Hi,

I just went to the dealership today to change the oil in my 2002 Accord 4-cyl auto SE sedan. They told me there's an oil leak near the timing belt. I've only had this car for 3 months and it's Certified Used. I'm planning on taking a trip this Sat to Grand Canyon (leaving from LA). The service guy recommended that I rent a car instead of driving my own. A couple questions:

(1) What do you guys think if I decide to drive my own car but take extra oil and monitor the level periodically? (There'll be 4 people in the car plus some luggage)

(1.1) Anyone know of good rental coupons?

(2) Do you think the repair will be covered under warantee? It's still within the 12 month 12,000 miles period. But they haven't diagnosed the problem yet and the service dept guy told me that there's a chance that my warantee won't cover it.

Thanks.

 

i bet the service guy is trying to scare you ... i have a shop in lincoln heights .. if you would like me to look at it i can lift it up and show you where the leak is and then you can decide if it is bad enough to leave home .. i dont charge anything for you to bring it and check .. so feel free to do so


pm me if you would like to bring it over i am 5 minutes from passadena

 

Thanks "Stripped Honda" for your generous offer. I found a good rental deal from Enterprise so I decided to rent a car for the trip and fix the car after I get back.

My friend and I crawled underneath the car today to take a look. The oil is coming out of the seam between the engine block and the timing belt cover. It is leaking on to the subframe. When we looked, there was two drops of oil there. I wiped it clean and will check it tomorrow to get an idea of how bad the leak is.

My friend suspects that maybe some seal is cracked. I hope this is covered under the bumper-to-bumper first year warrantee.

I think the service department should have done more. They didn't even tell me about the leak until I looked at the forms and found that someone had written "oil leak near t-belt." All they did after that was point at the oily subframe and said "yeah, there's a leak." *sigh*

Does anyone know if the dealer will charge big bucks just to diagnose the problem?

 

yes this should be covered under warrenty but they will try to say it isnt and then tell you to change the timing belt and water pump so they can make more money from you its not a bad idea to just change it but they will be charing you alot of money

 

how long ago did you buy the car? Has it been 12 months or 12,000 miles? If not you are still under a factory style warranty. If they ask you to do a timing belt and water pump then warranty will pay for it because the belt was damaged due to a leaking seal that was under warranty. (you might have to pay for the water pump)

But if you can see it drip more than twice in a five minute period with the car running than the s/a was right. Otherwise it could be driven.

 

I bought the car about 3 months ago (not more than 4 months). I am also well within the 12,000 miles.

I think it didn't drip at all during the 10 to 15 minutes that my friend and I spent looking underneath the car. But, I will put a paper town underneath to see how much oil it will collect over the weekend.

 

dude you're still under warranty!!! i would take advantage of that and get my car fixed before it expires!!!

as for taking some extra engine oil with you on the trip=you should be just fine!!!

just make sure you pull over and check your oil periodically!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thank you all for the reply. I've already rented a car from Enterprise. Man, what passes for "Standard" size these days is quite small. I got a Saturn Ion. Is that really similar to "Pontiac G6, Dodge Stratus or similar"?

 

Hi all,

I finally brought my car to the service department. It turns out that along with the oil leak problem, the transmission needs to be replaced. Good thing I bought it Certified Used, or else I would've been screwed BIG time.

My car will be in the dealership for a while. Should they provide me with a rental while it's in repair? Is this part of the Certified Used program?

 

i would think they would provide you with a rental .. you got very lucky because the tranny is very expencive at least your not going to have to pay

 

wow,, first they say the leak is by the timing belt area .. now they say the tranny needs to be replaced ???????????tranny if a bit away from the timing belt area and i have never heard of replacing a tranny for a leak,, unless the case is broken,,,,,,,

they are replacing the tranny cause there is a problem with those trannies Honda extended the warranty on them..........I would make sure that there is no engine oil leak.

did they say why they are replacing the tranny ??? something does not add up .. you might want to stay on top of this .. make sure all leaks are repaired before warranty expires

 

Thank you all for the replies.

