Honda Car Forum

Hi All, I really need some help on this. This is a long story, but I
will try to make it short. The timing belt broke on my 87 Civic
Wagon. I had it towed to my local mechanic. He replaced the belt,
but it bent the exhaust valve on the number 1 cylinder. I drove it
around for two weeks trying to decide if I was going to fix the bent
valve. It ran fine except it would hesitate at low RPMs, and it did
not smoke. He quoted me $500-$600 to do a valve job. The car is in
great shape except for the bent valve, so I said go ahead and repair
it. This is were the nightmare really starts. It takes the mechanic
two weeks to repair, and then he said the cost was $968. When asked
why it was so much more then what he quoted, he said that while he had
it torn down, he decided to replace the PC Valve and do a tune up. I
reluctantly paid him and got in my car and left. I started to notice
that the valves are still making a lot of noise. I took it back to
work and called him, and he said bring it back in a week and he would
adjust them. I left work to go home, and when I started my civic, it
blew a cloud of blue black smoke that completely enveloped my car.
When the smoke cleared and it had been running for a few minutes, the
smoke went away and did not smoke while driving. I drove it home, but
if I tried to get over 55 MPH, the car would sputter and almost die.
I took it back the next day, and the mechanic kept it for almost two
months. He had one excuse after another, and I pressured him to redo
the valve job. He finally relented, and took it back apart. He said
he found the problem. He said the valve guides were bad. When I
asked why that had not been replaced, again he had no good answer. He
got my civic back together, but now it smokes all the time.
Compression tests are good on all the cylinders, but the number 1
cylinder keeps fouling out. When you pull the plug, it is coated in
oil. Now my mechanic is telling me that my cylinder rings are bad on
number 1 cylinder, and that it will be another $1500 to rebuild it.
He said that he knows that he did the valve job right this time, and
refuses to fix the problem. He told me to come get my car or
authorize him to repair it. I know that it did not smoke before the
valve job, and he has no answer as to why it is smoking now except
that he wants more money. Can anyone tell me something that I might
be able to do to fix this. Thank you in advance.

-Rob

crappy mechanic. shoulda just had a whole rebuilt engine put in at the time.
id get that car away from him and decide if you want to sink any more money
into it. $1000 shoulda gotten you a low-mile junkyard motor.

Replacing a PCV valve is like replacing a bolt, simple remove and replace.
Cost like $10 and 1 minute to replace. A rebuilt head around here is $200.
You paid way too much for that job. Since the piston hit the head to bend
that valve, there is a slight chance you could have a bit of piston
damage. However, it sounds like the mechanic cheated you with the first
repair, my guess is that he didn't do much in the 2nd time around. Get
away from that place. Have someone else check that cylinder with a fiber
optic scope to see where the oil comes from.

Robsonline wrote:

> Hi All, I really need some help on this. This is a long story, but I
> will try to make it short. The timing belt broke on my 87 Civic
> Wagon. I had it towed to my local mechanic. He replaced the belt,
> but it bent the exhaust valve on the number 1 cylinder. I drove it
> around for two weeks trying to decide if I was going to fix the bent
> valve. It ran fine except it would hesitate at low RPMs, and it did
> not smoke. He quoted me $500-$600 to do a valve job. The car is in
> great shape except for the bent valve, so I said go ahead and repair
> it. This is were the nightmare really starts. It takes the mechanic
> two weeks to repair, and then he said the cost was $968. When asked
> why it was so much more then what he quoted, he said that while he had
> it torn down, he decided to replace the PC Valve and do a tune up. I
> reluctantly paid him and got in my car and left. I started to notice
> that the valves are still making a lot of noise. I took it back to
> work and called him, and he said bring it back in a week and he would
> adjust them. I left work to go home, and when I started my civic, it
> blew a cloud of blue black smoke that completely enveloped my car.
> When the smoke cleared and it had been running for a few minutes, the
> smoke went away and did not smoke while driving. I drove it home, but
> if I tried to get over 55 MPH, the car would sputter and almost die.
> I took it back the next day, and the mechanic kept it for almost two
> months. He had one excuse after another, and I pressured him to redo
> the valve job. He finally relented, and took it back apart. He said
> he found the problem. He said the valve guides were bad. When I
> asked why that had not been replaced, again he had no good answer. He
> got my civic back together, but now it smokes all the time.
> Compression tests are good on all the cylinders, but the number 1
> cylinder keeps fouling out. When you pull the plug, it is coated in
> oil. Now my mechanic is telling me that my cylinder rings are bad on
> number 1 cylinder, and that it will be another $1500 to rebuild it.
> He said that he knows that he did the valve job right this time, and
> refuses to fix the problem. He told me to come get my car or
> authorize him to repair it. I know that it did not smoke before the
> valve job, and he has no answer as to why it is smoking now except
> that he wants more money. Can anyone tell me something that I might
> be able to do to fix this. Thank you in advance.
>
> -Rob