m.bedardnh

Hi All, new member here, need some advice.

Here's the lowdown. I have a 2008 Accord V6 VCM engine w/ 112k on it. Was my Dad's car, bought off my mom when he passed with about 35k on it. Has always had oil consumption issues. I always top it off every few weeks, and I stick strictly to a 3500 mile oil change routine (I'm a do it yourself-er), and I just ignore the useless "Oil Life" message on the dashboard.

About a year ago I was driving into work and it started running really rough, engine light blinking, everything. I immediately got off the highway at the Honda dealership. They diagnosed fouled plugs and misfiring, and said they corrected the problem. Last Friday I'm driving to work and same thing happens. Limp off the highway to the Honda place (which is right off the exit luckily). Now they're telling me its going to be over $3000 to replace the piston rings. After questioning them a bit, it turns out that a year ago they just replaced some plugs and updated the computer -- they clearly just fixed the symptoms and not the problem. They're telling me also that the repairs they did are now out of warranty, so there's nothing they can do there.

Upon further investigation I came across discussions about the oil consumption issue and class action lawsuit on this forum. Seems that Honda has now been forced to correct this problem (which a Honda technician friend of my brothers says definitely has something to do with the rings used in the original manufacture of the engines) on all 2008 Honda Accord V6 VCM engines for 8 years from purchase dates with unlimited mileage. Yet, Honda is telling me that my VIN is conveniently not included in this action.

I guess my questions are these:

1. What recourse do I have considering the fact that the fouled plugs issue they "fixed" a year ago only corrected the symptoms and not the problem causing them?

2. Why would the same make, model, year, and engine included in the class action settlement -- a car that's exhibiting all the trademark problems of the exact issue -- not be included in that settlement?

3. How do I escalate this problem up the chain of command at Honda?

Any and all help or advice is appreciated!

Lost Again

Call Honda of American and report the issue and send them copies of all the documents from the deaker.

m.bedardnh

Sale date was 1/6/09. Honda North America called and said as long as the engine codes come back P0301-P0304 it should be covered under the warranty extension resulting from the lawsuit settlement. Went to the dealership and had a service advisor print me out the diagnostics. PCM code P0303 -- cylinder 3 misfire.

Hopefully all goes well in them dealing with the dealership over the next few days.

Question, if they were to do the timing belt, water pump, etc. while they're in there, what should I expect to pay additional, or will they good will some stuff...

Thanks All!

BLKFLSH

You might be able to get a reduced price for the timing belt/water pump job, but I doubt they will "Good will" something involving maintenance.

m.bedardnh

Honda North America has agreed to cover the Piston Ring replacement and everything that entails. Yeah, they gave me about a 30% break on the Timing Belt job, since a lot of the labor is already involved in the ring job. I suppose that's better than nothing and I knew it needed doing anyways. But $800 is still a lot better than $3200.

Thanks All!

GoLowDrew

To answer #2. I used to own a Nissan that had ring issues. It only affected a 2 month production run.


Like any manufacture, they are consistently "improving" their products. But on the other side, they are consistently trying to trim cost, in the same model year, same gen, etc.


So it's like suppliers are offering $0.00002873 discount on these rings from XYZ company. They turned out to be garbage right away. So went back to the more "expensive" rings. Or maybe the supplier found out the rings were made when them alloy content was off by 0.0005mg, because of the power outage last spring.


I'm not saying that is your case. But just posting an example of how VIN matters in production, and can be different.