friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

pictures where just to show that it was an aluminum block nothing more

piggylover1985

You are right about that my friend. I have an 05 Toy Highlander that was leaking at the transfer case vent last winter. I check the TSB, it said that Toy would replace it under power train warranty 5/60. Mine was within time length and mileage. I took it to the dealer to have them check it out for me (didn't show him the TSB though). I was pissed that the service manager told me after they checked it out, he said that "it's ok, it's not leaking that bad, my Dodge truck is slow leaking like that too ".
So i showed him the 20 pages long TSB. Now he's little shaky, he's like" Okay we will fix it for you under warranty, this job will take 12hr to do".
The service manager wasn't a butcher but he's very good in pretending that he doesn't know anything about the recall.
Got the Toy back after 2 days at the dealer, had the car on the lift and found that they lost 2 exhaust donut hangers, missing bracket for the flex pipe, a new o2 sensor(the tech broke the old one ?) couple of broken bolts in the aluminum oil pan where the flex pipe bracket bolted to.
So i brought it back and have them fix every little thing that they messed up. They didn't look to happy, but i'm happy.

01tl4tl

in my experience it takes a full redline to hurt the head gasket- and then its 6 months later it goes
Of course driving with it redlined is death

If the rad is low it may not pull coolant over from the res, and cause problems like air block behind thermostat

First thing is get it out of their hands and to someone honest who will document the strangeness for you
If they drilled wrong its on them to supply a good replacement motor- rebuilt not junkyard

I have in my past- had to drill broken rusty bolt out of water pump on a bummer 5 series
- with the right angle drill, working pretty much blind, for a loooonnnnnnng lonnnnnnng frustrating `this car is eating my lunch`` period of time and attempts

How easy it would have been to cause permanent effup- I was lucky

01tl4tl

I think fries posted all the pics because he found something to bust me on and had a field day with it~
Its alright- I deserved this one

engines are not made from cast aluminum- what was I thinking!!
I watch How Its Made

piggylover1985

You are busted lol (j/k

smartypants

Wow ! I feel like such a noob !

I also was convinced it was a cast iron block with aluminum heads. Had I known this when I replaced my front mount, I would have been much more "respectful" removing and replacing the bolts. I will also be more careful when tightening any bolts going into the engine now that I know it's aluminum ! In either case, my position regarding the facts of the matter remain unchanged.

P.S. Great picture of the timing belt and tensioner layout !

smartypants

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

and just wait for MORE (in another thread about a certian manifold )

plenty of domestics out there still like that, but yeah honda is a little more advanced then that (shit honda has had aluminum blocks and aluminum heads on all their motors since at least like 1990, so a good 20 years (minus the passport, and acura SLX, which are Isuzu's which in reality have GM motors in them

lol did not mean for that , but yeah water pump is behind where that mount goes where you see the belt coming down from the two cams

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

yeah quite common, any of the horzionatial mounted motor, V6 AWD vehicles, seem to like to do that for some reason , don't ask why, but yeah i have noticed it also, at least withen the past couple of years, once the new vehicles have finally started to get to the independent shops

hyperxterm

I'm getting the car back tomorrow. It's going to run me $1100.. I'll post the work order and I'm going to take it to a mechanic I know to check it out.

I happened to take pictures of the car the day I got it back from the transmission job, b/c like I said, I was going to sell it (until the next day when the car over heated...). Anyway, I figured I'd post the pics of the engine compartment b/c quite honestly, I know shit about cars.. Maybe there's something that sticks out to someone? Again, these pics were taken the day I got the car back from the transmission repair (and the day before the car overheated, needed new head gaskets..)

The leak in my driveway wasn't huge, but definitely noticeable.. Maybe a foot in diameter..

Also, the service manager said the car had coolant - it wasn't low on coolant.. It just overheated b/c of air pockets, exhaust gasses leaking or whatever.. He said the only coolant that was leaking out was from the overflow bottle..

I drove the car 35 miles home from the dealership - noticed the leak in my driveway, drove it back to dealership about 30 miles till it overheated..

Anyway, here's the pics.. I doubt they really show anything.. I'll post an update tomorrow when I get the car back.. They said they put on 30 miles on it and it was driving fine now, so we'll see...

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

yes, dripped fluids make large spots when spilled, but not exactly a small spot there, shouda have probably been checked out locally or towed

and if you can somehow prove that it had indeed dripped in your driveways, something either went horrible wrong on the drive home, or something was not right when it left the dealer (or you had something horrible wrong beforehand idk)


as far as anything thing sanding out, engine bay is FILTHY first of all, then this is kinda unrelated but that amp power cable kinda looks like a butchered job to me

hyperxterm

Here's a pic of the leak.. I had it parked for about 3 hours, then moved it in the middle of driveway to take the pics..

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

ALSO I SEE COOLANT, (and looks like prestone or something by the very green look of it)

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

yeah hard to tell exact size of leak, since it looks like it had mostly soaked in, but still decent sized though; also your front tire looks low for some reason in that photo also

hyperxterm

Thanks for pointing it out.. I'll take some pics when I get it back and post them for comparison..

