My R18 block cracked - check yours...

[jetcat]

There have been a few other posts on R18 blocks cracking - but here's my short story...

My 06 EX 2dr is totally stock, never abused & I do all my own routine maintenance. I just crossed 17k miles.
I get home the other night, get out & my whole garage smells like antifreeze. Open the hood & see the block cracked on the front face (look behind the EGR valve) with coolant still seeping out with the engine off. I look under the car & found a stream of coolant running aft on the oil pan & dripping on the floor. The engine never ran hot, but my coolant recovery tank was almost empty. I topped off the recovery tank & limped it to the dealer.

Honda Tech hotline acknowledges this problem and is tracking it. However, if you call Honda's 800# for customer service, they claim to know nothing. Per the Tech line, the assumption is there are a few porous blocks out there due to some bad castings.

Under warranty they will replace the shortblock only. The old head (& trans) will be put on the new shortblock. Just letting you know that you do not get a whole new engine. Dealer said it would take a couple days after parts arrive. They also got me a free rental.

Below is a pic of where to look & smell for anti-freeze seeping out. If yours has a problem get it to the dealer asap before further damage.

I'll report back after mine is fixed...

[Tiller]

+1 Great info, thanks for letting us know.

I work at a dealer but have not seen this issue yet.

[jspecFG]

Damn, that sucks. What's up with all these R18 cracked blocks?! This is the 4th one I've seen...

Atleast it cracked under warrenty.

[CrAsian]

wow, didn't even know this was an issue coming up...thanks for the heads up

[Special Ringpop]

Oh my God, Honda admit that their is a problem and they know about it?

Oh, wait, then the American Honda tech line says they've never heard of it.

Surprise, surprise. Just like the 3rd gear grind and shitty interior quality. Honda apparently knows nothing about that either.

Some customer service.

[Zeuceone]

im waiting to see if it happpens to my r18. its at about 15k right now.

[JeShUa]

Oh god. Dont say anything tom.

[moxom]

Cracked blocked on a gently treated, un-modded R18?

I'm going to Home Depot to stock up on duct tape...

[Cybergypsy]

have a free 5/60 warranty, so i am good for awhile!!

[jetcat]

Originally Posted by Special Ringpop

Oh my God, Honda admit that their is a problem and they know about it?
Oh, wait, then the American Honda tech line says they've never heard of it.
Surprise, surprise. Just like the 3rd gear grind and shitty interior quality. Honda apparently knows nothing about that either.
Some customer service.

Dude- can you read english? Or do you just like to bitch? I specifically stated...

Honda Tech hotline acknowledges this problem and is tracking it. However, if you call Honda's 800# for customer service, they claim to know nothing.

Honda Tech hotline (which is ONLY for dealer mechanics) knows ALL about it and are tracking every cracked block that comes up. I just thought I'd try customer service to see what I could find out. Those girls (no offense) do not have access to technical info unless a recall or TSB have been issued. It's not that Honda is denying anything. I'm sure they want to get all the facts before they tell customer service what to say.

For now I'm assuming this block crack deal is a rare occurrence. There are literally thousands of R18's on the road now and so far < 25 have had cracks. I don't see a need to freak out. I just wanted you all to be aware & know what to look for.

FYI, my 06 civic is my 5th new Honda I've owned. This is the very first time I've ever had a big problem. 200k+ on a Honda is routine for some of us "older" kids here.

I'll let you know how everything turned out when I get my car back.

[atruhondagrl]

Jetcat, SpecialRingPop is just frustrated with the problems some owners and have been facing over the last year. His sarcasm is not directed towards you. I think you may have read into his thread a little.

SOme of us have called Honda a few times and hit a dead end. I called about a year ago when the ECU update came out. I saw a copy of the list of VINs needing the update that was sent to the dealers and my VIN was part of it. I called Honda and they hadn't a clue. Told me nothing was available for my car. Same issue with the airbag sensor. I finally just started going to the dealership and telling them to fix it as updates came out. So a few of us are soured on the whole Honda Service and 800 number part of the deal.

The R18 cracks are rare yes. I have seen it on a few other forums. Thankfully they are rare. Thank you for the info regarding the block getting replaced but not the head. :) I'm sure a few folks aren't pleased to learn this but it is a good thing to know.

