More of my car saga

[Adam Payrot]

They didn't even offer that, body shop didn't want to do anything about it. The service manager (even though I told the body shop to talk to the service director) that I was referred to had a lengthy conversation with me.

He randomly asked me about replacing the ECU, since that code can't be erased. It wasn't an offer...

*EDIT* Forgot to put what my response to that was...

"That's fine, but that still leaves me with an over-revved engine."

[altiain]

They didn't even offer that, body shop didn't want to do anything about it. The service manager (even though I told the body shop to talk to the service director) that I was referred to had a lengthy conversation with me.

He randomly asked me about replacing the ECU, since that code can't be erased. It wasn't an offer...

*EDIT* Forgot to put what my response to that was...

"That's fine, but that still leaves me with an over-revved engine."

If your overrevved engine is covered under warranty, who cares? Damage from an overrev is usually instantaneous and catastrophic - if your engine didn't fail at the time of the overrev, chances are pretty good it won't in the future.

[Adam Payrot]

If your overrevved engine is covered under warranty, who cares? Damage from an overrev is usually instantaneous and catastrophic - if your engine didn't fail at the time of the overrev, chances are pretty good it won't in the future.

No, it's not covered under warranty (no matter what a service advisor/manager tells me, the warranty claim is up to regional/district Acura), and that's been my point all along. The damage doesn't always occur with the over-rev either. What if a retainer or spring was stressed? Guys have over-revved, thought they were fine, and a valve drops "out of nowhere"...

You keep giving me shit about this, but would you honestly be ok if somebody did that to your car? I don't think so.

[altiain]

No, it's not covered under warranty (no matter what a service advisor/manager tells me, the warranty claim is up to regional/district Acura), and that's been my point all along. The damage doesn't always occur with the over-rev either. What if a retainer or spring was stressed? Guys have over-revved, thought they were fine, and a valve drops "out of nowhere"...

You keep giving me shit about this, but would you honestly be ok if somebody did that to your car? I don't think so.

I'm not "giving you sh!t". I'm giving you my opinion. Take it how you see fit.

Here’s my honest suggestion: If the dealer is willing to swap out the ECU, I’d take him up on it. Seems to me that swapping the ECU implies a restoration of your warranty coverage, else why would they bother swapping ECUs? An overrev wouldn’t do any damage to the ECU at all.

Second, if you’re really concerned about the long term health of your engine, I’d insist that they replace all of the valve springs and retainers, and do a leakdown test. If the leakdown test comes back fine then there isn’t any damage to the valves, and replacing the valvetrain hardware removes any and all remaining parts that could have been harmed by the overrev. You end up with an engine that is as good as before, and continued warranty coverage.

Or, you hire a lawyer, piss a bunch of money, time, and effort down that path, and end up with nothing but a car with no warranty and a fat, happy lawyer. Your choice.

Best of luck. I hope it works out for you in the end.

[channelmaniac]

If the dealer is willing to swap out the ECU, I’d take him up on it. Seems to me that swapping the ECU implies a restoration of your warranty coverage, else why would they bother swapping ECUs? An overrev wouldn’t do any damage to the ECU at all.

...I’d insist that they replace all of the valve springs and retainers, and do a leakdown test. If the leakdown test comes back fine then there isn’t any damage to the valves, and replacing the valvetrain hardware removes any and all remaining parts that could have been harmed by the overrev. You end up with an engine that is as good as before, and continued warranty coverage.

+1 as long as you can get it in writing from them that the warranty is not void. If they already sent the notice up the chain to Acura then you need to get that from them instead of the dealership.

Tell them that you want to settle this amicably but you are ready to get a lawyer if they don't. You'll also want to talk to a lawyer to see if this screw job qualifies for triple damages. There's some legal thing there a judge I knew yelled at me about since I waited too long to sue Toyota over a screwing I got years ago... I got my revenge by influencing 10+ new and used car sales away from the brand and dealership, but I think I would've been happier with triple damages tho...

YMMV - you should at least spend a little $$$ and talk with a lawyer about your options. If the parties involved don't fix their mistakes then sic the lawyer on them.

RJ

[HudsonHawk]

And you can recover legal fees if you win.

[Adam Payrot]

I'm not "giving you sh!t". I'm giving you my opinion. Take it how you see fit.

Here’s my honest suggestion: If the dealer is willing to swap out the ECU, I’d take him up on it. Seems to me that swapping the ECU implies a restoration of your warranty coverage, else why would they bother swapping ECUs? An overrev wouldn’t do any damage to the ECU at all.

At this point, nobody wants to do anything. It was just a random thought on the part of the service manager, not an offer. I walked out of there having not learned anything that I didn't already know, and I actually taught him about the non-erasable DTC codes. He had never heard of it before; to be fair, he did mention that he hadn't physically worked on cars in about 15 years.

Second, if you’re really concerned about the long term health of your engine, I’d insist that they replace all of the valve springs and retainers, and do a leakdown test. If the leakdown test comes back fine then there isn’t any damage to the valves, and replacing the valvetrain hardware removes any and all remaining parts that could have been harmed by the overrev. You end up with an engine that is as good as before, and continued warranty coverage.

That's why I'm having to get a lawyer. I couldn't possibly know everything that I need to do in this situation to cover my I've done a compression test, but that only tells me about half of the engine. I don't have a leakdown tester at my disposal, but I would like to do that as well. The valve-train parts replacement is a helpful tip.

Or, you hire a lawyer, piss a bunch of money, time, and effort down that path, and end up with nothing but a car with no warranty and a fat, happy lawyer. Your choice.

Best of luck. I hope it works out for you in the end.

All I have to say about the lawyer thing is, I'd rather spend $2-300 now and have the proper paperwork trail, agreements, whatever, than to do nothing and risk the chance of having to drop $8k for a blown engine that I didn't break. Again, with the lawyer, I'm only trying to protect myself.

Thank you channelmaniac for your insight. I've already tried the amicable route with the body shop, and they don't want to do anything. I'm not trying to get the dealership service dept to do anything since it's really not their problem. I only went there to talk to somebody about warranty issues and service records.

I have the next 2 weeks off, so hopefully I can get most of this resolved in that time.

[Titus]

Have you talked to someone from the the regional office yet? It might be helpful to have a statement from them stating what has been voided and what actions they would require before the warranty is re-instated. Perhaps send a certified letter to them requesting their stance with C.C.s to the body shop, the service manager, and the dealership GM. just getting copied on a letter like this might light a fire under them.

[black roadster]

All I have to say about the lawyer thing is, I'd rather spend $2-300 now and have the proper paperwork trail, agreements, whatever, than to do nothing and risk the chance of having to drop $8k for a blown engine that I didn't break. Again, with the lawyer, I'm only trying to protect myself.

Adam,

I can pretty much guarantee you will pay a lawyer much more than that. We recently hired a lawyer and the retainer was $2500. We spent that before we even went to court and when all is said and done we may be looking at $4000 in legal fees or more. You can sue for attorney fees but there is no guarantee and you will still have to pay your attorney up front.

In our situation, the opposing party would not listen until we hired an attorney and they got served. So far we have been promised everything we were asking for and then some.

You have to ask yourself how bad you want justice. It could be a very expensive option with no promises it will come out in your favor. However, sometimes it takes a letter from an attorney to get any results.

I think Iain's suggestion of a compromise is a good one. I hope it all works out in your favor as it is a pretty shitty situation.

Have you tried to call Acura corporate?