Hi,

I have recently purchased a used 2008 Acura RDX Tech Package with 110k miles on it.

After about two weeks of driving the car around town, the car had a B1 service message from the maintenance minder on the steering display.

On taking the car to the mechanic, he suggested oil change, valve adjustment and other services as part of the B1 service.

As the car was being serviced, the mechanic called me for a major issue with the Cam shaft lobes and said that the part needs to be replaced. The total estimate on the repair was a staggering $3500.

Attached are photos of my cam shaft lobes. According to the mechanic, the #1 and #2 lobes are showing the same wear as shown in the photos shown below.

Please advise me as to how severe this problem is and if at all I am getting ripped off here. I did not expect to find this in an Acura engine.



Picture of the #2 cam lobe showing wear.




Cam Lobe #2 Long Shot view

 

Major heat and loss of oil. I've never seen a cam shaft lobe that looked that badly burned. (Although I have seen a stuck valve grind a deep groove into the cam). Definitely need to explore more of the engine and see if there is additional damage.

 

Honda's K24, which this engine is mainly based on, on the RDX, it's the K23... There is also a K20 in the Civic and ILX...

These engines are known as the K Series...

The K Series engines are known oil burners...

I suspect the previous owner never checked the oil fill level, the oil burned a quart or even two low, causing the cam lobe wear...

This must have happened more than once to cause that wear, but I'm just speculating...

That being said, the realist cost sounds extremely high to me...

On a CR-V forum, I read that the camshaft is only $299, and with labor, should be no more than $6-800, but it varies...

That CR-V owner was about to pay just over $2,000...

Now that isn't turbo, and this one is, but to see into the valve train, one would have to remove the turbo intercooler...

But other than that, the repair *shouldn't* be too difficult, but I am speculating this again...

I would call around to refutable shops and see if you could get a lower quote... That sounds like almost as much money as it would cost to replace the entire engine...

Do yourself a divot and call around, I wish you luck!!!

 

I bet you Wrench in PA could replace it for you in about an hour Some of you guys are great with tinkering with the cars. My question is, if you do not replace it, but keep the oil level correct, what will happen to the car? It seems you did not notice anything from driving it, so why not just wait to fix if it breaks? $3500 is outrageous. I would sell the car to CarMax before that.

 

Any updates?

Surely this is far beyond normal wear for these engines. Do you know the car's maintenance history?


$3,500 seems outrageous. Is this a dealer or independent mechanic? You may check around to find a Honda (or at least Japanese) specialist.

 

VU2THH

Come on man! What happened already? Don't leave us hanging!

I wonder if some one let the oil go way, way over due?

 

This happens frequently with the 02-05 Honda Civic Si. It's probably the most common problem. Most guys either find a junkyard K24a1/K24a4 head and swap the cams over or they just go straight over to buy the Brian Crower or discountinued Skunk2 K20a3/K24a1/K24a4 cams. They also both make a set of Turbo cams if anybody cares and the K20a3 Ep3 guys run them with no ECU mods (some change valve springs/retiainers to S2000 or K20a2/Z1/Z3/a) with no problems. K20a3 springs and retainers are also good to 7700rpms with no float risk.

The only other early 3 lobe intake and 1 lobe exhaust head I'm aware of is the early Honda Streams in Asia. They had our same design and configuration.

 

Early I mean pre 2008, the new heads with integrated exhausts have it on the new K-series and i'm aware of that.

 

I hate it when we don't get followups........

Even if I think nobody is really following along, I still update posts. Someday, somebody may have that same issue.

 

I've been chews out and made fun of for over-updating, look at thread, AUTOBANNED, am I screwed...

Thank you for posting this...

Although, if the owner is busy or forgot to post is understand...

But thank you very much for saying this...