Fixing the wifes car or not. Honda Odyssey Longish possible tldr

Wifey's 2005 Honda Odyssey broke it's timing belt.

She called said it overheated. Fan was on when I got there so that may? be another unrelated issue.

Had it towed to my shop. Local mechanic stopped by and said it probably wasn't worth fixing. (interference engine and all).

It does use oil (over a quart between changes) Transmission sometimes acts a little funny but doesn't slip..

Body is great...new tires.

What is the best course of action?

My employees and myself are are car guys and we have space and tools in my shop (we aren't techs though and I don't relish the idea of doing it but can do it after hours).

We have backup vehicles so we're not hurting for time. Don't want to buy another car soon either.

Thanks!

The good news is: Good engines are cheap and plentiful, like $500 cheap.
The bad news is: They are plentiful because so many of them get junked due to bad transmissions.

Ever try replacing an engine in an Odyssey? Not for the faint of heart. Two-post lift is almost a requirement.

Might as well just get a tranny with it. If its acting odd, it is not long for this world. According to the googles, average repair cost is $2550 and average failure point (of reported failures) is 82k miles. We had a few in the shop with 40k that needed complete rebuilds with some hard parts (mostly sprags and races). Sure did make my paycheck handsome.

Step 1: Google ody timing belt replace. It's not a bad job.

Step 2: replace timing belt and water pump.

Step 3: evaluate the situation from there.

If it was a solid piece before this, it's worth rolling the dice on a DIY belt/pump job.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

OP says it's an interference engine. A new timing belt may be irrelevant.

Depends when it stopped. May be worth rolling the dice on it being "ok" after. If not, throw a motor and all your new timing parts on it.

Thanks for the replies.

A little googling says there 'may' not be any damage with timing belt breakage...just depends. Not sure if it's worth it and the possible overheating and oil useage has me worried

There is a engine on ebay with 'guarantee' and free shipping. Current thought is to buy it, do timing belt and tune up on the bench, and drop it in.

We had hoped to keep this van a couple more years until our oldest is driving. I'll risk $2000 on this to save $10-12k we'd have to spend to get another similar vehicle.

Timing belt broke and it overheated are two different things.

Did the engine suddenly just stop running, or did it overheat and start running badly and perhaps finally die?

For the price of a belt, you can see if it will indeed start and run. This you doing the work btw. If it does start and seem fine, then do it again with a new waterpump and such.

She took it two miles to school and back. Don't know how much it had ran before that.

She said it sounded funny on the way up and I guess started running poorly just before she pulled over. So I'm a bit in the dark about the actual chain of events.

Looks like engine has to be dropped and not pulled so this isn't looking good.

Hmmm, I'm interested to hear what happened. Looks like the WP is driven off the backside of the timing belt, so maybe the pump seized, causing the overheat, but the timing didn't go off. Is that possible or probable in this case?

XLR99 wrote: Hmmm, I'm interested to hear what happened. Looks like the WP is driven off the backside of the timing belt, so maybe the pump seized, causing the overheat, but the timing didn't go off. Is that possible or probable in this case?

That actually makes sense...I had a a/c compressor lock up (on a jag in the distant past) and the belt spinning on it heated up and broke (pulley was glowing red when I stopped).

So I guess it's possible?

Still researching...seems the wp or tensioner is the culprit in timing belt failures.

I also seem to have read that sometimes there is no head/valve damage...

If you can reach the plugs you can see piston crowns w/ a cheap bore scope. You can get a cover off to see if the timing belt is intact; if it is, you can do compression and leakdown tests. Drain the oil and look for metal. There's lots you can do to get actual information to perform a diagnosis before throwing parts at it.