Summary
This serves as a reminder that repairs done wrong can be devastating, and some of these situations happen because some shops tend to hire people that haven't been properly trained. The service manager of the local GM dealer says he turns down applications fairly regularly from people who fiddled around and built a 350 or two in their backyard and think they're ready for the shop floor in his service department. But there's no way to tell exactly what happened in the Honda's case. The consequences of the work the outlet did remained hidden for (according to other details I received) about six weeks. This was a delayed reaction failure.
It's an interesting side note that removing and reinstalling the head on this particular engine is a 17-hour labor charge, and once you've done a couple of them you can beat the heck out of that. The job just isn't that hard. Be that as it may, there are quite a few steps and tricks, a lot of bolts and so on. And this isn't a free spinning engine, so valves will bend if you foul up getting the train intime.Well, the answer to this puzzle would have its roots in the bottom of the bolt hole. The previous student who had done the job had, as I teach all my students in engine repair, blown each hole out with air to remove any standing fluid. But there must have been some standing liquid in that hole when he torqued the head bolt. That's a very deep hole, and a simple rubber-tipped blower won't get all the fluid out every time, particularly if it's oil in cool ambient temps.We ordered the helicoils and used a 5Minch drill bit to bring the upper part of the hole out to a workable size. Now we had to drill out the remaining threads in the bottom of the hole, tap helicoil threads, insert a helicoil, break off the drive tab and reinstall the head, all while hoping the helicoil could take the punishment of the initial torque plus another 90 degrees. The first one didn't. We removed the head again, worked the ruined helicoil out of the hole and tapped the threads deeper. The next helicoil held, and [Bert] put the Camry back together.See the full content of this document
Extract
Faced with a Delayed Reaction Failure
The e-mail began: "I took my 2006 Honda in for new rear rotors and brake pads at a national chain service center (not dealer). It drove away fine. I don't usually take the car on the freeway as I don't need to on my commute. Last week, when on the freeway my car would not go over 50 mph, and when I pulled to the side I was met with a burning smell. No smoke, just odor I took (it) to the dealer, and there were no error codes, so I went home with the car. This past Tue...
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