Let me introduce myself first. I use to be employed at South Coast Acura as an apprentice/ technician back in 2005. Now i work at a Mercedes-Benz dealer.

if you havent already, try to acquire a copy of the technician's safety inspection sheet and repair order. this will give you information on what standards the car is held to and what was done to meet those standards.

i dont know/ remember exactly what the pcm records when a car is over-reved. on a RSX, i remember seeing data recorded for "maximum rpm" but dont know if it will show at how many miles that over-rev occurred. this can help you. if there is data showing the over-rev occurred before you purchased your car (referencing mileage), you can argue that you did not abuse the car and hopefully they dealer/ factory are willing to help (they can do goodwill repairs to vehicles outside of warranty coverage). if there is no data which indicated when the over-rev happened, you can also argue that the over-rev did not happened during your possession (they cant prove that you or the previous owner did it- only that it happened).

now i'll give my theory of what could have happened. you've stated that the car was purchased with a cold air intake already installed. california recently had very heavy rainfall. its possible the previous owner hydrolocked the engine. the hydrolock did not cause the connecting rod to snap and punch a hole through the block. the owner evacuated the water, changed the oil and traded it in. the dealer/ technician would not have known about it if there were no driveability issues at the time. KANG purchased the car and had the top down with music blasting- didnt hear the engine knocking and finally it seized. in my opinion, its a possible scenario.

i know people will doubt the hydrolock theory so i'll give my experiences. recently we had about 4 cars (mercedes-benz) towed in because they hydrolocked. some blocks had holes in them but we had one that was structurally intact. water was evacuated from that engine and i believe the oil was changed. after doing so, the engine started right up and ran fine- no misfires, no hesitation, no apparent problems. i was in my shop foreman's office to make some copies of paperwork and saw a publication from mercedes-benz technical specialist. there was a topic about hydrolocked engines which survived after ingesting water but only to later fail. the hydrolock will cause the rod to bend but not break. the engine will fail over time. there is a way to tell if this happened. boroscope and look at carbon deposit on cylinder wall. if there are 2 separate lines of carbon deposit then the connecting rod is bent (the lower line means the rod is bent and thats how far the piston will travel up the cylinder).

to the OP, please refrain from accusing the dealership committed fraud. you do not know what the real cause of your engine failure. i will admit the dealer also jumped to conclusions. i hope this is helpful. good luck.

 

Its S2KI man, we will be the next ClubRSX.com !!!

 

Guys, here's an update:

So I spoke to the GM today and he is now saying that "no technician is saying you over-revved the car."

So now, they are accepting the fact that my car was not over-revved. I said, so it is a mechanical problem that existed prior to the sale? and he said yes, quite possibly but retracted all faults on his dealerships behalf. He kept saying that they did an inspection and found nothing wrong so they are not liable.

He also advised me saying that he could not do anything about the situation and advised that I'm going to have to fix this on my own and move forward with legal proceedings after the repair to get a response from his superiors. I can't afford to not have a car for a few months due to legal procedures; there are different avenues I can take but just wanted to update you guys on the fact that the 'over-rev' that some of you are claiming has been shot down as an argument from the dealership's behalf.

 

i agree.

that's fine.

we have no information regarding the condition of the head.

 

excellent.

so now we're back to square one.

you bought the car as-is and are s-o-l

if the car had prior damage, the inspection is only going to say that the dealership changed the oil...not that they inspected for damage.

there is no fraud in that. fraud would be the dealer certifying that the car has no problems, and i'm pretty damn sure they never said that cuz "as-is" could probably mean "we don't know what could be wrong with it...but you take over that problem"

 

[QUOTE=bgoetz,Mar 17 2010, 05:32 PM] What happened to the engine in no way points to an over-rev, simple as that.

 

Fixed.





Just kidding. I understand the frustration. I'm not going to offer any new advice. The OP hasn't followed too much of the advice found earlier in this thread.

 

Well that is good that you were trying to help and it seems that you have taken a more appropriate approach to more recent posts in this thread .

To be honest the thing that I really did not care for was the couple of references to his shifting in to neutral on corners somehow a reflection that the OP was an idiot.

 

If this dealership was going to "make it right", they would have by now.

It has been several years since I studied contact law, and I am not a lawyer, but by my recollection, as is means as is.

It is also my understanding that every car sold by a dealership must have a window sticker stating the conditions under which the car is being offered for sale. This sticker is called a BUYERS GUIDE and is a standardized form, and I believe that it is mandated by federal law. There are only two options on this form: AS IS - NO WARRANTY and WARRANTY. There is a box next to each and the dealer must select one. If the box for WARRANTY is selected, there is a space where the details of the warrant must be stated.

I'm really sorry to say this, but if you bought the car as is, you do not really have any recourse. It would be a better use of your funds to get the car repaired than to try to pursue any type of legal action against the dealer.

This is true regardless of the inspection. They could have done the inspection and found that there was nothing wrong with the car, but how in depth do you think these inspections really are.

No inspection for a vehicle certified or not is going to check for a damaged thrust bearing, or a bent connecting rod, or a cracked valve spring retainer. They just don't go that deep. So they may have inspected the car and found that all of the lights work, that the tires had at least 50% of their tread left, and that fluids were all topped off. None of that offsets the fact that the car was sold as is. By offering the car for sale in an as is condition they are saying that they may have checked it out and that it seemed OK, but that they are not warranting it.

I would suggest that you take the car somewhere else and find out what is really wrong with it and how much it would cost to have it repaired, and then get it repaired.

I really wish that I could say something else, but you are asking for advice, and as much as it sucks, this is the best advice that I can offer you. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses and move on.

 

Lots of lessons learned here.

Driving corners in neutral, then shifting into 3rd? What is the point of shifting to neutral?

"As-is".... is self explanatory.

Take the hard lumps, lick your wounds and move on.

IMO, I would not continue pumping money into legal fees. You'll lose because you don't have enough money to really hurt the dealership.

The only person who will win in the long run is the Lawyer with your money.

Fix the car.... and move on. Junk the car and move on.