I recently brought my S to the dealership because i noticed it seemed to be leaking oil or something from the lower of the two engine gaskets. After a day of being at the dealer, the service manager called me and told me they have to replace the gaskets. First off this is a 03 with only 5000 miles.

I am not very mechanically inclined and want to make sure the issue is fixed. What do I need to ensure is done and what kind of questions should I have for the dealership?

Any help would be great.

Thx,

Dave

 

make sure to ask them what could of caused this leak.also ask them to hold on to the old gasket till you pick up the car so you can see it, ck it out.annnd try to find out if a good technitian is working on your car. i work for honda my self and beleive me there are lots of rookie techs, mis-diagnosing cars left and right. trust me...aslo show up unexpected and ask to show you the leak and where its coming from, basically be involved and dont let them take a step with out your knowledge.

 

Thanks for the post.

Also, isn't it strange to have a four month old car with 5000 miles have a leak coming from the head gasket? Also, even though it was just a small leak, there is always the possibility of damage to internals, right? This seems to have the potential of getting real bad.

To be honest I am not feeling real comfortable with the situation, but dont have a clue as to how to make sure the proper repairs are completed to ensure the problem wont persist or even get worse.

Dave

 

It's odd for the head gasket to fail on the F20c engine....especially stock with 5000miles. Have you change the oil??

 

this issue has appeared in another thread. You don't need a new head gasket. But the area you are describing is b/w the cylinders and the galley for the timing chain. That leak is from the oil in the timing chain bay. Sorry but I don't know the technical term for that area, galley, chamber, bay...all the same to me. The fix is to use hondabond or a substitute to further seal that area.

 

"make sure to ask them what could of caused this leak.also ask them to hold on to the old gasket till you pick up the car so you can see it, ck it out.annnd try to find out if a good technitian is working on your car. i work for honda my self and beleive me there are lots of rookie techs, mis-diagnosing cars left and right. trust me...aslo show up unexpected and ask to show you the leak and where its coming from, basically be involved and dont let them take a step with out your knowledge."

That is on of the stupidest replies I have ever seen. If you work for Honda why are you trying to give dealerships a bad name by posting that crap. Maybe it's like that where you work but our shop is tight. Yeah, every once in a while something will get misdiagnosed, it's not common. "Show up unexpectedly"
What kind of stupid shit is that. They didn't force you to bring your car there. There must be more than one dealership in your area - go to them and meet with the advisors there. Ask to be shown the service dept. meet with some of the techs. Establish a relaionship with someone who you think is capable of taking care of you and your car. Looking at old parts isn't going to help you much - obviously you don't know much about cars and seeing a leaky rubber gasket covered in oil that will probably be destroyed trying to remove it from the car is a waste of time. Besides those parts have to be saved for Honda incase they get called back for inspection to determine a cause for failure. Yes it is good to be involved but a good dealership should keep you so.

Cars break down and parts wear out. I have seen Odyssey transmissions go before the first oil change, less that 5k miles on the 02's. Radiators leak on brand new Insights (shitty car). We have a V6 6 speed in the shop right now with less that 4k miles on it that is having its transmission overhauled. Numerous S2000's that have lost engines, a few were driver error (downshifting to 2nd instead of 4th at 90+ mph).
But, the point is - get over it - your car will get fixed and it will be fine. If it's not - as I said - find a dealership that you're comfortable with and bring it there.

 

Brian, it is people like you who represent Honda (if indeed you really do work for Honda) who contribute to giving them a bad name by talking in this manner. A certain amount of tact and civility will go a long way for a new guy and for "customer service" if you really do work for Honda.
You wanna know why people here, on the most part don't think much of Honda dealer service? Here are just a few examples:
http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=154867
http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...&threadid=89743
http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=154886
http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...&threadid=96107
http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...&threadid=95904

Would you like to tell us who you work for so that the many owners on this board and in your area can go to your dealer and congratulate your boss on the fine representation that you have just shown here?

