Anybody know of a good, reliable mechanic in the Northern IL, Souther WI area (Crystal Lake)?
I'll pay the $695 if I have to but I would love to save some money and find a cheaper place.

 

Sorry, I'm on the west coast, but my word of advice is to stay away from dealerships as much as humanly possible.

 

I have a 95 w/d15b7 and just changed my own timing belt. I bought a timing belt and idler, idler spring and all the other belts too. Not sure how the 97 is configured so your parts list will be different. If you bought everything you needed including a new floor jack and jack stands it isn't going to cost you anywhere near $695 even if you buy Honda parts from the dealer and get a rental car for a couple days. Seriously. A Haynes manual only costs about $12.00 or $15.00. Before I bought the manual, I stood in the parts store and kind of read through the timing belt procedure to see if I thought it was something I could do myself. I had to replace my harmonic balancer too so I figured I might as well do the timing belt while I'm at it.

You can do it.

 

I have the Haynes manual and all of the tools to do it but I think this might be beyond my capabilities. I used to do all of my own repairs but lately I've gotten tired (getting old) of repairing my own vehicles.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will call around to see if anyone near me can do it cheaper. I haven't found a good mechanic in my area that I really trust.

 

My father is a mechanic and he used to change the timing belts on my older civic.

forget trying to do it yourself. You gotta have skillz to do something that complicated.

take it to any SAE-certified mechanic in town, preferrably one that specializes in imports, and let him change it for you. he'll probably charge less than the stealership...

 

ASE

 

nah ya dont need skills fer that. timing belt's an easy job. but a ****ty one to have to do. but you'd save yourself like 600 bucks and you could do it in an hour.

 

We had a keep time get my old one off The bolt on the bottom pully i think it was the crank cause i'm new to working on cars and I was helping my friend but anyway we was trying to break it loose by hand and that wasn't working, air gun wasn't working, we heated it with a torch didn't work and after breaking 3 wrenchs buy turning it over with the starter it came off. But if your do that you better stay away from it when you turn the car over it is very dangerous

 

ASE = Automotive Service Excellence... mechanics certification
SAE = Society of Automotive Engineers.. american oil grades, bolt specs and stuff.

 

Yeah... tools and bolts are SAE certified, not people.

A timing belt isn't hard to do. You don't need skills, you need a good manual (Chiltons preferable) and you need to be able to follow exact directions. It does require a particular level of precision, but nothing you need to go to school for.

Any sort of "certified" mechanic will almost always ream you on the price, especially if he claims to specialize in something. Just ask around and find any good reputable mechanic in the area.