Hi there, newbie here.

I'm querying on behalf of my dad. We're both in the UK and appreciate any help or assistance you might be able to offer.

My dad has a 2002 Honda Civic 1.6 S (that's a VTec). He's done 42K miles (roughly). He recently had to get the cam belt and tensioner replaced
and becuase of the damage done, new valves (or is it pistons).

So, my questions are:

should these items have malfunctioned at so few miles?
has anyone else (UK or otherwise) experienced these problems?

Many thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

*is now the time to confess that, although my ride's a Honda it's only got 2 wheels?*

 

The belt that you are referring to is the timing belt... and I believe that is recommended to be changed every 60,000 miles. So it more than likely shouldn't have gone. It may have been a further problem that caused that, a defective belt or something along that line. And it would more than likely have been the valves, not the pistons. They probably got bent colliding with the pistons from the mis-alighnment.