 

Xviper - 03S2KAY says he works for Honda and that his place makes a lot of mistakes... WTF? I give our place a bad name by calling that guy stupid but he's good b/c he admits his place sucks? Hhahaha. Anyone local to the DC area can come to Arlington Honda and whether I have my hands in it or nor you're guaranteed an excellent experience. All of our advisors have 5 years here and 3 of the 7 have been here since I was born (1982). You will not find a dealership more committed to taking care of you and your car, the little problems I hear owners complaining about (dented doors, scratched bumpers, etc.) are very rare here. We have some of the best techs also, I don't let anyone work on my cars, however there are 3 guys here whom I trust implicitly. Labor charges are fair as well as diagnostic times. I didn't have time to read all those links but I did take a look at the first one. I would have given the guy two options: 1. We could have dont exactly what he wanted us to do for 1 hour of labor - $80, with no warranty on repairs b/c we fixed what he deemed to be problem. 2. I would have charged him $80 for diagnostic time and taken a look at what needed to be done. If he wasn't interested it would have been the $80 but he would know exactly what was wrong, if he did want us to fix it - the $80 gets applied towards the cost of the repair. How is that not fair?

 

first off r6bryan, when you have a vehicle that is under warranty and you try to charge the customer a diagnostic charge, you can be sure they will send you to hell, unless its something that seems to be have caused by the customer.second off i more than anyone know that warranty items have to be send back up to honda, if you know how to read, i wrote to have them HOLD it so he can see it. third off when the technitian diagnosed the car with a leaking head gasket, how is he FOR SURE that it is leaking from there, i always save old parts to just show the customer the failure in the part to have them keep a piece of mind, and they can show this guy where the problem accured maybe it's not from the head gasket the tech see's the leak and assumes its coming from that area but they will never know exactly until the cylinder head is removed.you can definatly tell that you are what i call a rookie advisor. yeah i agree get comfortable with one specific person become buddy, buddy but you and i know that regardless of how buddy buddy of a customer the truth will not always be revealed and by far most on a car with 5000 miles thats leaking from a head gasket! i ve been working for honda in more than 3 dealers in miami and havent encountered one leaking head gasket on a brand new s2000.and there are technitians misdiagnosing cars every HONDA DEALER you go to.whether the dealer sucks or not, and my dealer doesnt suck, when your dealer's service dept gross's over $600,000 then come talk to me.look it up (RICK CASE HONDA).You also say you have an odyssey with tranny problems...yea as far as new cars i ve done one v6 accord every thing else other than that has 36,000 miles and up, and dont forget that some accord and odyssey trannys have warranty extensions.As for your smart stupid remarks they are uncalled for, you obviously are infact a moron who does not even know me to be talking all that shit.I was trying to help the guy out.when your invloved in something you have control of the situation, if your not involved, dont ask questions, you have no control and thats when they walk all over you and do what ever they want with your car, and thats when you get no call backs, no updates on whats going on, my basic message is that you have to be firm, other wise you wont be taken as seriously, i see it happen all day long. my firm customers have more attention and more priority than any of my buddy buddy customers. ANDDD whenever you want to compare a R.A.P sheet you let me know and we'll see who has more experience and more revenue as an advisor.Other than that you've been great, but thanks for trying and have a nice day

 

Where did I say there is a diag charge for warranty work???? Nowhere, that's what I thought... I need to learn to read? What I said was - per xviper's example I would etc. etc. NOT per this example )head gasket). Thanks nice try. Onto the next - what exactly is a "technitian " with all this experience you think you'd be able to spell the position of the people that work with you - and don't play it off as a spelling error.

"You also say you have an odyssey with tranny problems...yea as far as new cars i ve done one v6 accord every thing else other than that has 36,000 miles and up, and dont forget that some accord and odyssey trannys have warranty extensions." - I have no idea what that says, however, grammar lessons would do you good.

"i ve been working for honda in more than 3 dealers in miami and havent encountered one leaking head gasket on a brand new s2000." Hmm - 3 dealers in the 4 or so years the S2 has been out. Sounds like you keep bouncing from one place to the next - maybe you're just not very good at what you do and you're GETTING bounced.

As for my credentials - there are 2 members on this board that I worked with and if you ask them - they'll both be able to tell you that while I was there I maintained a 98.6% for CSI and had strong COD labor and parts month to month. Now, before you try and play it off that I am switching from place to place, don't waste your time. I moved and didn't want a real long commute.

If you really want to, we can keep going back and fourth, but based on your ability to spell, read, and write, I'd give up now if I were you.