To fill all of you in, I have a six week old 2003 leftover with about 1400 miles. Two weeks ago, I was passing my buddy, and did the infamous 3-2 misshift when I was attempting a 3-4 shift. I didn't know if I caught it in time, or if the RPM's were high enough to cause damage, but I certainly did not know enough about it to stop driving. It seemed to be idling funny but ran strong, and the idle was almost undetectable. I drove to my girlfriends house, about three hours later, left to go home. It was really bugging my, and I revved the engine a few times to assess if there was any difference in the engine sound. I stopped at a stoplight, and accelerated in first, until about 8000 rpms, when the engine seized up. It would not turn over or anything. Basically I figured at this point I had a valve stuck sideways in an intake port.
The next day I call up the local Honda dealership, which, for the record, has always treated me very well. It was saturday, and the service department was not open, but the salesman I talked to told me to let the dealership handle the towing. Sunday, I had an oportunity to have it towed, which didn't seem like a bad idea, it being very much the nicest car parked in a ghetto location.
Tuesday comes, and I get a call telling me that a valve is broken, and that it caused significant damage. They have to contact AHM to see if will get taken care of.
It is until next monday when I hear from them again, and their contact is to tell me that AHM will not cover it, where it was an overrev. The repair will run about $9000, but that my insurance will cover it. I get ahold of my insurance, and after some run around, they look into it. At this point I have told the dealership to order the parts.
Tuesday comes, and my insurance contacts me to tell me that it cannot be covered. So I call up Customer Care, and tell them exactly what happened, and that I am looking to get my engine covered, what with the car being so new and all.
It is thursday when they get back to me from the dealership, to tell me that the short block and head are replaced along with the blown clutch, and that I can pick it up when I am ready. AHM contacts my shortly afterwards, to tell me that nothing can be done, it is my fault and that that is it. At this point, I am feeling pretty desperate, not having $9000 for a repair, and never, ever in my wildest dreams imagining that I would have to at some point pay for something like this on my brand new $30000 car. The advice I get is to contact the attourney general, but before I do that, I call back the person assigned to my case, and notify him that I am going to look into seeing what my rights are. He didn't seem too pleased, but I wouldn't really expect him to either. I understand honda's standpoint, but at my end, I didn't really feel like they were taking care of me as a customer either, so I decided to take it further.
Which brings me up to today. I get a call from the service manager around 9, to say that their district manager was in, and that they have come to an agreement about what can be done. AHM is covering $3000, the dealership is covering $3000, and I have to cover $3000. Paying a $3000 repair on a six week old car still sucks, but it is much better than $9000. I ended up with a new, not rebuilt engine and a new clutch, so I figure I did OK, and was pleased with AHM's taking care of me, though I am confident that had I not mentioned legal action, nothing would have happened. They said they would goodwill it becuase I handled the situation professionally, which I did, but I still feel that that is a bit of bull. Oh well. Hope this is good info for those of you who are interested in stuff like this.

 

Thanks for the info bobmcq11, you may want to check out this thread. Dont know if the car was over revd but according to the member, seems the dealer thinks it was at one point.

http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=205556

 

Well, I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I definitly feel that Honda should take care of their customers. On the other hand, it was totally my fault. My problem is the insurance won't cover it, as it is a mechanical problem, and Honda won't cover it, as it is a driver problem, and that leaves the driver covering it. I don't know how many S2k owners this may hold true to, but some owners I am sure, just can't affort $10000 for a new engine, and did not factor that in when buying the car. I know that it can happen in any manual transmission car, but never have I read more about it than in an S2k. I guess I really didn't like the position it put me in.

 

Glad to hear you got a reasonable result out of the situation...now you know not to use vtec ever again due to the mishaps that can occur... (I am joking, if you did not catch that...never know with some people on this board)

Enjoy the new motor and best of luck with your S!!!

 

You should be pleased that someone else is covering the majority of a repair that you admit is entirely your own fault.

 

i would happy paying for 1/3 of the bill considering it was 100% driver error. consider this as good luck and hopefully you have learned from your mistake.

 

Ditto. This is one of the best warranty threads I have read and applaud your honesty, intelligence and integrity. In a world where few can admit their mistakes and take their fair share of responsibility you are a breath of fresh air.

 

From the sounds of it, you didn't threaten legal action, you simply said you would look into what your rights are.


Thumbs up to Honda for helping you out.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by bobmcq11
Well,

 

I too, applaud Honda and your dealership for arriving at this arrangement. They would have been within their rights to fight you to the end but didn't. And I also applaud you for your attitude in this whole deal. I think you are a very lucky individual and should not be too disappointed at having to pay 1/3.