On Tue, 17 Nov 2015 12:46:59 -0800, Califbill billnews wrote:

The Japanese aren't quite as bad but they have some ridiculous
maintenance requirements too. You pretty much have to remove the
engine to replace a cam belt on my Prelude. (take loose the mounts,
lift and tip over about 15-20 degrees along with whatever else you
need to disconnect to do that.)
I don't pay people to work on my stuff very often but I gave this one
to the dealer, a $1000 belt. Our local mechanic just said no.

No wonder they lost the war ;-)


Bad design when the cam belt needs to be changed before a tuneup is needed.

The problem is they made a Civic into a sports car and set the engine
back a several inches to lower the hood profile a bit so the
crankshaft ended up lined right up with the strut instead of in the
wheel well like most other cars. Usually you take off the tire, remove
a few screws to get the wheel well out and it is right there. This was
a 2 hour job on our old Accord.