My friend blew his motor last week at the track. He mis-shifted from 3rd back into 2nd at redline. ZERO compression in all four cylinders. TheECU RPM memory showed the rpms all the up to 14,000! Still not sure if Acura is going to cover it. Anybody else have the same mishaps?

 

Was his engine stock? I think they might cover it if it's stock. What a sad story though, a brand new car, and the engine already blown. Tell him to stop driving it so hard. Let the bitch break in first.

 

I think the dealer have a way of tapping into the ECU to see what the engine was doing right before it blew. So if they find out it was your friend's error, they might not cover it. Most dealers are dicks.

 

My friend is an Acura tech and they had there RSX training about a month ago and at that time Acura Canada said they are not going to warrenty blown engines from miss shifts any more. they did a few in the start but not any more!!

 

Dude, tough break. I guess you can't win when you don't know how to drive.

I mean, if I was driving blind and ran my car into a concrete wall, should the dealer buy me a new front end? Hell no! The dealer shouldn't have to cover driver's error. It's not their fault that the gears are spaced closely... afterall, that's what we wanted... short and quick shifter. Again, tough break.

 

If that's the case, can you switch ECU's with a friend, and take it to the dealers and have them tap into the other ECU?

 

dayammn...this is like deja vu. I did the same damn thing to my RSX-S. I blew the #2 and 4 pistons off the connecting rod and damn near through the head. I'm pretty sure that my ECU will probably show 14,000 RPM too because when I shifted from 3-2, the needle just shot from redline in 3rd all the way to the end of the tach. Acura intially said they will replace my motor under warranty but now I'm beginning to have second thoughts as they are telling me that if they find out I blew the motor racing it will cost about 8K$ for a new type-S motor.

 

I think ya'll just need to learn how to drive!

 

jesus. what a jack off. Thats more than just a mis shift.. Thats more like your friends head space and timing is off.. lol

damn new ECUs have memories? - i never thought about that.. makes perfect sense tho... anyone know if the 3rd gen Tegs have ECUs that record that kind of data? But you can reset an ECU tho right? there has to be a way to set it back to its preset ROM settings...

if not.. fry that bitch and take it to another acura dealership...

 

I would reset the ecu before you take the car to the dealer. Erase all evidence

 

And then explain to the Acura Dealer why the ECU has little to no data. Do you know exactly what the cpu records if at all? Probably not.

Shouldn't have done a dumbass thing like that in the first place. Tell your friend to sell his car and by an automatic.

 

Not all codes are cleared by an ecu reset. Some, such as these, can only be cleared by the honda diag tools.

And yes all ODBII cars will get this info only if a code is thrown at the time of the issue. (the ecu takes a snap shot of all senors and stores it in the ECU when the code is thrown.) My friend over reved his type r and bent valves and never got a code till weeks after the over- reving and dealer fixed his car. And there was no evidance in the ECU either

 

If you're really serious about hiding the codes stored on the ECU before you take it to the dealer, there's ways around it. Something I would do is find someone who has a similar RSX, take his ecu out, and pull the EPROM from it. Then dump the contents of his EPROM to a disk. Then copy your friend's data to the EPROM of the damaged car. The dealer will never know what hit them!

If honda hasn't changed their format, they still use the 28-pin EPROM. You can read/burn it easily at a lab or any other facility.

edit: There's ways to read an EPROM without removing it from its board.


[Modified by 99_SH, 7:25 PM 10/29/2001]

 

All this bull makes no sense. Guys, if Acura sees that you have no data whatsoever on your ECU memory and your engine blew, what are they going to think? Oh, this guy's engine must have blown when he was going 3000 RPM. No, obviously, you revved too hard or mis-shifted. Tough luck, really sucks. I don't want to come off malignant, but really, read your posts and they sound ludicrous. Why should Acura pay for your error? It makes no sense.

 

thats why i said fry the ******* ECU.. play dumb... maybe the engine blew becuase the ECU **** on itself when it shorted out..

