J37A2 failure to connecting rods !!!!!!!
 

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:what: Wow!

So if the dealer hooked up, and there were no codes, but you had oil, how can you be responsible for overheating the engine?

The dealership want to wash his hands, the case is now with the customer service of Honda Mexico. They are going to check all the record of the car, since 2010. It is pretty unusual, nobody have seen that on an Honda or Acura engine !!!!!!!!! I take care a lot of my cars, I did the complete fluid service 3 months ago and the timing belt have been change 1 month ago. When the engine threw a rod, the timing belt didn't break off. For this unusual "problem", I would like to find other cases like this to confirm a manufacturers defect and not a driving error as they say !!!!

I've owned at least one J-Series engine for the last eight years and have tracked the engine series fairly closely. While some J37 engines do have some oil consumption issues, I have never once heard of a J-Series engine of any stripe throwing a rod without first running out of oil.

Ok, thank you for the data, I hope the customer service here in Mexico will do a complete check up of the engine, as well Honda de Mexico as myself would like to know the reason of this failure. Anyway, it has been my best car until now, I love it and I will repair the engine to let it like new and enjoy it for more time !!!!
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@tragavags If you'd like, I can move your thread over to the RL forum to get responses from more current RL owners. Just let me know.

Wowzers. I'm sorry to hear about that. Yeah, like horseshoez said, these engines are pretty solid. Throwing a rod is extremely unusual.

Thank you very much for your help. Of course you can do so, I really appreciate !!!!!

Here are the dealership services during the 8 years. The car didn't drive along for 2 and half years. I would like to know if it is relevant, could be bad for the engine ?
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Before this RL, I own an Accord EX-V6 2010, I had a very great time with this car. I let you this video to show you how to enjoy an Honda o Acura car !!!!!!!!!!

Don't let them know you track'd the car. This will void any assistance....

Yes, not driving the car for 2 1/2 years is definitely not good for the engine, assuming it wasn't started or driven at all during that time. Things like rubber seals can begin to deteriorate and metal parts may even corrode a bit if excess moisture gets in the engine due to the oil not coating the metal parts.

However, to throw a rod you're going to have to do something like consistently overrevving the engine or have a lack of lubrication (during operation, resulting in very quick wear or excessive heat). I don't see that resulting from the engine sitting for an extended period of time.

Just thinking as I type, I rather suspect the engine would have long since quit due to bent valves if it had been consistently overreved. The more I think about it, the engine was oil starved; ain't no two ways about it. :tongue:

Did you feel the car stutter as if it is misfiring or losing power? Like it slows down even if you accelerate?

Not to be a dick, but I'm pretty sure you caused your own engine failure. Why do you have hood spacers on? Not saying it would cause the issue but I know for sure why people put them on. You're not casually driving this vehicle from point a to point b. You probably track the RL to be honest. With the J-series engine, there's really limited ways to blow a rod on these so I have an idea of what's going on.

A low oil to the extent it can cause an overheat would've triggered the knock sensor and shut down some pistons as precautionary measure.

I'm interested to know how this breach happened here cause even revving and racing shouldn't break the engine without overheating.

How long did you drive the car after it sitting? I wonder if there was some clog in the passages feeding oil to the rod bearings. 2 1/2 years is quite a while. If it had oil in it, maybe it caked up or something, blocking the passages causing oil starvation to some areas.

One of the things I will mention here and that moisture and oil don't go hand in hand. If the vehicle was sitting for that long it's very possible that the oil was no longer truly in good condition to do what it's meant to do. Chances are, you ran the engine with oil that should of been serviced before running the car. I still don't think that's the root of the issue. I've never seen an N/A J series engine throw a rod unless it has something else contribute to it.

He said he did the all fluids service 3 months ago.
Timing belt 1 month ago.

Unless the oil in the engine had gelled or something, two and a half years will do exactly nothing to cause an oil starvation issue. Granted, this is a different era engine with different tolerances, but we recently fired up an old Ford Flathead V8 which hadn't been started since the 1960s, no such issues were noted.
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I was going to say OP did say a service was done 3 months ago. Maybe some sludge got caught up and clogged it :shrug:

Not at all, the engine had good response, the engine threw a rod after 20 minutes on highway. I heard like a fan hitting metal and the engine threw a rod

The hood spacers are to cool the engine, we all know that all the Honda and Acura engines works at high temperatures. I was on the highway for 20 minutes when happened, not on a track, I don´t have to lie about that, I just want to find the truth about this issue. Anyway, I had before this car an 2010 accord EX-V6 and I went 7 times on track day in 8 years !!!!!!!! I bought the accord new and always did the service on time. If you take care correctly of your car and engine, those engines can endure a lot !!!!

The oil was 2000 miles old (Liqui Moly 5W20 special tec), no warning on dashboard and no codes at all on the ecu at the dealership. The timing belt didn´t break. With all the security and sensors in this engine, nobody understand how could happen !!!!!!!

I don't know if anyone had a very low oil level before, but it seems unless it becomes below 1 liter of oil, and the 'critical oil level' red light goes on, no sensor says if it's just 'low' on oil.

It is an odd case surely, and if the car sat for over two years unstarted, it may have something to do with it. Like moisture corroded the base of that rod so it eventually snapped with the normal engine heat.. Problem is, how would moisture get in there with oil supposed to be covering everything...

I think you should read this: https://itstillruns.com/can-make-mot...-12129461.html

If there's low oil, a knock sensor should limit the power...

If you've done no modification to the car, then it may be a forgotten bolt in the chamber...

But if you modified the revving to go all the way, it may have spun out of its bearing.

If it sat for 2 years, I think the oil would have pretty well drained off into the pan.

I don't know enough to make a solid call. But it seems more than coincidental with the car sitting for that long then throwing a rod.

There's going to be defects with any product and I'm sure there's been another J out there that's thrown a rod. It's just so rare that it's natural to look for a smoking gun rather than a one-off manufacturing defect.