[Special Ringpop]

Thanks Dawn. I didn't mean any offense to the OP, and yes, I can read English...better than most people on car forums, thank you very much.

[televascular]

Can someone verify that only 25 cracked blocks have been discovered?

You might think 25 cracked blocks isn't a lot, considering the thousands of R18s out there, but it is. The new Toyota Tundra's camshaft failures only affected 20 units SO FAR, but it has the industry speculating on whether Toyota's massive growth in production has diluted the quality control of their vehicles. 25 cracked blocks is not a freak happening; it means a trend may be starting, and if these cracks happened on low-stress, low-mileage engines, we may see hundreds of problematic R18s in several years.

I do hope this is a freak happening, though. I don't want to believe that Honda quality is not as good as I think it is.

[Skylinegtr06]

Anyone know how many k20z3s have cracked so far?

Imagine running boost on this lump

[jetcat]

Hey Special Ringpop - sorry if I jumped on you. I really do understand your frustration with Honda "not knowing" about certain things. I guess I've just learned to how to deal with Honda. Seems like whenever there is a new model change, they take forever to acknowledge & correct issues. I could go on forever about my old 03 Accord V6, but by 05 they had all the bugs worked out. (lesson - don't by a 1st year model - but we do it anyway)
To ease your pain, you must be armed with hardcopies of TSB, recalls, forum posting, etc. when you visit your dealer or call Honda. If they know (or think) that you know more than they do about an issue, they usually take care of you. At least that's been my experience.

Now allow me to vent about my cracked block...

Yes I am highly pi$$ed about it. This is a major deal here. I seriously wonder if my car will ever be the same. If I did it myself, I wouldn't worry one bit - but I've had a few bad experiences with dealer so called "mechanics" before. Book hours for this job are 10, but I know damn well they will rush to do it in <5. I wonder if they'll take time to properly clean all mating surfaces so I don't develop leaks 2 months from now. Will they actually follow the proper torque sequence when putting my old head on? Will they check to see if my head/valves got contaminated with coolant from the crack? I'm sure my a/c compressor & power steering pump are just hanging by their hoses & my trans is on the floor collecting dirt. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but I've seen some pretty bad maintenance practices & they usually bite you in the ass later on.

What sucks is that it will always be in my mind what all came apart & if it was done right - and will it happen again or will I have other problems later on due to this. Part of me wants to just trade it in on a new Si or Accord to put my mind at ease.

(Side note- Toyota is putting in a whole new engine for their 5.7 V8 camshaft owners.)

I should get my EX back on Tuesday or Wednesday & I'll let you know how it is.

[reelbigfish241]

sorry to hear about your car, hope everything is good when you get it back. good luck.


Also, thanks for the heads up, I'll be on the look out for that...

[jetcat]

Originally Posted by televascular

25 cracked blocks is not a freak happening; it means a trend may be starting, and if these cracks happened on low-stress, low-mileage engines, we may see hundreds of problematic R18s in several years.

You're reading my mind. It does seem like more cracks are being reported.
I'd assume Honda would redesign the block to address this problem, but they are not going to recall every civic out there. For example, some older 5 speed auto's are known by Honda to fail. There was not a major recall on every model. Honda just granted a longer warranty on older models and put a 2nd gear oil jet mod on newer cars. My dealer has got Honda to pay for a new trans in Odyssey's with over 100k.

Hopefully the R18A1 block cracks are freak deals - but I'm not sure if I want to still be used as a test subject.

[Pdivizzle0112]

ask em for the K20...

[06CivEXJon]

Oh shit i hope my block doesn't crack in my R18 i have 9,000+ miles on it.

[06NaviEX]

Originally Posted by Cybergypsy

have a free 5/60 warranty, so i am good for awhile!!

Same here. Part of the deal I got them to throw in on the Honda Certified Used Car to keep me from buying a new one was a 6 year/100,000 mile warranty. Go ahead and crack around 90,000. A new engine would be nice then

Brian

It's always better than the head gasket issues with my old Sentra 1.8L. Those were almost guaranteed to start leaking!