The other day the car lost power and when I stopped, the engine shut off and wouldn’t start again, it seems to be the belt.
Timeline
Day 08.09.25 Driving at about 115-120 km/h, the car starts to lose speed, like when you’re using cruise control and it detects a vehicle ahead and slows down. When I accelerate and see that it doesn’t respond, I take the first exit, luckily there was one when it failed. When I stop the car, it shuts off, I try to start it and it doesn’t start, as if fuel isn’t reaching it. Meanwhile, all the warning lights came on, first the engine check system, or something like that, and then the rest.
I call a tow truck to take it to the workshop.
Meanwhile, I connect the AUTEL and perform a diagnosis giving me 14 faults, actually 8 since some are duplicated. Three of the 7 are related to the camshaft. DTC Faults.pdf (48.0 KB) I also perform a reading of the freeze frame data, I think but I’m not sure it records a few seconds before and after the fault. The concerning part of this reading is the ECT 1 sensor which gives a reading of 215 degrees Celsius, the car’s dashboard never showed that temperature and the graphic indicator didn’t rise more than it usually does, around the middle of the scale. Freeze Frame Data.pdf (45.3 KB) When I arrive at the workshop, I offer to leave the reports that the AUTEL has provided but they kindly tell me they don’t need them because they do their own diagnosis. - Day 25.09.25 Today they finally perform a diagnosis and tell me that several faults appear and they check the spark plugs, coils, and their cables and they are fine. They ask if I can send them the reports that the AUTEL provided, to see if they match.
When they have a free lift, they’ll start working on it and keep me informed.
Day 26.09.25 Not having heard from them throughout the morning, I go to the workshop and to my surprise, the car is in the same place where the tow truck left it on the 8th. I wait for the guy who usually picks up the car and attended to me the previous day to assist me, I tell him they haven’t touched the car, how is it possible that they brought the car into the workshop the day before to do the diagnosis and check the spark plugs and coils and then put it back exactly where it was left with the tow truck, in short, I don’t even believe they did the diagnosis. He tells me they did and everything was done where the car is, in the outdoor parking lot, I don’t believe it.
Day 29.09.25 Today they do have the car inside the workshop. They tell me they’ve been doing checks and are almost sure, 98%, that it’s an issue with the timing belt, that although the belt campaign is over, they are checking to see if it can be applied and Honda will cover the repair. They have requested a protocol they need to follow to see if they get authorization for Honda UK to cover it. They say on Monday, 06.10.25, they’ll start doing some checks that Honda UK has instructed them to do with video and photo recordings.
It’s worth mentioning that it’s a car registered in September 2020 with about 89,500 km, so it’s about a year and 30,000 km away from the belt change.
The timing belt campaign never came up. It consumes about 1 L of oil between oil changes. No noise was heard that would suggest a belt or engine breakage (when the belt breaks, the engine breaks, right?? and I imagine it would make a hell of a racket).
On 29.07.25, it had the A service, oil and filter change, they were asked to check a noise like tappets, similar to the noise of old diesel engines, they told me when I picked it up not to worry. The problem is that nowhere does it appear that I requested that check. This tappet-like noise appeared a week before the service. The noise is similar to this, the first video on the page: https://civicx.club/t/ruido-en-el-motor-feo-feo/12038
Hello. I hope this is resolved in the best possible way, but these cases make one hesitate when considering buying a Honda again. In my opinion, Honda’s after-sales service is its major weak point. The first thing I would advise is to assess the repair if the warranty does not cover it, because with the background you mention, you should already question the workshop and the trust placed in it. I generally distrust workshops, especially after watching YouTube channels like this one: https://www.youtube.com/@DestapandoChapuzas-uf2lw
Hello MianTF. I am the author of the post you referenced, the one about the noise like tappets. Mine was making the noise while idling and a bit when starting off, but once in motion, it stopped. What happened to me was that the spring of the timing belt tensioner broke, and I was lucky that the pieces didn’t fall into the oil pan, otherwise, it would have been a big mess. Mine is from around the same year as yours (October 2020).
Since they gave me a hard time at the dealership because I was missing one oil change according to the guy who attended me (I bought it second-hand and it seems they skipped this change), I bought the tensioner and installed it myself. I inspected the belt and it was completely new. There were no traces of it in the oil or anything like that, so I left it because it still had useful life.
The timing belt campaign didn’t come up for me, only the piston one.
What surprised me the most is that I drove about 10,000 km with the noise and nothing happened. I must have used up all my luck for 10 years.
With a bit of luck, the same thing happened to you and maybe only a couple of teeth skipped on the belt. If it hasn’t touched the valves, the repair is simple.
Push them a bit to see if you can get them to repair it for you, because the car itself is very good, no matter what they say about the wet belt. By doing the maintenance on time and properly, it shouldn’t cause problems.
I’m sorry for the delay. How’s it going, traxxxto? Your thread gave me hope that nothing was broken beyond the belt. I traveled +/- 6000 km from when the noise appeared until it failed.
Update,
Day 06.10.25, Monday I went to the workshop to ask if there was any news. They told me that it is indeed the belt, it’s missing teeth, and nothing else. Upon opening the area of the belt, they saw it was missing 4 teeth. They mentioned that Honda is having them do a guided fault location to see if there are more issues indicating if it falls under the belt campaign. I remember my car is not affected by this campaign, and they will keep me informed.
Day 08.10.25 I returned to the workshop, having received no news. They told me that the entire engine needs to be replaced, including the block, turbo, camshaft, etc., and that the belt is missing 8 teeth. It seems the location confirmed it’s the same issue for which the campaign was launched. Apparently, the block and turbo are fine. They have requested a replacement car, and they don’t think there will be any problems. If they approve it, they will call me as soon as one is available.
On one hand, I’m relieved to know that Honda UK covers it. It will take a month and a half from acceptance to complete the repair, as the parts need to come from Korea. On the other hand, I’m a bit suspicious. Let me explain. I don’t think it’s untrue that Honda is covering it; I don’t think they would make such a claim if it weren’t true. But when they told me the parts are coming from Korea, several alarms went off. I thought the Civic Hatchback was manufactured in the UK, and the complete engine replacement, block, turbo, camshaft, etc., makes me more suspicious because I read somewhere that in the engine block campaign, they only replaced the engine block, belt, and whatever was defective, not the cylinder head because it would be fine. I don’t know if they’re telling me more to look good or what; maybe it’s just my paranoia.
It seems I’m going to have to eat my words when I said “complete engine change, block, turbo, camshaft, etc., it bothers me more because somewhere I read that in the engine block campaign they only changed the engine block, belt, and whatever was defective, that they didn’t change the cylinder head because it would be fine,” because it seems that all those things are changed according to service bulletin No. SX-02-008-00A (UPDATE Product Update Campaign (6NK): CIVIC FK6/FC9 1.0L Missing teeth in the timing belt UPDATE - Only manual transmission vehicles) In repair method C, all those things are indeed changed.
Wow, I’m glad, MilanTF, that the response you received from the brand was appropriate and desired. As for me, I didn’t have the guts to leave the car for them to open it up and then tell me that the warranty wouldn’t cover it because I missed an oil change, which they could have told me before doing anything. But the jerk who attended me at Sodive Huelva, a certain Fernando Montero, didn’t give me any hope that this would be the case, so I decided to repair it on my own.
