Mark: 2006 Honda Ridgeline timing belt replacement. So as we mentioned, a 2006 Honda Ridgeline is this week's victim, timing belt replacement was going on with this. What was going on with this Honda?
Bernie: So the vehicle came to our shop for a routine timing belt replacement and it had about I believe a 180000 kilometres, what's the mileage conversion on that? I don't know, maybe 120,000 miles or 110,000 miles, something like that and the vehicle was due for its timing belt replacement, never been done before. It's a 2006, so actually 12-13 year old vehicle, so it definitely had good use on the timing belt and we replaced it.
Mark: So what's involved in replacing the timing belt on this vehicle?
Bernie: Well it's actually a pretty decent timing belt service as far as those go. It is a transverse mounted V6, like all Honda type engines are, they sit sideways in the engine compartment, which can be annoying but actually this one's nicely built and readily accessible. To get the timing belt covered there's a few accessory items that need to removed like the power steering pump and the accessory belt and then after that it covers off and the timing belt's right in there to be replaced.
Mark: Besides the belt, what other parts do you replace on this 3.5 litre V6?
Bernie: That's a great question, so I mean often when either you look at maintenance schedule, it says replace timing belt, it doesn't tell you about all the other things. Well actually Honda does say inspect water pump, so they're a little further ahead of the game but we like to do a thorough service on these, I mean as I said this car is 13 years old, it's got 180,000 kilometres. There's other items that are going to be worn out or soon to wear out on the vehicle if they're not replaced, so doing a thorough timing belt job is really critical. Back in the olden days when timing belts would last only maybe 70 or 90,000 kilometres, sometimes you get away with things like tensioners leaving them because they're probably wear out by the second belt, but nowadays, they last so long everything tends to wear out. So let's just look at some pictures, so this is not our Ridgeline but this is a 2006 Honda Ridgeline a sort of, I like to call it a sort of pickup truck.
2006 Honda Ridgeline
There's a view of the timing belt area, this is with the original belt on, so this is with the covers removed, the power steering pump normally sits right in this area, it's been removed as well and you can see here's the belt, that's the crank shaft pulley, idler pulley and the belt and I'm just kind of rooting around with the mouse here, goes past the tensioner and down back to the crank shaft. This is the water pump located in here, so this pulley again, these pulley's are all driven by the water pump or sorry, by the timing belt and we replaced all of them because they're all of the same age, they're worn the same amount and while there was nothing actually really wrong any of them at the moment, who knows when any of these parts is going to fail and if they do, it's going to take the belt out with it and kind of defeats the whole purpose of replacing the timing belt.
In addition, behind the timing belt there are oil seals. There's an oil seal behind each camshaft pulley, so we removed the pulley's and we replaced the seals and the crankshaft pulley comes off and we replaced the seal back there. Again, these seals get hard with age, they start to leak, on this car they actually weren't leaking yet but the seals were starting to get pretty hard, so leakage is not far down the road and it's not a lot of extra work while you have everything apart. And let's just look at a couple other pictures, so there is another view of the timing belt looking straight down, again you can see the water pump. These marks our technician put on just to reference, so you can see where the pulley's line up. Lining up a timing belt is very critical, if any of these is one tooth off the engine will not run properly and if it's way off, the pistons and valves can collide and destroy your engine, so of course you got to do it properly, it's critical.
Now, here's a good overview of all the parts we replaced. So these were all the old pieces, so there's the timing belt, this is the tensioner pulley assembly and this is the hydraulic tensioner, this piece actually forces the belt and it keeps tight and it's oil filled so it keeps it at a constant tension. It used to be in the olden days, I don't know how far back the olden days are but before they had this technology is what I consider the olden days, the timing belt, you'd adjust to a certain tension and you'd leave it, but what would happen is by the time maybe 50,000 to 60,000 miles, 100k's, near the end of the belt's life, the belt would have stretched a little bit and there's often a lot of play.
So this tensioner completely eliminates that, so you never get excessive play in the belt throughout the whole life unless this part fails and they do and that can cause some issues in and of itself. There's the water pump and thee are the oil seals, the camshaft, two camshaft seals and the crankshaft seals. So there's a full overview of all the parts we replaced.
Mark: So what's the replacement interval on this Ridgeline?
