After having dinner with Ethan and Meredith, I got to work on the car for day 3. The timing belt cover was back on, so this time I had to replace the valve cover, crank pulley, alternator, and power steering pump. Then I had to refill oil and coolant.

The valve cover turned out to be harder than I thought. The gaskets needed to be replaced, and it was hard to get the old gasket around the perimeter off. Plus, the gaskets for the spark plug holes and valve cover bolts were a pain. This is an instance where it's easy to do once you figure out the right way, both in getting the gaskets off and replacing them. I'm not sure I found the best way to do it, but my methods worked. The hardest part was pressing the gaskets for the bolts, which keep the gasket between the bolt head and a flanged out area closer to the threads. The only way I could press it in was with my bench vise (a great investment!) using a socket from my socket wrench set. The socket held it right and allowed the bolt to go past the pressing point. Until I figured this one out, I wasn't sure what I was going to do.

The alternator was a pain as expected, but the power steering pump gave me more difficulty. First I sheared the bolt that held the tensioning assembly in place using my torque wrench. I found another bolt holding some wiring down and used it in the sheared bolt's place. Then I got the whole thing reinstalled and realized that I couldn't get the bolt that holds the power steering fluid reservoir into place. There wasn't enough clearance. Trying to work around this problem cost me probably a half hour.

But when I started the engine, it worked fine! It was quite exciting, in fact. I had turned the crank for the engine a couple of times previously to make sure that the pistons didn't hit the valves. But this was the real test, and the car is running!

My last mistake was forgetting to tighten the wheel nuts after I lowered the vehicle. I drove it all the way to work and realized my mistake. Thankfully I hadn't driven on the highway and lost the wheel. That would have been bad!

This last day took a while to finish up. I was done at midnight, and it probably took 4.5 hours. That brings the total to about 13 hours. Was it worth it to do it myself? I think so. The job at the shop I normally use would have been $650. I spent about $200 on parts and $100 on tools. That's a savings of $350, which is higher when you consider that money saved is like tax-free income. If my marginal tax rate is 25% (a low figure), then I would have had to earn $466 (about $35 an hour) to offset the extra money I would have paid someone else to do it. I can handle that.

My wife and son, however, are a different story. I did miss out on being with them. It consumed most of my free time for three days. I did get to interact with them somewhat, but from that perspective it may not have been worth it. Meredith was a trooper, and Ethan was asleep for most of the time. The original plan was for me to do it all on a weekend, but Ethan would definitely have not liked not playing with daddy for that long.

Of course, if I ever choose to do this again, the numbers will change:

• $350 of savings becomes $450 because I don't have to buy tools again.
• 13 hours becomes maybe 10 hours because I understand the job better.
• $35 an hour becomes $60 an hour.

That definitely sweetens the deal, doesn't it? I just hope that Meredith sees it that way.

-Brent

After riding my bike to and from work, I got back to the car. I got the alternator disconnected using some creative work. I couldn't help but remember the time I opened up a hard drive for the first time when I cracked open the valve cover. It was something new and shiny, like opening up a chest of gold. The timing belt was easy to replace, as was the water pump.

I mentioned TDC (Top Dead Center) yesterday. This is a reference point for making sure that the crankshaft (which spins as the pistons spin) and the camshaft (which spins to actuate the valves) are in synchronization. The timing belt must be installed in such a way that TDC is maintained. This provides for good timing and prevents the valves from hitting the pistons. I was very anal to make sure that the crankshaft and camshaft were still in TDC at all times.

The timing belt covers proved to be the hardest thing for the day. What a pain to remove and reinstall! The part of the lower cover that engages the bottom three bolts were broken off, and we tried to glue them back in place. I doubt they held. Reinstalling the covers was an exercise in frustration. The gasket seal wouldn't stay in place, and I couldn't exactly see what I was doing. The engine mount bracket is integrated into the covers, and it took four tries to get the cover on right. At one point I dropped a bolt into the covers and had to start almost all the way over.

It was about 10 PM when I got the covers back in place. I figured that was a good stopping point. I just need to reinstall the crank pulley, valve cover, alternator, power steering pump, and accessory belts. I also need to refill oil and coolant. That's probably 2-3 hours of work.

Total time today: around 3.5 hours.

-Brent

Our family owns two Honda cars, a 1998 Accord V6 and a 2002 Civic. Both cars require a timing belt replacement at around 105k miles. I had this done on the Accord a few years back for around $800: timing belt, water pump, drive belts, seals. It's about $650 on the Civic. It's important maintenance since the failure of a timing belt means rebuilding part of your engine. It's expensive because of the amount of stuff needed to do to get the job done.

Meredith's car is hovering around 103k miles, so it's time to do it. I decided that this would be my next step in do-it-yourself car maintenance. I found this webpage on how to do it:


It's a long page, so I'll summarize the steps:

1. Remove the battery, jack up the front of the vehicle.
2. Remove right front wheel and the splash guard.
3. Loosen the crank pulley bolt to make sure that you can do it.
4. Drain coolant, replace with distilled water, and drain again.
5. Move the power steering pump out of the way.
6. Remove the alternator, valve cover, engine mount, and timing belt covers.
7. Make sure the engine is at TDC and remove the timing belt.
8. Replace the water pump.
9. Install the timing belt, making sure that the engine is still at TDC.
10. Replace the timing belt covers, engine mount, valve cover, alternator, and power steering pump.
11. Refill coolant and oil.
12. Start engine and make sure that it works.

Today I got all the way to the power steering pump. The alternator is not disconnected, just removed. The connections are a pain, and I don't know how I will get them off yet. The highlight of the day was definitely getting the crank pulley bolt loosened. I had spent $100 on the tools necessary for just this part:

• Crank pulley holder tool
• Breaker bar
• Extensions for breaker bar
• Sockets for breaker bar

The only tool I may not need again is the crank pulley holder tool. I'm sure I'll use the rest of the tools again. Anyway, I planned on doing like the Timing Belt DIY said and used the breaker bar with the extension and sockets, supported by a jack stand for leverage. You can see it in this video. First I tried just the breaker bar, which I couldn't get enough force on. Then I tried my neighbor's impact wrench, which didn't get it either. Then I tried using a cheater bar to augment my breaker bar -- a 6 foot long piece of square metal. The bolt made a snapping sound as it broke loose. I was extremely nervous that I had stripped or broken the bolt, but it was intact. So I knew that I could proceed without the assistance of a mechanic.

Total time today: around 5 hours.

-Brent