downhil

I wanted to share the good experience that i just had with lute riley. I initially took my car in to have a CEL checked out. The tech told me that cyl. 1 and 4 were misfiring, and of course there are a ton of reasons for that, so he cleared it and asked me to come back when and if it came back. About a month later it did, and the codes were the same, so I dropped it off for service. The service advisor called me later that day and said that during a leakdown test that cyl. 1 was leakind 65% and cyl. 4 was leaking 90% . I was fearing the bent valve/owner abuse instant warranty denial, but that never came. (my car has 35k on it and is honda certified...I bought it at 20k.) The really odd thing is that the car ran and drove and idled fine. If it wasn't for a CEL, I never would have known anything was wrong.

I talked with Todd Marcucci to get his opinions and he gave me some great advice and insight into the f20 head. Thanks Todd! Anyway, long story short, I picked up my car yesterday with a fully rebuild head, new gasket set, new tensioner/cam chain, new guides, 8 new exhaust and 8 new intake valves, 4 new plugs, and a coolant flush! All for the princely sum of $0.00. That is the way Honda is supposed to take care of warranty work.

Huge thanks goes to Melissa Johnson, my service advisor. She never once pointed the finger at me, and was a pleasure to deal with. She kept me up to date and returned my calls quickly. Everything was as promised and on time.

Now I should be able to make the auto-X!

downhil

Thanks also to David (WildnCrazy) for loaning me some stockers so my car didn't have to tempt theives for 2 weeks!

thatguyjosh

that's awesome, I always fear being denied if I ever have to take my car in for warranty work.

downhil

i was definitely worried. from the first time i took it in with the CEL and found out it was a misfire, i instantly thought of the worst case scenario-and having the abuse finger pointed. i covered all my bases and documented every conversation i had with the dealership. i made sure not to authorize any work that was not warranty/no charge related. thanks to todd, i was armed with a ton of knowledge about bent valves and why my situation was very odd. the dealership did mention that bent valves are usually caused by a misshift, but they did confirm the burden of proof is on them. they also said that my car showed no signs of abuse, so i guess a lot of little details helped my case.

regardless, i'm happy with the work so far (it includes another warranty on top of my remaining factory and certified warranties!). and was treated very well from the dealership.

SpeedxRacer

Glad to hear that Lute Riley treated someone well, I bought my car there so it brings somewhat a sigh of relief, but on the downside my warranty will be up in a couple of months. =[

1fastminivan

when I had my EP I had good service there at lute riley , no questions asked just took it in and fixed it. And I live in the HEB area, its just that I didnt like the customer service here locally at a dealership

Tx_Phantom

What did you mean by a misshift? Are you referring to a missed shift where you over rev?

downhil

those are the words they used. they implied mechanical over-rev. i didn't really want to go into it in any depth, since it was not a warranty issue for sure yet. i went in there and talked with them like an everyday-joe, so as not to give any notions as to my driving habits or skills.

todd and i figured that it was slightly bent valves due to a mechanical over-rev by the previous owner. I bought it at 20k and have put just under 15k on it over the past year. i guess the fact that it was totally driveable during all of this time up until the point where i turned it over to them, showed them that it was nothing i did.


i still have no clue how cyl. 4 can be completely dead for the most part, yet the car still drove and idled fine...

CosmosMpower

When you have 100 pounds of torque to begin with, you'd never know the difference if it was gone

Haha, sorry just had to take a cheap shot Glad to hear you got everything worked out though. Sounds like being reasonable and civil can really get you far with a good service advisor and manager.

downhil

thats kinda what i figured!

the crappy part is all the wet roads, so i haven't been able to enjoy it and feel the difference between a 2.5 cylinder vtec and the full 4!