1997 Honda Accord New Valvle Job

ELJOHNSON53

MEMBER
1997 HONDA ACCORD
6 CYL
2WD
AUTOMATIC
105,000 MILES

I just had a new valve job on my car, then about 3 weeks later the engine light came on and the car also started vibrating when you start it up, but it goes away as soon as you start accelerating. I took the car up to the dealer and they told me it was misfiring going on. They also told me the mechanic that did the valve job did a very poor job, so they did the valve job over, but they are not sure what is causing the vibration when you start it up. They told me they did all the checks and everything came back as being fine, but 3 days later (after bringing it back from the dealer) the engine light is back on and the car is still vibrating when you first start it up. The car sounds completly fine.
The reason my valvles went bad is because the mechanic did not change the tensioner when he replaced the timing belt, so 20 minutes after putting on the new belt, the bearings fell out the tensioner
causing the belt to jump, and therefore damaging the valvles

1 Reply

KHLOW2008

MECHANIC
41,815 POSTS

Hi eljohnson53,

Thank you for the donation.

You need a scan to find out what is causing the Check Engine Light to show and it can be doen free at your local Autozone outlet. Get it done and come back wiith the exact Diagnostic Trouble Code.

The misfiring during initial startup could be due to
1. Valves leakages. Check if the valve clearances are adjusted correctly.
2. Uneven compression. Do a compression test to find out if any cylinder has too much difference from the others.
3. Misgapped or bad spark plugs.
4. Bad spark plug wires. Test the resistance of the plug wires. Any bad wire would cause misfiring when cold.
5. Out of adjustment idling and/or cold start system

We will start with the above and let me know what you come up with.