well, suspect it might have been loosening up for a while after the stud snapped off, as I seem to notice an improvement in the smoothness of the engine at low speeds.

All is well that ends well, and big up respect to my prelude owning neighbour who was just 2 mins drive away, who pulled his engine out at 8pm on a sunday evening to get me out of a bind.

Old cars - gotta love em! I know what you mean, people are quick to write them off, forgetting that its 20 years old + and is 125k miles and has track abuse lol. Perhaps though the time will come when a daily car is needed...