Pretty long story ahead. Car has about 28k on it and it's an 2002.

What a mess! I'm driving to my friends place and I'm at a stop waiting for traffic to pass so I can turn left... I put it in first and I'm off. I turn left onto the road and bring it up to about 7-8k rpms (not even flooring it just enough to get out of the way of traffic quickly), shift to second let the clutch out and the car sputters and dies on me. I try and restart the car 4~5 times and no luck. I call my friend and tell him I'm about a half mile from his house.

We push my car into the median and I try to start it again and still no luck. He says maybe it needs a jump because it's turning but not firin up all the way. We grab the jumper cables out of his car and I try another 4 or 5 times to start my car. That didn't work either so we end up pushing my car about a half a mile uphill to his house and we gave it a quick look over and couldn't see anything visibly wrong under the hood.

So I call HondaCare and they send a tow truck to tow it back to the dealership. Once there I explain the situation to the service tech and he tells me it will be Monday before he gets back to me (this is Thursday morning). I get a call on Monday and he tells me that cylinder 4's spark plug is completely destroyed and that there is debris in my intake manifold near the throttle body! I sign the ok for the teardown thinking that it has to be covered under warranty.

I go to the dealership on Tuesday morning and take a look at the damage. ALL FOUR cylinders have scrap metal in them and they're all scoured, the tech tells me it's because it floated a valve. I explained to him again what had happened and he told me he isn't sure what could have caused it then but it looks like an overrev. They tell me an adjuster from HondaCare should be by later that afternoon and they'd call me when HondaCare calls them with the diagnosis. I got a call about an hour and half ago and the tech tells me it's not covered because the evicence points to a floated valve. I call HondaCare back and talk with a representative, explain the situation again and all he can say is that's what they concluded from the pics. The tech said ecu read 14k rpms when it failed... I know that is impossible because I don't care how long I hold the gas down in first its not gonna hit 14k without some sort of mechanical load on it. The only way to hit that is if I shifted from like 5th to 2nd or something like that.

I can understand why they're denying coverage but I don't understand how the hell the engine failed in the first place and how it was THAT bad. I feel like it should be covered because I didn't do anything wrong; I was driving normal not speeding and I have no performance mods, there are some gauges but they're not even connected and they weren't even in the car, just some wiring. The gauges have been sitting in my garage since about 2 months after I bought the car. I've had the car for over 2 years and haven't modded this one at all, not even an intake.

Basically I'm going to have to pay for all the labor they've spent tearing down the engine and the towin fee, and a new engine. Less the engine, the total is just short of a grand right now. I really feel that I'm getting shafted in this ordeal... and I had to vent. Any ideas on what I can/should do? I know it's futile trying to argue over warranty stuff but I've had the top replaced on it under warranty for the straps not pulling the bar all back and it tore a hole in the top. Anyway, I'm gonna go be depressed for a little bit.

Robert

 

Can they log into the 02s and see what rpms were at

 

there is no log that tells them what the over rev is at... unless a CEL was thrown and there was freeze data taken. Did any CEL's come on while you were driving?

 

No they can't but they may or may not be able to get a snap shot of the conditions at the time of the last Check Engine code posting. We are not getting the whole story here.

Overrevs have nothing to do with go pedal position and everything to do with a shift into too low of a gear at too high of a speed like a 6th to 2nd instead of an intended 6th to 4th. Clutch out and the revs will climb to whatever rpm is appropriate for that speed in that gear. At that point, the valves can't keep up and damage ocurrs to the valve retainers. Typically a crack in one or several. Failure often does not ocurr for days, weeks, or even months at which time the failing retainer allows the valve to drop far enough to contact the top of the cylinder. BOOM, you are done!

Now, it appears to me that a 14K overrev would cause immediate damage and not the delayed failure described above. Someone's fibbing or stretching the truth.

 

I remember seeing somewhere that the newer cars have stronger valve retainers because they were know to fail on the earlier cars.

 

Well sounds like you bought it used...is there a chance that the previous owner over-rev'd it and now 2 years later it failed. I mean, its definitly possible. However, they are BS'ing on the 14k thing that would definitly cause severe immediate damage instantly. Meaning several bent valves, many broken retainers, dents in the pistons, etc. etc. But a 10k rev might have just damaged one retainer to the point where it takes years later to finally actually fail. But when it does, its catastrophic.

However, again, if this does happen and you drop a valve, I highly doubt you'd want to be driving your car. Nor even thinking about starting it. It makes A LOT of HORRIBLE noise.

 

I think your problem is resolvable. Escalate the issue and follow the contract that you have with Hondacare for arbitration.

They have to demonstrate that YOU caused it to fail under the "overloading" clause. If you go away, they are ahead by 7-10k, so yes, they will try and stonewall you.

 

INTJ, when I called HondaCare the rep couldn't give an explanation on how it could've failed other than the repetitive overrev explanation. They keep saying that I overrevved it and that's what caused it. I will continue to try and push the issue though.

There was no CEL. I was stopped waiting for traffic, turned and put it in 2nd so there was no downshifting there. Normal driving and I reached maybe 35-40mph (it was slightly downhill and then turned uphill where I had to push it).

I haven't babied the car, I've driven it but nothing "abusive". The engine is a mess. One of the retainers looked like it had been sheared off and a piece of it was in the intake manifold by the throttle body which is beyond me... maybe it got into an oil passage. There was shrapnel everywhere, on top of all the pistons and in turn, all the cylinder walls were scoured. There was MASSIVE damage and I can't understand how.

Either way, I'm gonna keep making as many phone calls as I can.

 

And thanks for the replies guys... keep em coming so I don't feel as bad

 

Wonder if continuing to crank it after the fail caused some of the damage.