RACER

What he said...



Edit: Corner

xviper

Sky, RED is correct. I was NOT directing that last comment at you. I merely used that push the point across about the small numbers of these cars that have blown up. And of those, an even smaller number are genuine engine break downs. This was only meant to show you how rare your situation is.

Can you please remind me as there has been so much posted here that I can't recall if your car was purchased brand new by you? If it was not, from the post by Chris_Barry about the underside of the cylinder area getting superHOT, could a previous owner have "tried" to put in the new oiljet banjo bolts. It is a well documented thing (2 cases in Europe) that this job was done wrong and the engine failed just like yours.

TrueDrezzer

Let me add my own little anecdote to this story. I had to replace the head on a '91 Nissan Sunny 1.4 twin cam due to loose spark plugs. The plugs were undertorqued, and within 1000 miles, 2 of them worked themselves loose enough to overheat the tips, drop the candle bits into the combustion chambers, and burn two exhaust valves. The end result was running on 2 cylinders until I replaced the head. The lower block was fine, so we just swapped out the head. Fuel economy was also atrocious as fuel was just getting dumped into the chamber without combusting. Amazingly, the cat was still ok. The car was putting out just 15% of the power output of the S2000

Turned out that the head we sourced was a fuel injected head from a newer car that had to go on my carbureted block! Aside from drilling the hole in the aluminium head for the mechanical fuel pump, everything seemed to work well, and the car is running fine now again. BTW, working on carbureted Nissans was a PITA. Hoses everywhere, and removing the intake manifold bolts took forever!

///Robin

RT

.... intake manifold bolts are no picnic on this fuel injected mama either

Purple_sky

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
Sky, RED is correct.

Road Rage

Purple_Sky:

Very "stand up" response. You may never know what happened. I tend to support the loose spark plug theory, but it is unlikely you will ever get to the bottom of this, as even Honda engineering might not. I have contacts there, and very high respect for them.

I think the important question now is for you to move on, as they say on Oprah. Are you going to be able to put aside your bad feelings, which are understandable? I think I can speak for many here that we would hope you are able to enjoy this great car, drive it as it should be driven, and not be fearful of a repeat performance. Find a trusted Honda Tech, and make him/her a friend for life.

************************************************** *************
Here is some info on the "why the short warranty" thing on Hondas. Well, I for one have never had a signficant warranty or out of warranty claim on any Honda product, including 3 Accords and 4 Acuras. Oh, there were 7 sports bikes!

Funny thing is, you buy one used from my Honda dealer, and you get a limited 7/70k powertrain warranty. They would not offer that unless the actuarial tables made sense to do so, i.e. the powertrains on most Hondas are extremely reliable.

I spoke to one of the tribologists at Lubrication Engineers this morning, and he told me was was amazed at the torture tests Honda puts its cars through. He said there is a test site (in Florida I think) where they tie the cars down, lock one wheel, and then run the transaxles of the FWD cars at over 5000 RPM until the CV joint fails. Of course, it takes LE grease for the axles to survive the time interval target of the test, but they do not use LE as the OEM grease fill. (The accountants generally spec the lowest cost stuff). The point is, he said that Honda has the toughest testing protocols he has seen.

Purple_sky

Road Rage, I have nothing but appreciation for people on here.

Few questions I'd like to ask. It's not happening to me, but I'm asking hypothetically. If the engine misfires, will the CEL come on? If one of the spark plugs is not working, will the CEL come on? If one of the plugs isn't working properly (weak or has little spark), will the CEL come on?

I'd like to know because I'd like to keep a close eye on the plugs this time.

drummer911

Yes, the MIL will come on if the engine misfires to the point of catalyst harm. It's hard to say how bad the plug would have to be to throw a code. I took a look at your pics and saw that the plug was in really bad shape, yet you said that the MIL never came on. I am to assume that you never felt any misifires either.

The PGM-FI and OBDII systems monitor your engine closer than any technician could. If either of these systems sense a malfunction, depending ont the type of malfunction, your MIL will illuminate immediatley. That is to say that if your engine misfires...

I would not worry about future problems because if you maintain your car and check things out from time to time, you may very well never have another problem. If you are that worried about your plugs, just have the dealer re-torque the plugs at every oil change. This will at least give you piece of mind.

Things fail on cars all the time. This is how it is. I know of a guy who had three engine replacements on his Passport within two years. He changed his oil religiously, but every time he came in needing an engine, it was due to the bearings going bad on the bottom end. We can't always know why things happen, we just know that they do.

Purple_sky

Thanks for answering! I'm assuming that MIL = CEL (or check-engine light). Yes, the CEL never came on in my case.

But anyhow, I'll have the plugs re-torqued once in a while (at every oil change, or once every two oil changes).

RACER

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Purple_sky
Thanks for answering!