Looking for some info on how common rod bearing failure is on D17A1 motors. I bought an 04 Civic about six months ago and after a few months developed a rattle that turned out to be rod bearing failure.The motor did end up dying after about a 2500km of driving with this noise. I swapped the motor out with a really clean motor that has 133Km on it and it seems that this motor may be on its way down the same path. Right now the sound is pretty faint and I do have a warranty on this motor for another few months but it seems strange that two honda motors woould have the same problem. I maintain oil levels and change them every 5000km. Both motors run or ran fine with good gas consumption and plenty of power. Any info on causes of this problem would be appreciated as I have already tried everything that I can think of.

 

Last night I cut apart my oil filter that I had just changed and I didn't find any debris other than just soft black dirt. This debris was pretty minimal and was non ferrous. I'm wondering if it is maybe a detonation sound that I am getting now that may lead to rod bearing failure in the near future.

 

I don't think rod bearing failure is common on D17s.
If you are experiencing detonation I would expect it to throw a CEL code. As far as I know, every D17 is equipped with a knock sensor to detect detonation.
My 2001 Civic HX is at 226k miles (363k Kms) and I've never had any catastrophic failures like rod knock. The bottom of the engine has never been opened up for service either. You didn't say what the kms on the original engine was though.
I can only think such a thing would happen if you had a lubrication failure for some reason. Oil was not supplied to the bearings because of a blockage, low oil/oil pressure, very wrong oil viscosity, never changing the oil, or something else.

I'd say the best thing you can do to prevent this in the future is to be sure to change the oil regularly, and use the correct Honda recommended oil weight for your climate. 5w-20 in my case.

 

Its hard to say how many KMs the previous engine had the car had 150km when I bought it but the previous owner said the motor was changed because of a broken timing belt. I don't believe that is was changed I think if anything the head was swapped out and then he sold it.
I just finished draining the two day old oil into a clean pan and checking it for any sign of bearing failure since I noticed some junk in my drain pan after I changed the oil just two days ago but I couldn't remember if I had wiped it out after tearing down the bad engine a couple months ago. Today I didn't find any sign of damage in the oil at all not a single spec. The previous motor had a bad EGR valve and the wrong intake gasket for an EGR setup. I'm starting to think my problem now is detonation or some other rattle with the exhaust pipe, since I hear the noise behind me as well as in front of me. I haven't had any codes for 5000kms. I use 5w-20 oil and I change it every 5000k.

Now I've just got to figure out how to solve a detonation problem if the exhaust checks out ok!

 

That's good to hear that you haven't found any more contaminates in the oil.

But when you mentioned that you had minimal non ferrous debris in the oil, it reminds me that bearings are not generally made out of ferrous materials. They are usually aluminum, or sometimes layers of copper and aluminum.
So if you had bearing material in the oil, it would not be ferrous, and since the bearing material is softer than the journal and connecting rod, you shouldn't have a detectable amount of iron in the oil.

If you get curious enough, you can take off the oil pan and try to see if there is any play in the connecting rods where they connect to the crankshaft. If you can wiggle the ends by hand at all, thats a definite sign of a ruined bearing.

Disconnecting the EGR system by blocking it off with the wrong gasket would probably actually lead to less detonation. Without EGR, intake air temperatures would be lower, and would not contain contaminates (burnt and unburnt fuel).

 

I've never cut apart a filter before so I don't know what is normal but what was in there this time was definitely not copper or aluminum it was just straight black crud and was very minimal. On the old motor the oil was full of copper after that motor was cooked.
The EGR system is such a pain it seems to cause more trouble than good and since we no longer have emission testing here I may just remove the EGR system all together.
For now my plan is to monitor the sound and see if it gets any worse if it does I will either take the motor back under warranty and spend a bit more for a 2005 motor with under 100K, This would suck as I would have to do the removal and install all again. The other plan would be to drop the pan and maybe replace the bearings with the engine still in the car although this is not the right way of doing it.

 

I just wanted to chime i here with my experience and the d17's, my daily is a 2000 stickshit since cam civic, run great good mpg fun car to drive. decided i wanted to pick up a newer civic well i picked up two broken civics 1 with d17a1 and one with a d17a2 both had spin #2 rod bearing but the d17a1 broke the rod and trashed the block, the other i cleaned up and re doing, but from what i see i think the 2000 engine design seems more robust as i torture my 2000 with over 300,000 miles on it every day i drive it with no problems. personally i think the 2000 is wider and looks a heck of allot nicer bodystyle wise, but i am a old crx fan so who know if my tastes are any good. But them d17
have me questioning honda reliability.

Thanks for your time.