Jenson
 

Saturday afternoon was perfect for a topless :drive: so I got Jenson out and went for a bit of :vtec: action to raise a smile. Changing from 3rd to 4th gear at just on 8,000RPM I heard a funny pop and Jenson didn't sound well at all. I took him home. :cry:

On Sunday, I got a mate to have a listen and we agreed it sounded like an exhaust-related complaint. So I drove the 92 miles to work today with a VERY noisy car and a radio which got ever louder.

By the time I got to Swindon, Jenson sounded awful so I got a mechanic to have a look and listen. His verdict: That's not exhaust - it's either transmission or engine! :cry: :brokehrt:

Cue Gaxxy & the team from Honda Assist - and the FABULOUS Bob from the AA :tipwink: who reckons it could be transmission as the very loud grinding is louder when in gear or could it be valves as there seems to be a blowback through the airbox.

So anyway, Jenson has gone on a journey...all the way back to Bristol Honda to be fixed. :cry:

But this'll make you smile! What did I get as a fair exchange for my S? A purple Nissan Micra - thanks to the comedian at the Oxford meet who carded it tonight! :D

Jenson goes walkabout...without me :(
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...1bd993846f.png

Oh dear ,another 09 fails :(, not good .

Hope they get it sorted soon. :)

awwwww!

poor bokkie! (and of course Jenson). Narrowly missed the meet, due to being forced to attend an evening works reception, so no opportunity for banter :(

Where are you working in Swindon? ...The landscaping in the background looks familiar...

So sorry to hear that Bokkie.

What is going on with these later cars?

:crycry:

You can always pop in with the Micra for a cuppa :chums:

Are these MY09 made by Reno or what?!!! :D

I hope it gets sorted quickly and to your satisfaction.

:iagree: It's like they've given up making them properly as it was the end of the line :confused:



Sorry to hear it Trish :( fingers crossed for a quick fix :kiss:

:( That sucks balls.

On the other hand, Jenson is probably pleased to have had the opportunity to be driven at a bit of pace for once. ;)

Fingers crossed for a quick fix. :fingerscrossed:

Terrible news mate, hope it gets sorted soon. :fingerscrossed:

Bristol Honda's workshop must look like a meet carpark at the moment :thumbdn:

Sorry to hear about your car and hope Honda can fix it for you :)

However I'm a little surprised you decided to drive it all the way to Swindon before having it fully checked out by the garage. If in doubt get a mechanic to take a look.

You'd never have guessed it was anything major by the noise either at least not as it was at the time. There was no awful grinding, no whining sounds, no death rattles - it sounded like the gasket between the cat and the downpipe was loose and nothing more than that.

Can't believe that's another 09 car on the back of a wagon ..... are we sure Honda haven't been using reconditioned transmissions on the end of line cars?

Trish's problem may or may not be identical to mine.
She also has 2K on the clock more than I have. So her symptoms could be more advanced than mine.


The noise mine was making seemed like the exhaust hitting the heatshield at certain revs. You wouldn't think it was the engine at all.
In fact everyone who heard mine said - exhaust/ heatshield or a bolt somewhere down there needing tightened up.


If the AA man is right - and it is the engine....
That makes 3 engine failures within as many weeks. :(

No pictures of the Micra?

It's hard to believe an engine can be running fine whilst suffering some internal catastrophic failure. Let's hope it's more gearboxy and they can diagnose and fix it quickly.

I had that many engines in one car in as many weeks :D

:( sorry to hear that, hope they sort it quickly. Think I'll have to wait for my service at Bristol Honda at this rate :eek:

The rumour is Alfa Romeo have started producing the F20C engines. Hence the failures.

Seriously though, sorry for you. Hope you get it sorted out asap.

Get well soon Jenson !

Does the Micra have VTEC ?

Where are the pictures ??

Bharat :)

Oh dear :(

They're revolting and I dont mean the wheels :D

Gulp - what mileage are these going at?

Hope Jensen gets well soon.

Jenson was at 9K
Mine was at 7K

And the one in the Honda Institute... no idea.

Currently at 4682.

Scott - had a piston go on a VW the other day, new engine required and all being done within 1 week and they've put him in a VW while he waits. Honda could learn from that.

really sorry to hear this last night - though i did card the micra - ha :)

Mines at 1.5K - I've not been trying :)

I guess statistically this is still a very small number given how many would have been sold on 09 plates.

I have no idea how many new S

Mine is about the same BOM.. All we can do is wait and see after all I am sure Honda are no different from any other manufacturer,problems occur on any production line.

