beerbuddha

Hi everyone

I am currently retiring my Acura 98' 1.6EL that went through basically everywhere twice and reborn. Back in 2011-2012 winter - one of my pistons broke and that was the end of the life of my EL at 226K km (currently at 305K km). However with good luck - I managed to find this shop called JDM Tokyo Import that deals with parts and dropped used engine with a new clutch. Next 5 years or so: few different parts were replaced and now a leak had to be patched out underneath and my mechanic even tie-wrap a part of the latch of the hood so that it sticks (open/close).

With that said:

I'm planning on upgrading to a TL SH-AWD 6M - 2010 minimum. I found a guy that is selling his 2012 TL but he mentioned that he got his engine replaced under Acura warranty at 117k km. I asked my friend what his opinion is: don't touch/buy.

I'm 50/50 on this. Would anyone care to share advice or experience on this? I find 2012 is early to replace an engine - but yet it was done by Acura. I haven't approached the seller yet, wanted to hop into the community to see how's everyone experience and knowledge about this.

thanks for your time.

LostProphet

Did the seller mention it was replaced due to high oil consumption issues? This is not the only TL with the short block replaced for this problem, there are hundreds of them. Considering the parts and labor was done by Acura I will still buy it but with a considerable discount, this kind of major repairs always bring the car's value down. Good luck.

beerbuddha

Thank you for responding LostProphet

Indeed - when I contacted the seller - it was due to oil cosumption and it was the short block that got replaced under warranty. I found articles about a lawsuit or the fact that its common. However Im trying to do a follow up and see if once fixed it won't occur again. Some reason: Acura TL 2010-2013 6M there are only 3-4 in canada itself - so its a measure twice cut once for me

tks for the insight.

MarcoNorthPolo

There’s no guarantee that it won’t happen again. When Acura replaces an engine in these cases they don’t have improved parts to put on, it’s the same motor as before, just new. Find one that hasn’t demonstrated an oil consumption issue, or take the chance on this one hoping it doesn’t rear it’s ugly head again. .

Bear in mind that it IS common in these cars to burn oil. It’s the way they were designed. Some burn more than others though.

Riboflavin

I had my engine replaced under warranty for excessive oil consumption (930 miles [15k km] per qt) in July 2016 at 95306 miles (153k km), and I agree that they just replace it with a factory short-block that hasn't been re-engineered to fix whatever the caused the oil consumption in the first place. They never did tell me exactly what the cause was, nor do I think they even did an actual analysis on my old motor, they just tore it down to determine "yep, that's screwed." and Acura corporate agreed to a short-block replacement.



Since then, I've put about 25000 miles (40k km) on the new block, and have done 3 oil changes with almost no oil lost in approx 8000 mile (13000 km) intervals.

That's obviously not very long-term data, but it's looking good so far and I also have to hope that it doesn't happen again in the near future. According to my service records, I started noticing the oil consumption getting serious around 83000 miles (133k km), so I've still got a while before getting back to that point on the new block to see if it gets bad again.

I'd probably prefer buying a 6MT with a factory swapped short block as opposed to a higher mileage TL running the stock motor, since the new short block at least buys you some more time before the inevitable. Mine still runs solid, so had I been in the situation where I could purchase my own car right now, I wouldn't feel bad about having made that decision. Granted, the value probably did take a hit due to the work done, but I'm not expecting to sell the car.

JM2010 SH-AWD

Curious about your motor replacement when the car was out of the OEM warranty. Did you have an extended warranty? If no, how did you persuade Acura to cover it? And (last question) did they provide any different advice about break-in on the new short block? Hope you continue to have good luck with it. Thanks.

Riboflavin

Oh, good point, I should have mentioned that since it does seem a bit odd lol.

I bought my 2010 6MT CPO with 56k miles which came with an extended dealership warranty until 100k miles. I started the official oil consumption test process with the dealership around 86k (i'd been documenting it personally since around 84k), so I didn't have any real trouble convincing the dealership to work with me under warranty. Luckily the service manager was cool and agreed that my level of oil consumption was abnormal, but since Acura corporate were the ones to make the final call, I agreed to have the heads pulled off at my potential expense so they could have an Acura inspector come in to personally look at my block and pistons. If the inspector agreed the consumption was due to an engineering failure on their part, I wouldn't be on the hook for the 7 hours of tear-down labor, and they'd agree to replace the short block at their expense. I figured it was worth the potential couple hundred bucks since doing nothing wasn't going to make it better.

Regarding the break-in procedure, I don't really remember them saying much, but I'm sure someone mentioned the "baby it for a while" method before I left. After doing research while the car was still being worked on, I opted for the harder "fully warm engine, slow highway pulls to 5k, and releasing throttle while in gear to allow negative vacuum pressure to properly seat the piston rings" style break-in method instead lol. I still give it the old "italian tune up" on on-ramps, and everything's still alright thus far. I also recently installed the XLR8 J-Pipe + catback in July, and haven't noticed a speck of carbon buildup on the exhaust tips.

dregsfan

Why would a new replacement engine installed by Acura bring down the value of the car? Seems to me that a car with close to 100k on it, except for a brand new engine, should be worth a bit more, not less, than the same car with an engine that also has 100k on it.

JM2010 SH-AWD

Thanks for the response. Did they ever tell you what the manufacturing/engineering defect was? Good luck in the future, and keep us posted whether this appears to have cured the problem down the road.

Nates NJTL

Does the rebuilt engine have any type of warranty with it?

Riboflavin

Nope, service manager was out when I picked up the car, and none of the lower level service guys knew any details. I never got around to hassling the service manager for answers, I was just happy to get a new motor and cleaned exhaust tips lol.
I didn't get anything with mine, other than the standard dealership labor warranty, guaranteeing their work for 15,000 miles.

BTW, sorry to have potentially hijacked OP's thread with my anecdotes lmao.