Is my Honda Dealer lying?
11-17-2018
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Is my Honda Dealer lying?
I took my Civic 2003 EX to the dealer in April of this year and they claimed it was leaking oil from the rear main seal and back cover gasket.
I pay $1800 for it.
5 months later I get a check engine light about the oil level, due to oil still leaking to the point where I was virtually driving around with no oil.
I fill the car up to the proper level and bring it back and they proceed to tell me that these are new leaks this time coming from the front of the engine.
They are claiming that the leaks are unrelated and that since I drove over 10,000 miles between April and November that new leaks must have opened up that were unrelated to the rear main seal/back cover gasket and thus I need to pay an additional $1800 for what I essentially paid the first $1800 for.
Does this even sound right? Is it normal for Civic's to randomly generate oil leaks in a matter of months like this? Or is it the case that my dealer mis-diagnosed where the leaks originally came from and they are now lying to me in order to refuse correcting their mistake(s)?
I pay $1800 for it.
5 months later I get a check engine light about the oil level, due to oil still leaking to the point where I was virtually driving around with no oil.
I fill the car up to the proper level and bring it back and they proceed to tell me that these are new leaks this time coming from the front of the engine.
They are claiming that the leaks are unrelated and that since I drove over 10,000 miles between April and November that new leaks must have opened up that were unrelated to the rear main seal/back cover gasket and thus I need to pay an additional $1800 for what I essentially paid the first $1800 for.
Does this even sound right? Is it normal for Civic's to randomly generate oil leaks in a matter of months like this? Or is it the case that my dealer mis-diagnosed where the leaks originally came from and they are now lying to me in order to refuse correcting their mistake(s)?
11-17-2018
#2
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Re: Is my Honda Dealer lying?
What seals are leaking now?
Have you even bothered to look under the hood to see where these leaks are coming from?
The car is 15 years old, seals get hard and can start to leak.
Its probably also burning a little bit of oil, all cars do it. It says in your owner's manual to check your oil regularly.
Have you even bothered to look under the hood to see where these leaks are coming from?
The car is 15 years old, seals get hard and can start to leak.
Its probably also burning a little bit of oil, all cars do it. It says in your owner's manual to check your oil regularly.
11-17-2018
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Have you even bothered to look under the hood to see where these leaks are coming from?
The car is 15 years old, seals get hard and can start to leak.
Its probably also burning a little bit of oil, all cars do it. It says in your owner's manual to check your oil regularly.
The car is 15 years old, seals get hard and can start to leak.
Its probably also burning a little bit of oil, all cars do it. It says in your owner's manual to check your oil regularly.
And truth be told, no I have not looked up under the bottom to see where the leaks are coming from.
I am not that car-savvy yet which is the reason why I took the car in to my dealer and paid $2000 for them to find and fix the leaks.
I'm just skeptical of their claims.
It sounds much more plausible to me that a car still continuing to leak oil after an "oil repair" is as a consequence of the car mechanic not doing the job right, rather than it due to a completely new set of unrelated random leaks that all just so happened to occur within a matter of months.
Which of course they expect me to pony up another $2000 for. But I am not sure (again not car-savvy at all) whether my thinking is solid on this or not, hence why I'm asking this question to the forum.
Last edited by fmill019; 11-17-2018 at 09:31 AM.
11-17-2018
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From what I was told,
The first time at the dealer: Rear main seal, back-cover gasket = $1800
The second time at the dealer: Oil pan seal, Oil pump seal, Cam plug, Cam seal, front crankshaft engine cover seal, v-tech solenoid seal + timing belt and water pump change = $2100
The first time at the dealer: Rear main seal, back-cover gasket = $1800
The second time at the dealer: Oil pan seal, Oil pump seal, Cam plug, Cam seal, front crankshaft engine cover seal, v-tech solenoid seal + timing belt and water pump change = $2100
11-18-2018
#5
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Re: Is my Honda Dealer lying?
Batching is the crazy profit for a repair business.
For example, in order to replace the o-ring for the oil pump which is a common leak at this age..
The oil pan has to come off, the timing belt has to come off, and the front engine cover has to come off.
With the timing belt off, the cam sprocket is only being held on by one bolt, waterpump with 4 bolts. tensioner one bolt.
So for not much more than 10minutes of work beyond the oil pump oring, and literally just not reusing your old oil pan gasket, timing belt, front engine seal. Everything but the cam plug and vtec seal would be done.
Yet they charge you as if they had to open up your engine 5 times, once for each item.
Do you live near Houston?
For example, in order to replace the o-ring for the oil pump which is a common leak at this age..
The oil pan has to come off, the timing belt has to come off, and the front engine cover has to come off.
With the timing belt off, the cam sprocket is only being held on by one bolt, waterpump with 4 bolts. tensioner one bolt.
So for not much more than 10minutes of work beyond the oil pump oring, and literally just not reusing your old oil pan gasket, timing belt, front engine seal. Everything but the cam plug and vtec seal would be done.
Yet they charge you as if they had to open up your engine 5 times, once for each item.
Do you live near Houston?
Last edited by Slumpertcivic; 11-18-2018 at 01:56 AM.
11-18-2018
#6
If you think a good mechanic is expensive, try hiring a bad one
Re: Is my Honda Dealer lying?
Regarding the price quotes, second and 3rd opinions can be valuable.
How many miles on the car? If oil pump O ring is leaking, I'd guess you've got well above 120k on it.
Rubber gaskets don't last forever.
11-19-2018
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11-19-2018
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clean the engine throughly
then start checking yourself where you see leaks
then start checking yourself where you see leaks
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