Hello All,

Have been here as a guest many times through the years viewing others' threads, but finally joined today to hopefully get an answer to a very important question. I bought a one-owner 2013 Honda Civic LX with 150K miles about 1.5 years ago and the breather plate leak I knew about had become bad enough to finally repair about a week ago. The original owner said he had an occasional drip of oil on garage floor since shortly after purchase, but never took it in for warranty repair. I just pulled the plate today (NOT FUN !) and it looks like the original Hondabond has hairline cracks and had actually "washed" away at bottom where oil has been seeping through for years. The topside of plastic under-shield and sub-frame members in area had what looked like a 60-year accumulation of oily crud. Have looked here and at other sites (including local dealer) and most Honda techs recommend Hondabond HT to reseal. Does anyone here know if Honda has reformulated/improved their sealant over these 11 years ??? If not, I sure don't want to go through this mess again and would rather find another sealer which would hold up better. Thanks for your input !

John

2013 Civic LX breather plate freshly removed from engine and lightly wiped off...

 

There is no better anaerobic sealant than HondaBond. Some would argue that Toyota Black is better... my personal opinion is that it is a close second. You cannot go wrong with either one. I am not aware of any recent formulation changes. If you clean off ALL of the old HondaBond, make sure that the plate is totally flat (if you cannot get it flat, buy another one), and re-install it. It should probably last another twenty years. What you have experienced is very uncommon and will not likely happen to you again.

 

Could use the black adhesive stuff from Mopar. That stuff is insanely tenacious. Glue the pan on and throw away the bolts.

It's the only way they can keep that Mopar junk from leaking all the oil out between changes.

 

Thanks...

Talked to an older Honda expert mechanic and he also recommended Hondabond as most others did and said that this leak was a common issue. Did work through right-side wheel-well with car jacked up and tire removed---miserable experience even with long skinny arms, but I sure didn't want to remove the intake!. Cut the heads off of a couple M6-10MM bolts and made "locating pins" for center holes on each side of plate to make it easier to install once Hondabond HT applied. After carefully scraping off old sealer with piece of hard plastic, removed residue with super-fine Scotchbrite and 91% IPA and then wiped with acetone to remove any remaining oil. Used fingernails to remove the little residue from lip of block opening and then wiped with both the IPA and acetone. Removing pictured (circled in yellow) body mount bracket gave a little extra clearance to manipulate the panel into place. Was literally painful getting the top two bolts in and one took MANY attempts to get threads to engage. Even though overkill, and going to leave car alone for a month to ensure that sealer is fully cured as I sure don't want to go through this mess again! Am retired and can give my old truck a little extra "exercise" this Spring...

John