Hi all, had an odd situation arise with my 1999 Accord V6.

Last night as I was getting ready to head home, I started my car and heard a slight "clunk" once the engine was running. At that point, my dash lit up like a christmas tree - the last time this happened, my alternator had gone bad. I pop the hood and hope it's just a broken serpentine belt and sure enough, I see the belt off to the side of the pulleys. Expecting to just replace it, I try pulling it out, only to realize that it is not actually broken. I start poking around and see my alternator off at a cockeyed angle! Both bolts had SHEARED. I had it towed to my mechanic last night and he took a look at it this morning and says he'll probably have to jack the engine up and drill out the bottom bolt since it's in the engine block itself. Honda is saying the same thing.

The question I have is have any of you had this happen before? Any suggestions on what I should do with this? I'll probably take it to Honda and have them do it, but i guess I'm worried about labor charges and stuff. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

-tim

 

Dang. I have never heard of that before. have you thought about buying one of those broken bolt extractor things like the "grabbit"? Although I bet that broken bolt is torqued way too tight to extract with an electric drill and the DIY extractor.

 

unfortunately, there's no way i can reach a drill in there, let alone get at the bolt, which is recessed about 1/8" below the surface of the hole it went into! I'm trying to figure out if i overtorqued it when i replaced the alternator 16 months ago, but i don't see how i did, i was pretty careful about it. At any rate, i think i'll be taking it to Honda and let them do it. probably gonna set me back about $400 :/

 

Ehhh....that's rough. Why do you feel the need to take it to Honda? That seems to me like a job that could be done by almost any mechanic.

 

basically, my mechanic was expressing doubt about his ability to do it well. he actually suggested honda since they've sent a few Odysseys over there that had the same problem (same engine i think as my v6?)

at any rate, they said they've got a tool they want to try to back the bolt part out with and if not, they'll hoist the engine, drill it out, and retap the hole. pretty crappy but it's gotta be done. at best (with the first option) they think an hour and a half. at worst, 4 hours or so. i guess i'll be reporting back what happens.

 

I have seen this in a few occasions.. but mostly happens when someone forgets to tighten the bolts properly.

the shops are correct, if they cannot ( easy-out) the broken piece, they have to drill it, and retap the hole , ( not an easy job ,because of location )

 

Truth. Well, if that's the cause, it's my own fault unfortunately. Though I remember torquing those down properly according to the shop manual and then drove 18 months without so much as a sign of a problem. It's pretty strange. Honestly, it looks like the one at the bottom (into the engine block) broke a while back and the top one just couldnt' take it any more.

 

This just happened to my 2000 Honda Accord Friday Night. The same thing was told to me. Hopefully I will get it back Tuesday. They said the guy that can do the job is not there this weekend.
Betsy