Hi all,

Getting off the stop sign to a lazy start... pushing first gear to about 8500... enjoying the scream... pressing the clutch pedal to get second... changing gears enjoying every second of this, getting ready for second gear push... and then it came... sounds you always heard of but never experienced on your own... suddendly oil is smelling everywhere... your instinct tells you to press clutch pedal and get to the sidewalk... what the fxxx was it? Look under the car... oil is still spilling... look behind the car and you see the oil path... THIS CAN'T BE GOOD FOR CHRIST SAKE!

Anyway - my car is now at the dealership (was late evening, they will only take a look at it tomorrow) and I am getting ready to wrestle with Honda for new engine or new tranny. I have no idea what was it, just that oil was in the front part of the engine and I still could change the gears leads me to believe it was camshaft or... I have no idea.

I am trying to see my options now - new engine, getting out of the lease, new car, I have no idea - does anybody have experience with this? I can only say - I did not overrev by downshifting, I was coming up from first so traditional blew offs seen on this board should not apply.

2002 S2k, 12k miles on it.

This is when we loaded it on a flatbed, see that oil spill



See the path of the oilspill

 

If what happened is as simple as that, you might have a good case.
In the past I have seen posts that were not complete and accurate. Other things happened that we did not know about.

Recent oil change?
Was the car warmed up completely?
on and on.....

Make sure you have all the maintenance records.

 

I use syntetic and I use JiffyLube service for that, they have my car in their computer. I think last oil change I did was 800 miles ago... every 3750 miles... oh - and the car was warmed up, I drove 40 miles on the way back from work. The irony is that I dropped some things for my son at home and sped to look at the fire (and take some pictures of it) in the hills behind our home. Did not make it far...:-)

 

Hope you get things fixed or resolved. Btw, I would never use JiffLube (used to. BTDT) anymore. Search in google for the JiffLube horror stories.

 

Your definately not getting out of the lease, because your lease is not with honda, its with a bank. Or honda's bank which is not the same company and they dont mix. So count that out.

If its warranty they will just replace it but get ready for a decent wait. Parts are not in america, from what my dealer said when they blew mine. AND it took a long ass time for them to do the work!!

You gotta fight for the engine, they wont give you new car unless its lemon, and lemon is 3 times of the same or similar problem...

 

i guess it's like with any other big chain - the quality varies and depends on the manager. Mine JL are good, they've been able to even debug one message from my computer. Great service and I don't have to leave car there - it's drive through. So oil was definitely not the cause. I still have no idea what was it, it did not attempt to start afterwards so I would not screw up my warranty wrestle with Honda.

 

I have the lease with Honda (bank I guess) - anyway, I do not see myself to pay for the car which I don't use due to apparent manufacturer error. And I don't see myself wanting car with rebuilt engine either. If it was what I think it was I am not letting Honda dealer in San Jose to rebuild my engine.

 

You don't really have that many choices from what I am reading. If Honda claims abuse and refuses to repair the car then your stuck. If they agree to fix it and replace the engine or rebuild it, you said you still don't want the car. I'm not sure what you expect at this point but good luck getting everything worked out.

 

They can claim whatever they want, the evidence is on my side. To be clear - the new engine is ok with me (I still love my car:-), the rebuild is out of question.

 

Was the drain plug in? Where was the oil draining from? What were the noises? Not much to go on here but draining oil and some kind of noise. Make sure to tell us what happens....and really, Jiffy Lube? They are on my 3 strikes and you are out list.