Go Greased Lightning

[cyrano]

So my CV Boots are cracked, and one of them is throwing grease. Gary at Hopkins Honda recommends that I deal with this problem within a week, to avoid serious problems. He also thinks I'm in the window of appropriateness to replace the timing chain. I think I'll try to keep working six or seven days a week for a while, and see if I can stay caught up.
Movie crew was good last night--maybe too much movie quoting for the sake of movie quoting, and the conversation was no afternoon salon, but very relaxing and friendly and I wish I hadn't stayed out so late but I survived well. And it was nice to meet new people.
Now it is time to pack, so I can leave tomorrow for LA.

Comments

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

As I general rule, I don't put off maintenance on brakes. IMHO, stopping is important. Replace the timing chain? You must have a metric ass-load of miles on this car.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

CV boots aren't brakes - they're the protective cover that encases your CV joints and keeps them lubricated. CV joints are what transfers the power from the drive shaft to the wheels - they're effectively universal joints for a front-wheel drive car. So they're important for the getting moving in the first place.

Unfortunately, that car is of the age (90-100k) where there's a lot of major repairs/replacements due. I'd get a second opinion on the timing chain. It's an expensive repair, and it's probably recommended maintenance for 100k, but you may not need it.

I bought my first car with 106k miles for $500, then spent another $2-3k on it in mostly big repairs (exhaust system, clutch, CV boots and maybe a joint, brakes, starter, etc) over the next few years. But I got another 60k miles out of it in those years, so it worked out pretty well IMHO.

What I was told: in re timing chains

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Apparently in order to get to the timing chain to inspect it and see if it needs replacement, one needs to go through almost as much labor as one would spend to replace the thing outright.
Dunno how much of that is true.

Re: What I was told: in re timing chains

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

ohyeah. That's likely true. You might check usenet to see if there's a honda (or better yet del sol) discussion group. I found some good info on my Nissan there, and there were many discussions on timing chains, and for that car, anyway, the general concensus was that the timing chains were good for more like 150k.

[miss-friday.livejournal.com]

That's right, my bad. (This is what happens when you spend all day writing about the history of the oratorio, everything else becomes a non-descript blur.)

I'd agree with the second opinion on the timing chain. As I recall, you talked to a dealer. Dealers are well known for doing lots of things that aren't necessary. They have to make their boat payments, after all. My sister replaced almost everything else on her old truck before the timing chain and it was way past 150K.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel better, when he initially mentioned that my CV Boot was throwing grease, I wondered to myself if anything I'd put in the boot had gotten grease on it.
But he was very nice and brought up a picture of the thing and explained what it was and how it worked and why the grease around it was so important.
And that it'd cost $400 to replace them.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

You forgot that most U.S. people don't use 'boot' for trunk, eh? :)

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Well that and I had no idea what a 'CV boot' was.

[mallen.livejournal.com]

Loosing a timing chain on a Honda is the kiss of death for the entire car. They ususally need to be replaced around 75,000 miles.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Crap. And I'm at 99K.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

I recently had to replace the CV boots on the front axle of my remaining car. Personally, I'd say that you might have a little time as you don't live in any place that gets snow, ie your roads don't get salted. A cracked CV boot and salty roads is the kiss of death for your drive train, your axles and the joints connecting your wheels to your axles.