The transmission was problem was separate. When I brought the car in, I told them about the transmission behaving strangely. Sometimes when I stop, the transmission would still want to move the car forward. Just yesterday, when I was backing out, the transmission made a loud click. In fact, after I bought the car, I thought the automatic shifting was a bit "off." Since I've always driven manual transmission in the past, I thought it was just the way autos shifted....

I knew the 6-cyl transmissions had problems, but I didn't think the 4-cyl transmission would be bad too.... *sigh*

Anyways, I will try to search the threads to see if there are any other frequent problems with 2002 Accords and try to get those fixed too while the warranty is still good. If you know of common problems off hand, please share them with me.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

I have another question I was hoping someone can help me with.

In my old Civic, when I turn the key to start the engine, the "Check Engine" light turns on. I was taught to wait for the light to go off before turning the key further. In most Hondas I've driven, the Check Engine light goes off after a couple seconds. But in my car, it takes maybe 30+ seconds before it goes off. Does this indicate a problem?

I was told that the Check Engine light iluminates while the fuel pump is pressurizing. When it is pressurized, the light goes off. Could this have something to do with the leak near the timing belt cover?

 

bum for advice

 

chk engine lite should turn off after 5-6 seconds.after key is turned on you might want to chk if there are any codes stored .go to Autozone and have then chk for codes ,,it is free of charge

And no it has nothing to do with anything with the leak by the timing belt cover

 

I asked the dealer and he told me it's normal to take 30 seconds !?? I bet they didn't look into it....

Anyways, I got my car back today and they did a LOT of stuff to it. Can someone knowledgeable take a glance at the sumary and tell me how bad things were? What could've caused so many problems?

Here's the report:

========================================
- Transmission and/or torque converter
exchange. Use only with A/T rebuild program.
Flush cooler & lines with
WHCU
2 W-PIN, COTTER (3-0X22)
5 CLIP a, BUMPER
5 CLIP, BUMPER FACE
5 CLIP, FENDER (INNER)
1 WARRANTY A/T KIT

- STRAIN ATF THROUGH PAINT STRAINER. S/B#
S/B# 98 -061
WHCU

- ENGINE FRONT MOUNT - REPLACE.
WHCU
1 STOPPER, FR -ENGINE

- REAR ENGINE MAIN SEAL: REPLACE
WHCU
1 W-OIL SEAL (80X100X10)

FC: 01801, 08101
PAART#:
COUNT:
CLAIM TYPE:
AUTH CODE:

LUBE 6.0 QTS ATF
WH93


FC:

TECHNICIAN VERIFIED TRANSMISSION INTERNAL FAILURE
AND BROKEN FRONT ENGINE MOUNT, ALSO REAR MAIN SEAL
LEAKING: INSTALLED REMANUFACTURED TRANSMISSION...
INSTALLED NEW, FRONT ENGINE MOUNT AND ENGINE REAR
MAIN SEAL:


A CUSTOMER STATES CAR HAS OIL LEAK-ADVISE
CAUSE: SEALS LEAKING AND WATER PUMP LEAKING THRU WEAP HOLE

- TIMING BELT AND/OR TENSIONER, ADJUSTER,
IDLER PULLEY AND/OR DRIVE PULLEY AND/OR
BALANCER BELT -REPLACE. S/B#
WHCU
1 W-BELT (112RU24 A-555)
1 W-BELT (70RU16 GB-333)
1 PARTS WASH

- CAM SHAFT SEAL
WHCU
1 W-OIL SEAL (28X42X8)

- REPLACE WATER PUMP ADD. S/B# 01-010 S/B# 87-010
WHCU
1 W-WATER PUMP
1 W-COOLANT (TYP2 BLUE)

- BALANCER SHAFT SEAL
WHCU
1 W-OIL SEAL (27X40X8)

- REPLACE CRANKSHAFT SEAL
WHCU
1 W-OIL SEAL (40X52X7)

FC: 08101 PART#: COUT:
CLAIM TYPE:
aUTH CODE:

TECHNICIAN VERIFIED SEVERAL LEAKS FROM T-BELT A REA: INSTALLED NEW,
WATER PUMP, CAM, CRANK AND BALANCER SEAL(S), AND BOTH T-BELT AND
BALANCER BELT, CONTAMINATED W/OIL.