It would be interesting to know the stats on other makes and models.

:confused: only one car is there...poor old Jenson :(

tell me which meet and i will avoid it :LOL:

Ah, sorry, I thought that was where Gaspode's car was :oops:

News just in from Trish....

Honda Bristol looked at the car.
It is the same problem as mine.



Edit: My car is in a secure lockup somewhere courtesy of Crown Bushey

Oh ****. :( :(

http://www.aoot31.dsl.pipex.com/eatingpopcorn.gif

I can see this getting quite interesting over the next few months. How many spare engines do you think Honda will have in stock?

I was just thinking the same :ponder:


Seriously i wonder how many they will of made ?

:thumbdn:

It's the stuff they've found in the oil that's of interest - i wonder what has lunched on what to produce the fault. If it's from the same component ( whatever it is) then it doesn't sound like 'chance' to me, sounds more like design or manufacturing problem.

I just hope you both get sorted out, either way, a 28k sports car with <10k on the block goes bang and they give you a

Damn.
My guess is that it's some outsourced part that was built by the lowest bidder using sub-standard materials.

sorry for both of you :( if anything the stress - delay - and time / pain in the arse factor !!!

None.

Right now - its taking 4 weeks to source an engine for me.
Any takers on how long it will take Trish to get hers?

Probably the same lead time Scott pain i know and i feel for you both :thumbdn:

Well Al and Bristol Honda are going above and beyond. :thumbup:


But really - Honda UK should step up to the plate.

Oh #### a duck :(

I am unaware of any BANGS or engine failures they both start & drive, but neither of them sound 100%, :ponder: from where did you get your information if i may be so bold as to ask Sir.

Generally speaking, a car that is trailered away because the fault is serious enough to require proper mechanical investigation could be said to be 'broken' wouldn't you agree?

The fact that Gaspodes requires a new engine or part of one would generally indicate that the part being replaced is dead. If Bokkies is suffering from the same thing ( implied by Gaspode a few posts up) then that would suggest that hers has gone 'bang' too. The last time I checked, you only replace something if it has failed - so without splitting hairs, Gaspode and Bokkies engines have both respectively failed, that is unless i'm missing something.

The only information I've had has been posted here :)

Technically - Al is correct both cars are running. So the engines have not failed.

Honda UK didn't want me to continue driving mine for fear of more damage being done. Which I can understand.

And with Trish's the AA guy said don't drive it either.

Trish mentioned she needs a new short block too.





Al - As mentioned a few posts above, You and Bristol Honda are going above and beyond.

But it shouldn't fall on your shoulders to resolve this.
Someone in Honda UK should to do the right thing.

I agree Gaspode and i'm not having a go at either Gaxxy or the Dealer although i'd be interested to know if they need a new short block, what failed to cause that and if the debris from whatever failed has been in the oil as that's how you usually spot component failure. Logically then, what the chances are of damage elsewhere in the engine bearing in mind the sump feeds the lower and upper parts of the engine including all the valvetrain components, lubricates pistons etc etc. I would guess you'd have to strip, clean and reassemble more than just the block.

Jorge mentioned that the the top of the engine is easy enough to dismantle and rebuild.

Once the bits arrive - I've been advised to allow 3 days for the work to be carried out.


I'm sure much more information will be available to the forum when the engines are re-assembled.



And as both cars have circa 32 months warranty remaining - I'm sure everything that needs to be cleaned, inspected, checked etc etc will be.
This cannot be cheap for Honda.

Bloody hell you need some more weekends in the Lakes!

Indeed. :(

Been working far too hard ;)

None of the engines i've had failed have had the failure identified through the oil and 2 of the 3 still ran despite having suffered a fairly major failure.

The bloody aweful noise gives it away and its relatively easy to drop the sump, remove the cam cover or remove the spark plugs to see relevant damage.

Damage to parts 'usually' means stuff in the oil and stuff in the oil isn't good for any part of the engine, never mind the damage you can see from the sump end or the rocker cover. Swarf or debris that has worked itself into bearings or the oilways in the engine that isn't cleaned out is a future disaster waiting to happen. WIll be very interested to see what has broken, where it has broken and what the cause of it was.

Scott / Trish - have you had an oil change?

Sorry to read this Bokkie :(

I am keeping up with interest.

Hope it is resolved for all soon, if there is anything I can do to help, contacts etc, you are all welcome to PM me :)

Technically i agree, but in reality Light Bulbs Fail, Bombs go bang !,

My thoughts were that between myself & the owners involved we can produce a symptons list & how they progress, in order help put other owners minds at rest that they do not have the problem. Also those forum members who really do know their stuff , of which we do have many , may be able to cast more light upon it, so the rest of us may benefit. I will start getting some pics together of what we find as we find it.

