Have a little car repair problem I had a question on. Friend of mine was driving his 2014 Honda Accord with only 40K miles on it and he noticed the battery light indicator came on his dash. He said it just came on and there were no other symptoms he noticed. I wasn't able to check out the car myself, but he thought maybe the battery was really weak since he was not driving the vehicle much lately due to the current virus problem making him housebound. So he drove the vehicle around his neighborhood for 20 minutes, thinking that may charge the battery up, and everything was going fine but the battery light did not go away. Then he lost his AC, power steering, and parked the car in a gas station. Coolant was leaking from the bottom of the car and the gas station shop looked at his car for him and noticed the belt had been torn in half and was broken. Got the car towed to a Honda dealer and dealer diagnosed it with a water pump that had been locked up and thus, they had to replace the water pump and the belt. Total cost to him for the repair was $700. He got the car back already and the car has been working fine since the repair.
A couple questions I have on this issue:
1) What caused the original battery light to come on when there weren't any other visible or auditory symptoms on his car? He got the battery light issue on a previous and pleasant drive, not on the drive where the car broke down. I would think that if the water pump was locked up from the beginning, then the belt would squeal or smoke would come from the hood as the belt was rubbing, but he never got any of that stuff before it broke down.
2) What would cause a water pump to lock up on a 2014 Honda Accord with only 40 thousand miles? It's a fairly new car in terms of miles, seems a bit strange to me that the water pump would lock up so early on in the car's life.
After further research, I did find a service bulletin issue with the car here: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2017/MC-10118005-9999.pdf . Seems like the water pump bearings have issues on these Accords, so that is what is likely to have caused the issue. The car is out of warranty since it is now 6 years old and he bought the car new in 2014. But if there's a service bulletin on the car having this issue, shouldn't it be replaced for free? Or does it not work that way?
Here is my opinion on the logic of the sequence of events: He was driving the car one day and the car was driving pleasant. The water pump bearing starting going out but wasn't completely out, so he couldn't notice any issues with how his car was driving since the water pump probably was spinning, just not well. Since the water pump wasn't spinning well, the alternator wasn't being driven by the belt well either and so the battery wasn't getting charged properly, which then caused his battery light to come on. He noticed the battery light and didn't think too much of it since the car was still driving fine. This is why I'm assuming the belt was still on the car, since if it had already been thrown off then his power steering and AC would not be working, and they were still working at this time so I think the belt was still on the car but maybe not spinning well. He then took the car out another day on a drive to see if driving the car would charge the battery. At this time, the water pump bearing was getting worse and worse to the point the water pump finally locked up. In that moment the belt got thrown off immediately and he then immediately lost power steering and AC. Sound plausible? Only issue I have with my logic is if the water pump was going bad in the beginning, before the belt broke off, and the pump was not spinning well but the belt was staying on for some time, you would think the belt would smoke or squeal or he would notice little performance skips in his vehicle or something. Kind of wondering why he didn't notice anything.
I don't know much about cars. I just enjoy thinking about repairs and stuff on them, so I appreciate any logic on this car issue and what the likely sequence of events are from anyone.
A couple questions I have on this issue:
1) What caused the original battery light to come on when there weren't any other visible or auditory symptoms on his car? He got the battery light issue on a previous and pleasant drive, not on the drive where the car broke down. I would think that if the water pump was locked up from the beginning, then the belt would squeal or smoke would come from the hood as the belt was rubbing, but he never got any of that stuff before it broke down.
2) What would cause a water pump to lock up on a 2014 Honda Accord with only 40 thousand miles? It's a fairly new car in terms of miles, seems a bit strange to me that the water pump would lock up so early on in the car's life.
After further research, I did find a service bulletin issue with the car here: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2017/MC-10118005-9999.pdf . Seems like the water pump bearings have issues on these Accords, so that is what is likely to have caused the issue. The car is out of warranty since it is now 6 years old and he bought the car new in 2014. But if there's a service bulletin on the car having this issue, shouldn't it be replaced for free? Or does it not work that way?
Here is my opinion on the logic of the sequence of events: He was driving the car one day and the car was driving pleasant. The water pump bearing starting going out but wasn't completely out, so he couldn't notice any issues with how his car was driving since the water pump probably was spinning, just not well. Since the water pump wasn't spinning well, the alternator wasn't being driven by the belt well either and so the battery wasn't getting charged properly, which then caused his battery light to come on. He noticed the battery light and didn't think too much of it since the car was still driving fine. This is why I'm assuming the belt was still on the car, since if it had already been thrown off then his power steering and AC would not be working, and they were still working at this time so I think the belt was still on the car but maybe not spinning well. He then took the car out another day on a drive to see if driving the car would charge the battery. At this time, the water pump bearing was getting worse and worse to the point the water pump finally locked up. In that moment the belt got thrown off immediately and he then immediately lost power steering and AC. Sound plausible? Only issue I have with my logic is if the water pump was going bad in the beginning, before the belt broke off, and the pump was not spinning well but the belt was staying on for some time, you would think the belt would smoke or squeal or he would notice little performance skips in his vehicle or something. Kind of wondering why he didn't notice anything.
I don't know much about cars. I just enjoy thinking about repairs and stuff on them, so I appreciate any logic on this car issue and what the likely sequence of events are from anyone.
