Sally R

BEWARE

BEWARE! Honda civic 1litre turbo I bought the car brand new in 2017. In 2021 the car engine failed. I took it to the dealership and they said it was a known fault and that warranty would replace the engine free of charge. Which they did (however it took 3 months). In the end we were just glad to get the car back with the new engine. The diagnosis on this visit is as follows: Vehicle recovered in with engine management light on and noise coming from engine. Checked all DTC codes with HDS. Turbo failure, noise from turbo, removed feed pipe from turbo. Found filter blocked. Removed cam cover, found belt rubbing on cam cover. The crank shaft drive pulley is causing accelerated wear to the timing belt. Which creates timing blet fibres collected in the oil filter which leads to reduction in flow. This situation results in oil supply deficiency which results In engine or turbo charger failure. 22 months later, in 2023 the engine failed again. I took it back to the dealer and was told the foreman knew straight away what it was, was a known fault and would need an engine replacement and they were just putting it through to get cleared by warranty. (They said there was 3 cars in all having the same repair done under warranty at the same time) The diagnosis on this visit was exactly the same as the first time. It was only then I mentioned I had had this repair done in 2021. After that was acknowledged the warranty department started requesting more and more data. The data supplied to them via the dealership I was told was inkeeping with the problem all the cars were having, and showed absolutely nothing different or unexpected. In the WEEKS I had to wait for an answer from warranty, with no hire car and hundreds and hundreds been spent on rental cars I got the answer no. Warranty said no on the basis the repair had been done in 2021. I was shocked that they expected a car only 5.5 years old to need a third engine, with the second one only lasting 22 months. (Apparently the 2 year warranty on the engine didn’t count as it wasn’t bought as retail) With no where to turn I contact the motor ombudsman who took my case. I’m currently being assigned a case worker. Then in Jan I got a product recall letter. I asked the dealership what this meant and they didn’t know. They said as it’s an official recall they possibly could now get a different outcome from warranty, and advised me to contact customer care. I did this and explained all the above and it was still a firm no: ‘From these investigations, I can advise that Product update that you received a letter for requires additional parts that are not used in a regular timing belt change and is a product update for another 6 years/75k miles whichever comes first. I am sorry to advise that we would be unable to make any contributions towards the costs for the repair as the Warranty Department already made their decision based on the information provided by the dealership. Furthermore, please be kindly advised that you can either do the PUD now or postpone it until the next repair of the timing belt is due.’ Am I missing something? I cannot afford to replace an engine every 25k miles! I asked how to safeguard this happening again and was told it’s nothing I can do. Read how widespread the problem is with a quick google on a relevant forum Am also Talking to which, and failing that the national newspaper. These cars are not fit for purpose