Hair line fracture in engine block

1. it's definitely a manufacturing defect
2. replacement is reasonable.
3. call the national honda usa customer care #. don't waste time threatening some dumb-ass dealer.
4. before you get an attorney involved, get an independant technical evaluation done evidencing the crack. that'll be useful in your discussion with customer care.
5. be sure it's a crack, not porosity. porosity, while not really acceptible, is not much of a threat of sudden failure. cracking definitely is.
6. these things happen. it's not likely, but they do happen. just get it replaced and move on.

I agree with everything jim beam says, but I put an accent on the likelihood of porosity. Whether Honda will okay a complete replacement in that event is uncertain, since patching is often the approved fix for porosity leaks; it is a permanent repair when done properly. 3 years or 30K miles is about par for porosity to make itself obvious. It's a manufacturing defect that is more common with some years/makes/models than others. Volvo had a bad run of porous blocks in the early '90s, with it usually showing up as oil seepage.

Mike

where is the crack relative to the transmission???....

could the crack have been caused by improperly torquing the transmission bolts to the engine?

Mark

Honda seems to be having some significant quality issues with it's aluminum casting process. The automatic transmission on my '03 Accord was finally replaced under warranty for a leaking case, after they tried "sealing" the crack with JB Weld. My sister-in-laws '05 Civic Hybrid just got a new engine at 8,000 miles due to oil leaking out of the engine casting.

You would think that Honda would have it's basic aluminum casting process under strict quality control, but clearly they do not.

John

It is sitting by the dealer right now. I am hearing two stories. The dealer tells me that it is a hairline engine fracture. I opened a case with Honda and the customer relation rep is telling me that it is a porus engine block. I am not getting one story. If this is a significant quality issue, it should be addressed by those attoneys that love class action law suits as we can really force them to behave. Please check this site for daily updates. I have contacted my local assembly person and will try to contact the district attorneys office. I will not let this go easy. What to you think?

The latest is that I just got a call from the dealer customer service rep. He said that there was some gasket issue and that it did not pass inspection. I asked him to check the notes with regard to engine block issue. There is nothing in the notes! Are they going to deny everything now? I did have it checked by an independent tech but it was not conclusive. When I pick my car up am I losing my rights to sue? I need a car any car!

No, as long as you don't sign a waiver (you don't have to, but they may not make it sound that way) you retain your legal rights. The limitation period varies from state to state; in Arizona it is 2 years.

They probably don't have the entire story yet, either. It may take months to sort it out.

Mike

it /could be/ a gasket. you have to exhaust that possibility. launching legal action for a defective casting is pretty damned stupid if it's just a leaky gasket.

eh? not conclusive??? i recommended an "independant technical evaluation". that's not "big joes truck & tow". if you can't find someone qualified to report on this kind of issue, call aaa's tech department and have them find someone for you.

you're calling your congress-critter over this stuff? sounds like you're more interested in fixing the blame than you are the car. if that's the case, i think your only solution is legal because no one else will be interested in talking with you.

Of course I cancelled my call to my assembly person till I find out what happened. I would be delighted to find out that all it was is a leaky gasket. Of course I will not sue if it only was a leaky gasket, but was it only a leaky gasket?

I am getting a different story from every one at honda who is involved with this. First they say the transmission, then the gasket, then the porus engine block, then the hairline crack then - when I insisited that they change the engine - "oh we made a mistake. it was the some leaky gasket." It sounds to me like some unproffessional group. How can the put the JB weld and then take it off and not know what is up? Is this a trial and error business? At honda? I would expect they would do better...

I plan on picking up my car today but I will call aaa to get a good tech to look at what was done. It is tough to trust the dealer when he said "i could have just fixed it and not told you. why do you make so much trouble. if i had sealed it up and fixed it you would have never known." Would you trust such a guy? Of course I dont want to lose my rights by picking up the car in case they did lie to me.

Honda is saying that they may give me an extended 7 year warrantee but I must waive my rights to sue. What do yo think about that?

the real test for porosity is the cut the metal up and put it under the microscope. that's expensive and requires destruction of your engine. testing for cracks can be done with dye penetrant, but since we're looking at a situation where it's already oil impregnated, that won't work. so, now you're looking for someone with experience of both situations that can monitor leakage over time - and of course differentiate it from gasket leakage. believe it or not, not everyone out there knows this stuff, so just "taking it to the dealer" is not necessarily going to sort it out.

they're not necessarily lying. they may well have sealed it. the approved "cure" for porosity is a filler like epoxy, which you're saying they've done. but due to the nature if the problem and the fact that you're dealing with porous material, weeping may continue for some time after it's been fixed. only time will tell if its worked. if you're getting "attitude" from the dealer, i can't say i'm surprised they way you're behaving.

if they say they've fixed it and are warranteeing the fix for 7 years, i say that's ok. after all, you can go back 3 [or more] times a week every week for SEVEN YEARS under that warranty. do you think they'll not be able to figure out how to make their [your] problem go away? if you litigate, all that will happen is that they'll litigate back, and in all statistical likelihood, their corporate attorney will be someone with /way/ more experience crushing the little guy than your in-law has of crushing the big guy. after all, do you /want/ to sue in preference to getting it fixed? it sounds like you do.

Honestly it sounds like a good deal. Remember that cars are machines and people are people. Getting all hot under the collar at the first sign of difficulties generally is not the best response.

John

I picked up the car. The ticket has the whole story on it. I now have a caucious real good feeling about Honda. I will still check things out and monitor the leak. If it turns out that it was only a gasket, what a shame i had to go through all this heart ache.

By the way, Jim Beam, you keep focusing on the porus engine block. The dealer, who is on site, said it was a hairline fracture. Honda customer relations said it was a porus engine block. I am not an expert in this area and just learning. It seems from what you, Michael Pardee and John Hornder have written, that if it is a porus engine block, i may just have to count my loses if the industry standard is to seal it. However, if it was a hairline fracture, it seems that i have more rights to demand a replacement.

I hope this whole topic is mute for me and I do have a good quality Honda car like i thought i had. In the meanwhile, I have my car back and will keep you posted in a week or so to see if it is still leaking. I am impressed that Honda is trying to make things right. That is not how i felt when I first started this thread.

For the record, here are the notes from the honda service ticket. ================================================ CUSTOMER STATES HAS OIL LEAK CK FOR LEAKS FOUND OIL LEAKING FROM GALLEY FOUND SLIGHT HAIR LINE ON BLOCK USED JB WELD -- STILL LEAKING SPRAYED WHITE POWDER FOUND LEAK COMING FROM REAR CYLINDER HEADGASKET REMOVED JB WELD FOUND ENGINE CH LIGHT ON DASH PERFORMED TEST CODE P0132 02 SENSOR FAILED REMOVED AND REPLACED REAR CYLINDER HEADGASKET REMOVED AND REPLACED 02 SENSOR ROAD TESTED CAR OK RECK FOR LEAKS NONE FOUND CAR IS GOOD ONE TIME GOOD WILL ===============================================

I never thought you could remove JB Weld!?! I hope I am done. I am causiously optimisitc as I hope it was only a rear cylinder headgasket and not both. In the meanwhile I am monitoring the performance and watching for oil leaks.