I'm sorry that the only information you have is what has been posted, i felt sure your opinion was after examination ;)

Short engine for def,
What failed (nothing yet) but somethings about to.
Debris :eek3: Oh yes theirs swarf in the sump alright.

As i said will get pics up asap

Duly done :chums:

Thanks Pip :kiss:

Lot of reading for you tonight Trish.


How's that car you have? :D

A lot of reading indeed! :p

A massive thanks to all the folks who have rung, PM'd and expressed support via the above posts. You've reminded me why it is that I joined the club...friendship and the love of the car! Thanks folks :chums:

Looking forward to seeing the pics Gaxxy...I was tempted to drive down to Bristol in the purple people eater to take some pics of my own but couldn't face being spotted by anyone I know! :blush: ;)

Do you reckon you could stick some of the sump debris (the so-called swarf...is that a technical word?) to one side for me - I want to have it encased in perspex or some such gunk - and keep it for perpetuity! :D

It's been a rough couple of days, not helped by the crap*y hire car but as Scott has already said above:

Gaxxy & Bristol Honda have been great.

Honda UK - no presence, visibility whatsoever.

I rang up the Honda Assist helpline today and asked for their Customer Relations number as I wanted to make a complaint. Only to be given the Complaints Helpline for the AA (who provide roadside assistance for the Honda scheme). To date, Honda UK have not impresssed me one wit.

Lets see what tomorrow brings...

Incidentally, to any folks from other S2KI forums reading this thread...I do wonder whether the problem is wider than just the UK.... :ponder:

I went and had a peek in the international forums earlier, searching for similar threads. Nothing jumped out at me, but then I was pretending to do work at the same time, so the search didn't have my full attention. :D

How truly rubbish of HUK. :(

You're better looking than Gas though, so I reckon you'll get your engine quicker. ;)

Thanks hun :kiss: maybe they'll give me his? ;) :D

Trish, so sorry to hear about this. Guess there's going to be a lot of recent owners now worried about the rattle of death.

I'm sure they'll make everything will be sorted by HUK but I expect they need to get to the bottom of each problem before they accept they have an issue.

I thought they were quite good at following up a fault on my car, after the dealer changed a part of the Alarm they requested it back for another look and changed out other modules so they could get a better understanding of the problem.

Bristol :thumbup:

Ta for the encouragement, I'll hang in there! :)

No flies on Bristol Honda, that's for sure. It's just the lack of presence from Honda UK that I find frustrating and more than a little disappointing.

Right, time to get the old purple rollerskate on the road... :LOL:

They are still working on the seized bush problem that we reported a few years ago.

Mabe once they have resolved this they will start looking at the fecked engine problem.

:(

:roflmao:


Although they still have the roof issue to sort out, which must be quite high up on their to-do list by now.

My 07 car went through 3 of them :eek3:

Gaspode and Trish,

Is the engine number far apart from each other ? Might be the case of a faulty batch.

Why don't they just stop making it and start thinking about making something better ;)

Funny.
Had the same comment in the other 'Blown up 2009 Honda" type thread.
My Reno is alive and well and eating Hondas still, thanks.
But you knew I would say that didn't you :)

Good luck with the fix, will be interesting to see if we still stiff the reliabilty pole this year and make it number one again.

How about an MX5 with a Renault turbo engine and Subaru drivetrain?
That would work...

Stop being silly.


You will want Alfa electrics in there too :)

That's a bugger Trish, hope it gets fixed soon.
I would suggest the engine has failed although not terminally" yet"? so it is broken. If any significant amounts of swarf has been found in the oil I wouldn't be happy with only a short motor due to any nasty's going around and into bits that may be refitted.
When working in the coal industry we debris analysed the oils weekly to determine oil change intervals and the health of the insides of a lot of plant, small findings meant an oil change and a repeat exam soon after, large amounts meant the gearbox or whatever was replaced before failure.
Our 09 has only 2k ish on it, so we have loads of miles to do before we need to worry should any major problems happening regularly.

