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Massive oil leak on 2009 championship white type r.

G

gazza123

Messages
8
Hi Folks,

First post and unfortunatly not a happy one.

Iv'e had my 2009 Championshipwhite civic for just over 3 weeks and love the car to bits unfortunatly on xmas day my oil light came on half way up my street so i drove it approx 100yds and parked on driveway had a look under car and oil was literally streaming from engine onto the ground panic stations!!! car hasnt moved since as theres not a drop of oil in the reseviour now although it did seem to be ok when i parked up,

I phoned honda assistance as it's still under warranty and they sent out the aa, the guy jacked up the car took off the cover below engine and confirmed that the sump plug was missing!!! The car had been serviced by the dealer before i picked car up new oil etc etc so they were obviously the last ones to touch the sump plug and according tothe aa guy more than likely wasnt tightened properly.

What i need advice on is what damage could this have done to the engine,is the dealer totally liable for this,and am i within my rights to ask for a new engine as i don't think they can garantee that no damage has been done to the engine as when i traced back up the road the oil had been leaking onto the road for a fair distance before i got home.

Any advice would be great guy's as i'm going tophone them in the morning when they open.
 
Damn, sorry to hear bud. There was a similar thread on e ctro forum with practical solutions. I will see I I can find it!
 
running dry is VERY bad. i personally would pursue a new engine. it might not be knocking now, but damage has been done for sure!! give it a while of hard driving, it it probably start knoking its t-ts off. if you cant get a new engine, demand a strip down and inspect the bottom end bearings etc, and even get an independant engineers opinion etc.

there are chances of you getting away with it, very very slight chances considering you werent hooning it but how long have you been running low on oil for??? but, when the light comes on, its not really a warning, its a "you fvcked up" light, (well, not you personally in this case, but you know what i mean).
 
I had a similar thing with the main dealer not putting the gearbox sump plug back in properly and that fell out.

No warning light with that but I was lucky and spotted it straight away and haven't had any long term issues.

Agree with the oil light though being an indicator only when it is too late. The only thing that really harms these engines is mis-shifting and over revving the engine and running them low on oil.

Personally I'd be after a new engine. I've heard of dealers doing it before for similar things so it's not an unreasonable request. I've also heard of dealers buying the car back, replacing it with another similar spec one and fixing the original car themselves so they don't have to put a claim in.

If the dealer doesn't entertain the idea of a replacement engine, make sure you speak with the service manager. If they will agree to strip it down it will mean a lot of labour costs for them, a lengthy period of a loan of a courtesy car to you and in the end a new engine might work out cheaper to them, so try mentioning that to them.

Ask for everything in writing from the service manager though.

Failing all that, if they don't give you satisfactory answers, you could mention that you are considering pursuing it with Honda UK. Only use this as a last resort though as going down that road will usually mean any goodwill the dealer may have been willing to show will go out of the window, and will probably mean longer without the car as Honda will have to send a technician to assess your claim etc.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.
 
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Thanks guy's some good advice there i really don't need the hassle and can sense a bit of a saga develloping but at the endof the day theres not much the dealer can say in defence it's obviously human error that has caused this and i have an independent report from the aa that the sump plug was gone so hopefully that's enough amo to seek a new engine i don't like the idea of strip down and check as how do i know problems won't develop due to this being performed and let's face it if they can't tighten a sump plug properly can they be trusted to do anything else????

Thanks again guy's.
 
I reakon you'll have a right battle on your hands..... 1) You've no proof the dealer left the sump plug loose and 2) A brand new engine is about £9k from Honda.......

Good luck though.
 
That may be true but what i can prove is they serviced the car at 22000 miles i.e just before i collected the car it's now done 22700 miles and not a sole has been near the car why would they? it's not as if i'm going to randomly decide to check if the sump plug is tight enough!! who would? I bought the car in good faith from a reputable dealer and these things should not happen there is no other reason other than bad workmanship that could cause such a problem.
 
If it last got serviced at Honda then you will have a strong case regardless of proof. Just got to make sure you emphasise on the fact that no one apart from Honda touch your car. Had it a couple times when I was at Peugeot, the apprentices left sump plugs loose, not much the dealer can say really. They will try get out of it but you'll then have to get onto Honda uk or even trading standards and you'll get the engine.
 
Hi Guys,

Car Towed into dealer today only the sales manger present service dept don't start till tommorow let the sales manager know that i wont be happy with just new oil and sump plug and if it sounds ok thats it.

What checks should they perform on the engine to ensure there has been no damage caused by what happened which is probably unlikely.

Cheers.
 
Not really any checks unless they check the bottom end bearings/shells etc to see if there's any scoring from running low on oil. Make sure u push for a new engine.
 
Yeah just don't give up on it, they will try and get out of it but in the end will fix it.
 
This is why I stopped using main Honda dealers and went to TDi instead

Hope you get it sorted bud
 
The saga continues,

Phoned the dealer yesterday looking for verdict on the car @14.30 service supervisor admits they havent had a chance to look at the car the guy wasn't even aware what had happened to the car after telling him the full story i get a phone call from garage an hour later stating the car was fine and ready to be picked up,i asked them what checks were carried out(obviously none)and they said they re-filled with oil inserted a new sump plug stated that it sounded fine and took it for a road test and all is well.


I asked they guy how he could garantee that no damage had been done by THEIR MISTAKE(and yes he admitted that it was indeed the mechanics fault) he says if there was anything wrong with the engine you would hear it straight away aftersome heated discussion he has offered to garantee the integrity of the engine for 1 year.

I phoned trading standars today about the issue and they said it's up to the finance company to take it up with the dealer as the are legally the owners of the car so i have logged a complaint with them they say i can still pick up the car this doesnt affect my right to complain.

to be totally honest i don't know what the hell to do here and the really annoying thing is there was no apology or no expination as to what happened but i suppose that just sums up car dealers for you.

Cheers.
 
They are partly right about 'hearing' a problem.. If anything is a miss, you will here it. My advice, rag it about for the next week, not from cold, if there's any problems, this will highlight them. Maybe try and get an extended warranty or something?

Oh, one more thing. If you start a stone cold engine, and that firs 2 seconds it's quiet, it's fine.
 
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Make sure you get the 1 year warrenty in writing with an explaination of what has happened from them on headed paper so there will be no denying it if you do ever have to claim.
 
I'd push for three years to be honest just for the hell of it.

Any problems should surface reasonably quickly though.
 
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