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Just picked up my car from my dealer. Acura has agreed to replace the block and valve seals. For those of you have had this done could you enlighten me on the details. What is included in this process? Is the timing belt, tensioner and water pump replaced? What is the warranty? The car now has 67K miles.
As many of us who own a 4G TL (also RL, MDX, ZDX and some Honda's) there is a known issue with the J37A engine that causes excessive oil consumption. Everyone is frustrated with this issue and ACURA (American Honda Motor Co. (AHM)), is failing to acknowledge there is an issue. Many customers are getting no where because many dealerships aren't aware because no TSB has been issued. Others are able to get to the next step which is an Oil Consumption Test (I suggest everyone demand that their dealership put them on one)! Depending on the results and the dealership pushing ACURA (AHM) you maybe lucky enough to get to the next stage, having the small blocked replaced. I was one of the lucky ones or so I thought until my "new" (2nd) engine continued consuming excessive oil.
Well I had enough of Acura (AHM) denying there is a defect, after my 3rd Oil consumption test and now on my 3rd "new" engine. I have been fighting ACURA (AHM) since May demanding they fix my TL or repurchase/replace my car. October 23, Acura (AHM) finally responded to me with the most inadequate and disappointing response.
I am paraphrasing from Acura's letters (which I've included); "While we do not feel that an unreasonable number of attempts or time out of service have been incurred to correct a substantial defect with your vehicle, we do agree that you have been inconvenienced and we would like to regain your faith in our product. AHM has agreed to provide you with a onetime cash settlement offer of $3,000 and a 5 year/120,000 Vehicle Service Contract (which I've previously purchased from my dealership when I purchased the car) in good faith and in the interest of customer satisfaction".
They then attached a 2nd page "Release Form". Again I'm paraphrasing "Consumer agrees to accept this amount in full settlement and compromise of any and all claims ... this release is not an admission of fault. This Release may be pleased as a full and complete defense to, and may be used as the basis for an injunction against any action, suit or other proceeding which may be instituted prosecuted or attempted in breach of this Release".
I love how they want a full release from any action or suit if I agree to the cash settlement, yet they acknowledge "a substantial defect with your vehicle".
Is there anyone else out there who has been offered a settlement by Acura?
Also, I am very interested in not only pursuing a personal lawsuit against Acura (AHM), but also would like to see how many other people would join a class action lawsuit against Acura. I have reached out to the attorney's who filed and won a similar class action against Honda for excessive oil.
This is from another thread and I hope it helps. The first 2 pages list part numbers. It looks like they replaced the whole short block but do not use a new waterpump or belts. I would pay to have new parts installed if you are close to the 105K service.
2nd that. The hose and pump are cheap in retrospect to the labor charged. Even if your not close Acura recommends every 8 yrs which would be 2018. Might as well pay and go until 170k. I don't believe it would be included in that part of the engine that is having issues, since they are separate parts from those components causing issues. Hope this really fixes the issue for you.
1 Lieutenant - I thought you had stabilized your oil consumption at about 1 quart every 4,500 miles or so. Did that change? What persuaded Acura to replace your block? It's been my understanding that anything less than 1 quart/1000 miles was deemed within tolerance and wouldn't justify a warranty replacement.
1 Lieutenant - I thought you had stabilized your oil consumption at about 1 quart every 4,500 miles or so. Did that change? What persuaded Acura to replace your block? It's been my understanding that anything less than 1 quart/1000 miles was deemed within tolerance and wouldn't justify a warranty replacement.
In the last 7K miles the oil consumption increased to 1qt per 1.5K. Seems Acura has changed their limits to 1 qt per 2K as excessive. I had to have several oil consumption tests before getting approval.
I will request a new water pump, tensioner, idlers, and spark plugs. Hope they don't jack up the part prices too much. I will get a baseline by looking at other dealers prices. I.e. Bernardi etc
i just had my 11' short block replaced under warranty. only things the warranty did not cover was the water pump and timing belt. the only old part on the motor are the heads... everything else is brand new.
I was just wondering because i seen the above post is a letter about a cash settlement thats all.
Gotcha. As far as I know, that's the only settlement offer so to speak of on the boards. Other members are just getting new shortlong blocks during their warranty periods and then have their replacement engines replaced again under warranty.
What seems interesting is that Acura hasn't acknowledged it yet but it seems that there is an unsolvable problem with the 3.7l motor. At this point it seems their plan of action is to replace the short/long block in the cars of owners complaining about them.
It's a game against the clock. The engine is no longer in production. Many of these cars are aging out of warranty so owners of cars with oil burners outside of warranty will either pay out of pocket for a new motor or just give up on the car. Acura won't have to foot the bill for these cars forever. They only have to last as long as the latest warranty.
that really sucks because im very happy with the 4th gen. i live in NY and it is perfect for a year round daily. i guess after my factory warranty is up at 105k ill be buying an aftermarket warranty.
lol