Thanks to all for the kind thoughts and support - I do appreciate it ever so much. You're a great crowd! :kiss:

Mmmm Gaxxy....my symptoms list for Jenson (although I'm not sure it'll be much help to any other new S owners):

Saturday lunchtime - checked oil - seemed a lot darker than the week before...first & only inkling something's not right. Unlike Gaspode's Snowy, Jenson had no knocking sounds. :thinker:

Late Saturday afternoon - changing from 3rd to 4th gear around 8,000 rpm :vtec:, there's a distinct pop from the engine (no, not a misfire pop, just a hollow empty something's broken kind of pop). Jenson, the darling, continues to provide a steady and unbroken drive. I take him straight home.

Sunday - friend & I agree it's probably exhaust (sounds like it's coming from between exhaust manifold & cat). So should be ok to drive.

Monday - drive to Swindon, car seems fine, I'm watching the temp gauge like a hawk but there's nothing untoward. However engine noise appears to be getting louder & more violent. I can feel vibration through the pedals & I'm now even more concerned so take it to a local mechanic.

Kind mechanic rings the bell: "Not exhaust, my love, I'm afraid to say it's either engine or transmission (sound is particularly horrendous when car is in gear) - I suggest you don't drive it."

Honda Assist send out the fabulous Bob from the AA - he has a listen with the engine lid popped. Tells me there's blowback through the airbox which is NOT right. We go for a drive down the car park - not even 50 metres later he tells me to park up and switch off - it doesn't sound good. THE CAR MUST NOT BE DRIVEN!

I want to hug my poor beautiful broken car! :cry:

Jenson's collected & safely installed with Bristol Honda.

Courtesy of Honda & Enterprise I'm left driving a cra**y, shi**y, awful, horrendous, abysmal, dire, uncomfortable, backbreaking, soul-destroying and TOTALLY ugly purple Nissan Micra!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still, I suppose the upside is that they've given me a competitor's car that I'll NEVER wish to buy! :D

That's it folks.

I'll update with any developments as they become known.

Not any more ma'am :tipwink:

When I've had a hire car supplied by Honda via enterprise its been something decent and my dealer said that honda will specify a class of car that is at least tolerably close to what they are repairing. I ended up with a passat estate.

I'd be complaining about being given a Micra!

Oh and the reasons for honda giving me a hire car were identical to yours. Engine had failed, needed replacing and the replacement had to come from Belgium in my case. Mine went at 17k miles though.

Gaxxy :) :heart: :) :kiss: :) :heart: :) :kiss: :)

Compliments of Bristol Honda I am now installed in a fast, frisky and beautiful Civic 2.2i CTDi (Gaxxy just who is it at Bristol Honda who said the customer always comes first and as a result is now cycling to work? :D )

And for the first time this week, I've had no back pain driving the long road home from Swindon! :) :thumbup:

Lower, I'm told Enterprise are all out of D & E grade hire cars so I ended up with the Micra...just not good enough really. Especially when their own staff were still trundling around town in a top of the range Mondeo. The young girl in their office tried very hard to help but as is usually the case, the non-customer-facing decision-makers above her were stone deaf.

And when I rang Honda Assist to complain they merely provided me with the AA's complaint line number. :shrug: It's been a hectic week but hopefully I'll have some breathing space over the weekend to provide Honda UK with some constructive feedback!

The one thing I will say though is that Bristol Honda have been brilliant and in so doing make Honda UK look good...

Not any consolation to you good people, but I would be dead interested to know the cause.
As would a lot of other tech types on here, I'm sure.

Misfiring and popping would indicate valve train trouble if no CEL lights are on.
Odd that the other garage want to fit a short engine...
I wonder if the CCTs are packing in?

My car is en route to Bristol - so this should be good for all of us as the guys there can compare and contrast my engine to Trish's

Why is my car headed to Bristol I hear you all cry

1/ Somehow... they managed to expedite the parts quicker than Crown.
My car has been at Crown for over 2 weeks now. I called Crown 2 days ago - to be told it would take up to another week or so to get the parts.
Gaxxy can get it in a few days. Go figure.

2/ Jorge is leaving Crown on Wed . And he is their S guru.

3/ By the admission of another mechanic at Crown when I took my car in with the original fault. He felt he wasn't qualified to work on the S. Come back whe Jorge is back in town 2 weeks later.
A nice 70 mile round trip that was :(


I'll ask for some photo's too.

Steve, there was no misfiring or associated popping (I know first-hand what a misfire pop sounds like). The pop I heard was more akin to a bang, something being forced under pressure and not a mis-fire. It wasn't a sharp bang either, if that makes sense, but rather raspy and rough. (A bit like a lump of metal being fired through a running engine under full steam.)

I appreciate a lot of you newer S owners are watching developments with interest. As soon as anything concrete's known, I'll post it up...along with any pics.