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

there is no green that is down there, so something is not right, and I THINK the dealer is indeed at fault, with not reconnecting (or reclamping) a coolant line when doing the tranny, and basically it pumped it self dry enough, which then caused it to overheat

smartypants

Sorry to hear this Hyper :

You probably have very little recourse now. All the evidense will be gone unless you can pinpoint where the leak actually was and be able to analyse the repair to ascertain original fault. I would be very skeptical of the details in the work order unless we all missed something obvious.

I think you need to move on and enjoy life !

smartypants

hyperxterm

Ok, so I picked up the car today. Paid the $1100 for the head gaskets, drive the car home (temperature gauge is OK), minute I pull into my driveway -- the front of the car starts smoking and it smells like something burning (coolant....). Coolant was spitting out of the plastic overflow tank and left a nice new leak under the car..

Now, I call back the Acura Dealership tell them what happened and this time they suggest that I have it towed back (this is the THIRD TIME getting it towed in there in the past ~10 days) instead of driving it back ("b/c we don't want something to happen to the engine").. Too bad they didn't suggest that the first time I called when I got the transmission fixed, maybe I wouldn't be out an extra grand for head gaskets.

I called the Acura Corp. 800 number again and explained the situation. They put in a second report and suggested I wait until they look at it again and if it's still not resolved they can act as a "liaison" between me and the dealership to make sure they are doing everything they should be doing.. blah blah blah...

I just want the car to be fixed so I can stop dealing with these people.. Believe me, I have much better things to do then deal with this bullshit!

hyperxterm

Turns out the green in the picture you circled was just green paint they had on the new bolts.. It was still there when I picked it up.

01tl4tl

since the tech suggested timing belt water pump and customer declined- and if the water pump dies on the way home...thats not the shops fault according to the law-
customer declined repair

however I hope you got the thermostat back to test it- was it bad or did they cover up a hose left loose

piggylover1985

+1. Not that many shop will admit that they screwed it up. Always something else not under their control.

smartypants

Ask for the faulty thermostat so you can get it "professionally tested". Betcha they lost it !

smartypants

01tl4tl

all parts not specifically requested by the customer to be saved...are in the trash that night
In this case- maybe the SM thought ahead that legal issues may arise and blame abound--and saved the parts,,as if you can identify your part....
Wont hurt to ask them if they have your old parts

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

first of all, how much paint did they use


and as far as the thermostat, a very real possibility, but still very suspicious though, for it to immediately happen after you get the car though

swalch@stanford.edu

[QUOTE=hyperxterm;12107701]Ok, so I picked up the car today. Paid the $1100 for the head gaskets, drive the car home (temperature gauge is OK), minute I pull into my driveway -- the front of the car starts smoking and it smells like something burning (coolant....). Coolant was spitting out of the plastic overflow tank and left a nice new leak under the car..

If coolant is coming out of the overflow tank, either the cooling system wasn't bled correctly or more likely there is a blown head gasket again.

My opinion is the dealership did something wrong to cause the original head gasket problem and now the heads are warped causing the new head gaskets to fail.

I would have a radiator shop pressure test the cooling system and check the coolant for exhaust gases.

01tl4tl

get acura corp involved 1-800-382-2238x5
tell the minimum wage phone person you need a manager to call you back about dealership damage to vehicle

TLer trash

Sounds like it's time for a lawyer as well.

01tl4tl

lets go back a month before this all happend

Did the temp EVER venture above half--it should stay at 1-2 clicks below half in normal operation- even extreme operation,, uphill, hot day, high altitude, ac blasting~

the thermostat to fail dramtically in 1 day is very strange
Seems like it would start acting up a little bit and not noticed as real problem
then a month of that and it finally went

If this was the original coolant in the engine up till then, its real easy to see thermostat as an crud and failure issue,
coolant might last 7 years on the oe stuff according to the book,,
but 5 years is about the real limit on most brands-per their labeling

after that additives go acidic in aluminum environment..anyone remember from science class or on tv science whats next?

from a legal point (as a former shop operator)
blown head gasket mandates a new thermostat and radiator pulled out of the car for cleaning

Is this the car they had to drill a bolt from motor mount?
whats up with that being inspected by another shop for intrusion to water port?
possible thats the cause and they say thermostat to cover azzzzzxs

Not very hard to keep an old bad unit laying in a junk pile...with one of each thing you may be called upon to show a customer,,belts plugs wp etc
How would you know if they were from your car?

oh the stories..you dont want to know behind the scenes of auto repair

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

, 12,000 ft here at some passes here, but i have not gone up them yet, partly due to my tranny lol, but even being a mile high (5280), mine is still at the second tick down from the middle with the A/C blasting

01tl4tl

right on! fries found another thing we can agree on~

friesm2000

iTrader: (4)

lol

but yeah my tranny has puked itself again out the vent tube for a second time this past saturday, refilled it AGAIN, then flushed it, and basically back to like how it was before (just aahair bit harsher i would say though) (also it has has the death code once before too, cleared and has never came back since)

this time definetly not help that we were cruising at like 100 for like over an hour