Dx3

iTrader: (13)

Guys,

Trying to help out a friend who is having some problems. Here is what he sent me. Please advise.


Here's the deal. Tues 22 Nov I take my car to this dealership/chop shop called DiFeo Honda. They change my oil, check my tire pressure and top off my fluids. The next day I drive from North Jersey to Philly. My car sits in Philly until saturday when I drive it back to North Jersey. I park the car for another 3 days until Tuesday nite when I back it out of my driveway (note: I may have still had the e-brake engaged when i backed out of the driveway). I slid into first and drove about 60 yards, where I stopped at a light. I accelerated to turn left at the light and my power steering cuts out, my brake gets heavy, and my engine died.

I called a tow truck cause my battery light was on and I thought I needed a jump for some reason. When we popped my hood we noticed drops of some kind of fluid visible on top of the engine. He thought I blew some kind of valve.

Yesterday they called from a different chop shop/honda dealership to tell me the problem was there was no compression in my engine. After some diagnostics they determined there was water in my engine because when they removed the spark plugs they smelled more water than fuel. They said this can happen by water getting sucked up through the engines air-intake and doesn't need me to drive into a lake for this to happen, it could have just been a regular puddle on the road. They say they need 15 hours of diagnostic labor to determine what exactly on the engine is failing, and then more work and parts to make the repairs. Most troubling is that they say this is not covered on the warranty of my AUG 2004 lease for a 2005 civic with 28000 miles on it. My insurance company says this counts as maintainence and maintainence is not covered on my policy.

it really makes me mad cause i don't remember driving through any rain on the way to or from philly. im an agressive driver and i certainly put wear and tear on a vehicle but i don't see any reason why my engine is dead right now through any fault of mine. i leased the civic because it was supposed to be very reliable and comes with low maintainence costs, im really proud of my decision now.

Thx guys,
Jonny

mmarshall

The shop is correct that water CAN get sucked into the engine through the air intake, but that doesn't mean it DID happen. First of all, water in normally odorless. I don't know how the shop can " smell " water unless it is mixed with a lot of other things...or something else that has a strong odor, like anti-freeze or engine oil. So if they DID smell something after taking the plugs out, that, IMO, would indicate something more than just water getting in. A gas-air mixture, of course, would get into the cylinders through the fuel-injection system...and could burn with a steam effect, smiliar to water-injection, if the amount of water was small. A significant amount of water, of course, would keep the plugs from firing, even though water conducts electricity.
Your friend, by admission, is an aggressive driver. Even though the engine only has 28,000 miles, if it was red-lined a lot, over-revved on occasion, or had oil changes and other service neglected ( common with leased vehicles ) it could have some internal damage from a lack of lubrication or too many RPM's. That would ruin the piston rings and / or valves and cause a severe lack of compression.
Yet your friend says the engine quit suddenly while turning left. This is very similiar to siezing up after oil starvation. It is possible that whoever last changed the oil on the car did not tighten the filter or the drain plug quite enough, ( Fast-Lube shops are notorious for this ) and oil slowly leaked out....not enough to make a big puddle.....until the engine just starved.
There are other possibilities too, but from what your friend describes, these are the most likely ones.

mkorsu

Johnny,

My inclination is that DiFeo Honda may have some involvement here. Lets first assume the engine is suffering from hydro-lock. The route from Philly to North Jersey is a straight run up the NJ Turnpike which is not really known for flooding. Also, since this car is a lease, I am assuming there is no aftermarket intake on it which means the air inlet is still at the top-front of the engine and stock airbox is still intact. I would think your friend would need to hit a pretty substantial puddle to get water into the stock intake. Definately one he would remember hitting!

From what I understand, the damage that normally occurs with hydrolock is bent or broken connecting rods. I don't think this will result in "no compression". Blown rings could result in that.

Also, I just checked on honda-net and in a discussion there about hydro-lock, the guy said it IS covered under insurance, full coverage - which your friend should have since it is a lease.

Stage3

iTrader: (3)

sell that car... Its NEVER going to be the same again. It doesnt matter if they replace the entire engine. Also, its wierd that and Insurance company would say that... I help replace an engine at the VW dealer, that had Hydro lock after some serious rain in Florida, that was covered 100% by the dudes insurance.

mmarshall

He can't sell it, Stage....it's a leased vehicle, and apparantly he still owes money on it. I think it's going to turn out to be a 3-way fight between his insurance company, the dealership's leasing agent, and Honda's warranty.


Flip......if you're on the channel here, what do you think of this mess? You're an adjuster by trade, and routinely deal with damaged and defective cars every day.

Dx3

iTrader: (13)

Bumppppppppp