my wife has a Honda Passport with extended warranty. While driving on Mass Pike, heard a noise from the engine, then oil light went on and stayed on. Pulled over and had car flatbedded to local honda dealer.

Warranty people are denying the claim saying I drove the car without oil. Engine was taken apart and they say that the damage is consistent with driving without oil!!

Any suggestions on how to proceed from here?? I'm not a mechanic, so I'm having a hard time trying to get them to understand that I drove for two hours from Sanford Maine to Auburn Mass (where oil light came on), and how could I drive the car for two hours without oil and not have the engine totally seize up after about 5 minutes??

I checked the oil before I left and it was fine. The Honda tech says he had to add 5 quarts of oil to the car before starting it up at their place. Where did the oil go? Did it burn up in the cylinders? There is no oil leak.

They say the rings are shot and this was caused by driving it without oil.

I did discover that the last oil change my wife had done they put in 5W-30 instead of the recommended 10W-30. It was driven for 6000 miles with this oil in it, mostly highway high speed driving.

Any suggestions???

Thanks.

 

Looks like a common problem with Passports and Rodeos.

http://auto.consumerguide.com/Auto/Used/re...iewreliability/

See http://www.motorcars-ltd.com/ubb/For...ML/000002.html

http://www.complaints.com/august2003/compl....august19.1.htm

http://www.carsurvey.org/review_79718.html

Maybe you can do some research and get enough documentation together to prove your point. If the service interval is 7500 miles for mostly highway driving, you wouldn't expect to check the oil every 1000 miles. It should be good for 7500.

 

do you have receipts for oil changes? Or do you do them yourself? This is an instance where it would be good if it was done by someone like Super Lube. Then you can provide a receipt that there WAS oil in the car, and there should be a reason why there is none now.

John

 

Sounds and smell like complete BS to me... get your documentation together and if they won't do anything for you even when it is clear there should be oil in the car, call a lawyer. You would be amazed at what even a phone call from a lawyer can do.

 

Your key point is "... I checked the oil before I left and it was fine. ..." If you are sure it was full then, it could hardly have run out of oil in 150 miles.

My other advice, a little late - never buy a Passport.

 

I had a similar experience with a vehicle of mine. My wife was driving the car, she heard a clunk or clink from the engine and the oil light came on and the car said to shut off immediately and she did. The car was towed to the dealership and it turns out that the last place that changed the oil didn't tighten down the oil drain plug and that was the clink she heard.

You didn't say whether or not you saw oil dripping from the vehicle. I f you didn't have any evidence of an oil leak...I blame it on gremlins.

 

The oil light is an "idiot" light. It will not come on till the oil pump starts to suck air. It won't start to suck air as long as there is at least 1 qt to 1.5 qt still in there.
You need to find out a prove how that much oil disappeared in that sort a time and distance.

 

What if the rings were really worn? Was a compression test ever done?

 

Rings worn so bad that you would lose 5 qts of oil in 150 miles would have meant the exhaust would have looked like a blue London fog. That oil disappeared some other way.

 

Most likely the last oil changer didn't put the drain plug in completely and the plug fell out while you were driving. Then the fault is with the garage. If the plug was still in place, some other seal blew. If that is the case, Honda owes you a new engine. Even is a car has a slow leak, it won't go from full to bone dry in 150 miles.