Long story short after driving the other day my engine started acting weird so i pulled off the road into a parking lot and my engine died. So later that day we got it towed to Honda and they diagnosed it that a screw had been sucked into the engine and completely destroyed it. I have been told that the screw would have had to come in through the air filter. However I haven''t had the air filter changed for 10k miles at Honda and can''t imagine that it would all of a sudden show up. However I havent had any real work done on my car and every little thing besides oil changes have been at Honda. My question is what is the most likely explaation of how a screw out of no where makes its way into my engine and destroys it. I had a Honda warranty to 100k miles but they say it isn''t covered because their aren''t any missing screws from the engine or any part of the car. I am now at a loss of how this happened and what to do..! Any info would be great


Thanks,
Brian E.

 

A) What kinda screw was it? Drywall, wood etc.
B) How does the air filter look? is it punctured? (does it look like rats were living in it for a while?)
C) Who was the last one to work on your engine, or the last one to replace the air filter?
D) Did you (for any reason) try blocking the hose that goes from the valve cover to the intake?
E) How does the TB butterfly valve look? anything missing from it?
F) Had you noticed any sort of odd rattle?

It definitely doesn't sound right, I'm not saying Honda guys will screw you, but are you sure there WAS a screw in it? Did they remove the head to look, or just sounds like it?

 

yes my dad had to go up their to check it out and took pictures of the screw or screws that were in their. Its kind of hard to tell if it was one long one snapped in 2 or 2 smaller screws. My guess is that they were from another part of the car. The air filter looked good no noticeable holes or anything and the last time it was changed was at honda and still has the Honda air filter on it. Personally I believe that it is one of the screws or 2 that hold on the air filter housing somehow manage to get in their the last time they changed the air filter.

 

This doesn't sound right at all! Sounds very "screwy' if you ask me....no pun intended.

I think a mechanic or the dealership may be trying to cover up a mistake that someone there did to your engine. If your air filter seems like it's all intacted and there are no apparent screws missing then there's is most likely no possible way a misc. screw got in there and destroyed your engine. I would try to get a professional mechanic outside of the Honda dealer and give him all the details and see what he says. I think this dealership is trying to bend you over and F*ck you! Don't give up! You can also try going to the better business bureau and or ultimately getting a lawyer because if the stealership is not going to replace your engine then it will be very expensive for you to replace it out of your own pocket especially if it's a fairly new vehicle.

Good luck and keep us posted on what happens!

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/1...7/07/

There are a few pics of the engine and screws taken out of the engine.

 

I've known technicians to sabotage other techs work, for whatever reason. After all, they are humans. It is possible that someone put it there for the purpose of destroying the engine. Those screws ( probably bolts ) look too mangled to tell where they go. I can pretty much identify any screw or bolt in that engine since I have been just about everywhere in them. They look small enough to be the air box bolts but those bolts are designed with the air box lid to NOT come out. You would have to try pretty hard actually to get them out and it would definately break the air box lid.

You need to identify the bolts and where they came from. Or at least determine if they came from the vehicle itself.

 

Can you take some REALLY close up pictures of the bolts?

 

If everything is still intact with the air filter, housing etc. there really is no way other then someone putting them there.

like phootbag said they do look like the size of the housing bolts but they are completely unrecogonizable. any chance on some better pics?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by senorpaco34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Long story short after driving the other day my engine started acting weird so i pulled off the road into a parking lot and my engine died. So later that day we got it towed to Honda and they diagnosed it that a screw had been sucked into the engine and completely destroyed it. I have been told that the screw would have had to come in through the air filter. However I haven''t had the air filter changed for 10k miles at Honda and can''t imagine that it would all of a sudden show up. However I havent had any real work done on my car and every little thing besides oil changes have been at Honda. My question is what is the most likely explaation of how a screw out of no where makes its way into my engine and destroys it. I had a Honda warranty to 100k miles but they say it isn''t covered because their aren''t any missing screws from the engine or any part of the car. I am now at a loss of how this happened and what to do..! Any info would be great


Thanks,
Brian E.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Where do you have your oil changed?

 

For the most parts at Honda but a few times at Kwik Kar. But we are friends with the guys up their and they are real good guys.

 

btw if you want to see the screws bigger just go to the pics go to the screw one then click all sizes there is then an option to dl the full size pic and it is considerably bigger.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by senorpaco34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">For the most parts at Honda but a few times at Kwik Kar. But we are friends with the guys up their and they are real good guys.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Just because they are good guys doesn't mean they do good work.

 

Someone who is qualified needs to examine the screws/bolts to determine if they may have come from the vehicle. Beyond that, I don't think anyone here can help you.

 

Our insurance said there is a chance they are going to be doing a metallurgical study on those screws to determine if they are Honda's.

 

Excellent. I work at a Honda dealership. I would appreciate to know where they came from. It may help me in the future. (never know).

Good luck with the insurance company. I hope they are able to help.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by someone else &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just because they are good guys doesn't mean they do good work. </TD></TR></TABLE>

x2. Obviously none of the shady technicians/mechanics out there are going to give you reason to believe they would screw you. No pun intended

I heard of this same thing happening in my automotive class in HS at the local tech college. The teacher told us that one time somebody brought in their mint 5.0 Mustang to do work on it, and after reassembling the engine, somebody that hated him put a nut down the spark plug hole and destroyed it

 

Senorpaco, what ever happened with this? Did they determine where the screw(s) came from?

 

Did you make someone mad at you?the only other screw that I can think of is the butterfly on the throttle body other wise sabotage

 

Methinks there is another side to this story that we aren't getting...

 

yeah yeah

 

If someone at the dealership put it there as you're implying the problem would have presented itself earlier, and much closer to the last time your car was serviced. Probably a squirrel.