FRY IT FRY IT

 

What??? Ok no offense to your buddy, but that is one of the most retarded things I have ever heard of??? I can understand a mishift, but if you drive a car you know your gears, when I mishift, I notice it right away and immediately my foot is slammed donwn on the clutch. Tell your buddy to get some driving lessons... I'm sorry, but if the dealership decides to replace it, it will never be the same... Oh well we all make mistakes, but seriously a car like that needs to be taken care of, to taken advantage of... Good luck Late.

 

Hey, mis-shifts can happen to just about anyone, especially when racing a car that one is not intimately familiar with. Shitty situation all the way around. I think these people buying RSXs, or any other new car for that matter, need to get to know their cars for at least a few months before racing them.

 

I agree. I'm surprised that some people think that if they destroy their own engine, that Acura somehow needs to take responsibility for their mistake and give them a new engine. That kind of thing just makes it harder for those of us with legitimate warranty beefs.

I was talking to the service manager at the local Acura dealer once and he showed me a GSR that someone was trying to get warranty coverage for. It had obviously been blown up racing and they guy was trying to play dumb, saying it happened during normal driving. Then the service manager pointed at the door, where there were clear imprint marks of car number decals on the door. This idiot complicated my discussion with the factory rep on whether my car would be covered, because the rep was now suspicious that like the GSR, my car was modified and returned to stock, although it wasn't.

 

This is called FRAUD. Ever heard of jail?

 

I agree. NO need ot make things worse by commiting fraud. As for Honda covering it, why should they. It was the driver's fault, not a defect.

 

oh shoot...i hope they cover it...thats too bad.

 

I have empathy but not much sympathy. I think the other posts have covered it already. But zero compression on all cylinders? That means AT LEAST one bent valve on each cylinder. Do you think the dealer is stupid? They'll know exactly what the cause of that was, ECM flash memory or not.

You guys probably didn't see it, but at the CART race in Australia last weekend, there were support races run with Oz spec ITRs, 10 of them, driven by young up-and-coming drivers...it's called the Young Guns series, since Honda is the naming sponsor of the Australian Indy 300 they organise it.

Anyway I was standing by a hairpin during one of the Young Guns races when one of the drivers missed a downshift...went 5-1 instead of 5-3...you could hear the valves hitting the pistons from the fence!! So just goes to show that even race-car drivers can do it. Not that I think that means Acura should cover it under warranty...matter of fact maybe you'd like to hear another boring story...

I used to work for Honda as a zone manager, so part of my job was to look at cars and determine if they should be covered by warranty...one day a dealer asked me to look at a 96 Civic that had thrown a rod (right through the side of the block)...pretty unusual for a Civic I thought. The owner claimed he was just moseying along and bang! The car had a bonnet scoop and stickers and stuff but no hi-po gear...when I looked a bit closer I noticed the nuts holder the exhaust manifold heat shield on weren't the factory ones...looked a bit closer and saw a few other things...did a ring around a couple of local speed shops and to cut a long story the car had been fitted with a turbo...the owner had blown it, **** his pants and taken everything off it and replaced it with the standard equipment before he took it to the dealer.

When I confronted him with it, he admitted he'd had the bits on it but STILL tried to tell me he'd been driving sedately when it blew. Hello, do I have "**** with me I'm stupid" written on my forehead?? (rhetorical question). Then he had his mechanic ring me and that ******** tried to tell me Civic conrods were weak as ****, yeah right mate. Anyway I told the owner no warranty and he stormed out of the dealership saying he'd be back in half an hour with a shotgun to shoot me and the dealership service manager dead. What a sore loser. Needless to say I'm still alive.

Anyway, not to say your friend would do anything like that, but I think it's a bit rich when people don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. Just because Honda/Acura is a big company doesn't mean they should pay for your ****-ups. Grow up, build a bridge, and get over it.

 

Learn to shift dumbass and stop trying to defraud dealers.

 

Really. And tell me why they should get him a brand new engine because of his stupidity? If I was the dealer, I would get him driving lessons before I would warranty his engine.

 

I doubt switch ECU's would work because if there is one thing it will keep track of, it's milage, and unless both cars have the same milage showing, that would be a very obvious tip off (unless of course the odometer is digital and pulls it's info from the ECU only). Plus, what's in it for the other guy?