=============================================

I'm still worried about the check engine light... I think they would've checked for codes at the dealership.

 

all i gotta say is thank god you were covered under warranty, thats thousands of dollars or work/parts

 

AHHH, this is frustrating. I just looked at the Check Engine light more carefully and here's what happens:

After I turn the key, the Check Engine light goes on for roughly 30 seconds. After that, it blinks 5 times then turns off.

Does someone know what kind of error this signals? Looks like I will have to make another appointment with the dealership.

 

Ok, I looked around some more and found the list of CEL codes and it looks like 5 blinks would indicate "Map sensor circuit low/high voltage". I don't really know if the blinks are "long" or "short" just that there are 5 of them (since there's no code 50, i'd assume these are short blinks). Another thing is that they don't blink right away, it's after the light stays on for 30 seconds then the blinking starts.

Most of threads say that you have to jump certain pins to get the CEL to display these codes. Strangely, I didn't jump any pins, I just got the car from the dealer (after that huge list of repairs/replacements). Maybe they jumped those pins and forgot to take out the jumper wires?

 

are you sure it isnt the "maint required" light blinking ? if it is really the check engine light then i would not drive the car till the dealer looks at it because that means the engine is misfiring and destoying the cat ... take a pic of the light that is blinking for us and i will give you a little more info ..

 

Sounds like their "Certified Used" isn't worth the paper on which it is written.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fleetw00d &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds like their "Certified Used" isn't worth the paper on which it is written.</TD></TR></TABLE>

what does it matter as long as they honor the warrenty ? i would rather pay a little more and get a certified used car and have problems fixed free over buying a used car non certified and have problems then pay out of my pocket .. think about it this way the trans job at the dealer cost about 3800 the timing belt job 650-750 depending on what they replace .. i rather have the certified

 

I can't seem to find my camera but the light is indeed the Check Engine light (CEL). It is the one above the battery symbol and to the left of the "MAINT REQ'D" light. The owner's manual refers to the CEL as the "Malfunction Indicator Lamp."

The owner's manual states that the CEL should come on for "a few seconds" when the ignition is switched ON (for 4-cyl LEV). However for 6-cyl or 4-cyl ULEV, the manual only said the light will swtich on when the key is in the ON position and will switch off when the car starts. For my car (a 4-cyl ULEV), after turning the key to the ON position, it takes (almost exactly) 30 seconds before the light turns off and immediately blinks 5 times then turns off. The blinking has never happened before this repair.

I have a question about these warranty services. Does it matter which dealership I take the car to? Right now I've been taking it to the one that I bought the car from. But I don't really trust them anymore. If I take it to another dealership to fix, will they charge me any money for diagnostics and fixing the car? Or will the warranty cover everything? Can I take it to one dealership to fix and another to double check the work?

 

no it doesent matter what dealer you take it to but i recomend you take it back to the same dealer to make it easier on yourself .. after they finish it then take it to another dealer ...

 

I can't seem to find my camera but the light is indeed the Check Engine light (CEL). It is the one above the battery symbol and to the left of the "MAINT REQ'D" light. The owner's manual refers to the CEL as the "Malfunction Indicator Lamp."

The owner's manual states that the CEL should come on for "a few seconds" when the ignition is switched ON (for 4-cyl LEV). However for 6-cyl or 4-cyl ULEV, the manual only said the light will swtich on when the key is in the ON position and will switch off when the car starts. For my car (a 4-cyl ULEV), after turning the key to the ON position, it takes (almost exactly) 30 seconds before the light turns off and immediately blinks 5 times then turns off. The blinking has never happened before this repair.

I have a question about these warranty services. Does it matter which dealership I take the car to? Right now I've been taking it to the one that I bought the car from. But I don't really trust them anymore. If I take it to another dealership to fix, will they charge me any money for diagnostics and fixing the car? Or will the warranty cover everything? Can I take it to one dealership to fix and another to double check the work?