Bernie: So Honda, they have the indicator maintenance light on the dash and the light will come on saying it needs an A or a B service and they have a bunch of numbers. So they only give a specific mileage interval under very extreme use condition, which I'll talk about in a sec, but if your warning with a number four comes on like an A or a B four, that's when the timing belt needs to be replaced, along with they recommend spark plugs and a valve adjustment. So what that actual mileage interval is I don't really know and to be honest, I'm not sure if that was actually on, on this vehicle or not, the owner of this vehicle does a lot of his own service but he wanted us to do the timing belt for him.
So I will say that at 180,000 kilometres I did look at the belt pretty closely and it actually looks to be in good shape, so I don't like to ever recommend to people and please don't take this as a recommendation, oh you can go a lot longer, the answer is yes, this could have lasted longer but we would have never known had we taken it a part, it could have been on the verge of breaking and it is 13 years old, so it is rubber but generally as I said, visually and physically it seemed to be in pretty good shape. That being said, we did have a Jeep Liberty Diesel a few weeks back, the owner had not changed the timing belt, hit about 200k's, the belt skipped teeth, destroyed the engine. The amount of money that cost to fix, it's not worth it. So had he replaced it a little sooner, it would have been good. So you never know how long your timing belt is going to last, it's best to replace it and if that warning comes on the dash do it.
Now, I'm just looking away at my screen here because there is one other thing that Honda recommends for replacing the belt, and that is there is a time interval if vehicle is regularly driven at temperatures over 110 degrees Fahrenheit or under -20 degrees Fahrenheit or towing a trailer, so those are pretty specific conditions, I don't know if you live in the Mohave desert or something or Northern Canada and you drive it a lot, then they recommend replacing the timing belt every 100,000 kilometres or 60,000 miles, so just so you know that's the other interval. If you're cautious with your maintenance, I'd say 180k, this is a good amount of time to change it, it's best to change things before they look worn and broken. That way you just keep on driving, and it's done and you have peace of mind.
Mark: And you get another ten years out of the vehicle.
Bernie: Well exactly, that's right. Why be cheap? This is already lasted a long time and comparative to what timing belts used to be, this is double the length of what timing belts used to last a decade or two earlier, so the technology has really come along.
Mark: I was just going to ask that. Not as common of a job these days, how come?
Bernie: Well, a lot of the engines don't have timing belts anymore and the ones that do, the intervals tend to be pretty long. Like in this Honda, there are 160 to 200,000 kilometres in length, it's a lot of driving time. It's many years worth of driving time but also a lot of manufacturer's have gone away from using timing belts, they've gotten the timing chains. Chains don't have a set interval replacement, but one thing I will tell you is if you have a vehicle with a timing chain, change your oil regularly. Change it more frequently because good clean oil is critical for timing chains.
You cannot mess around. I mean with a timing belt, you've got a whole mechanism that's not lubricated and it doesn't matter, you've got a bunch of other components that aren't affected by your oil change but timing chains are highly critical for oil changes, so just bear that in mind, we're kind of drifting off the topic of timing belts, but as I say, a lot of manufacturers have gone to using chains, they're really more durable. They're meant if you take care of it, to last the life of the engine but some do fail and when they do they cost a lot more money than a timing belt to fix.
Mark: So how are Honda Ridgelines, I don't even know if they make these anymore, for reliability?
Bernie: I'm not sure if they make them either. So the engine in this is similar to a Honda Pilot, Accord, V6 Model, Odyssey, they use it in a lot of engines but anyways, the overall vehicle excellent reliability. To me Honda, Toyota, they're kind of number one in my books, not perfect vehicles, stuff does go wrong but they tend to be much more durable than most and I highly recommend this vehicle. I know the owner of this vehicle, he bought it brand new, he's done very little on it, which is pretty amazing for a 13 year old vehicle. We talk a lot about Range Rovers and certain Mercedes, and "nicer cars" and the amount of stuff that goes wrong with those in a period of 12 to 13 years can be quadruple what you got on a Honda or Toyota, so something to keep in mind.
Mark: You can reach them at 604-327-7112 to book your appointment. If you're in Vancouver and of course if you're somewhere else we love you watching our videos, you can check out the website, pawlikautomotive.com, as we get a lot of visitors from the United States and around the world, as well on YouTube there's hundreds of videos on Pawlik Auto Repair Channel and of course, thank you for listening to the podcast and thank you Bernie.
Bernie: Thank you Mark and thank you for watching and listening
