On April 26th 2013 we took our 2005 Honda Accord in for service to Community Honda in Whittier. The engine light was on and we explained to Andie that we knew the problem was Cylinder #5 misfiring. Andie put in the service order and told us it would be $60 for a diagnostic check. It was late friday night so we rented a car from them expecting to hear from them after the weekend, on Monday. The next day we received a call regarding our car was from Andie in which she told us that the block  needed to be repaired at the machine shop for $200, the sparkplugs, parts, gaskets, seals and everything else would be $870.95 and labor would be $1912.50. She estimated the total repair to be $2985. She then went on to say if the block needed replacement it would be an additional $1000. I asked her to talk to her manager and see if she could get the cost down, she said she would. She then called back to inform us that the wiring harness needed to be replaced because it was brittle and there were 3 coil connectors that needed to replaced. She said Honda doesn't sell the individual item for that piece so we would need to buy the entire Harness for the car and that the part was $500. She continued that they could splice in the 3 coil connectors for $210 in labor or if we replaced the entire harness it would be $1260 in labor. Adding another $710 to her original estimate she said would bring the cost to $3695 + tax. She also said she talked to her manager and was told that she could take $500 off to bring it to $3195 + tax. I told her I needed to talk to my husband because that was a lot of money to spend on a 8 year old car. On April 30th, tuesday night, after 6pm, I received another call from Andie stating that the cylinder head could not be repaired and they insisted having the engine replaced. She proceeded to tell me that the engine had 95 thousand miles and a 1 year warranty, however now the cost will be about $5000. I was very concerned and told her I need to talk to my husband and she said she understood and said he can come down in the morning and look at the parts so he could see for himself and understand the situation. The next day, May 1st, he went to the shop, the car engine was taken apart and he saw the damage. He saw that we would need a new engine but didn't think paying $5000 for an 8 year old car that wasn't even worth $5000 , seemed outrageous,so he told Andie we would take the car out of their service center and return the rental. 

On May 2nd he arrived at community Honda to return the rental and arranged to have the car towed. He came prepared to pay the $100 rental fee and the $60 service order fee that was quoted to us. After waiting over 1 hour he was told by Andie they were getting the car ready. He called the tow truck driver and waited to pay the bill. He was completely shocked when he was presented with a bill for $940!!!!! He told the cashier that was wrong and asked to her to speak with a manager. The manager offered 10% off bringing the total to $846. He hesitantly paid the bill and left. After he left the tow truck driver came by, the car was not ready for the tow, in fact because they did not plug the gas pump, when the driver was hooking up the car, gas spilled all over the lot and Community Honda made him clean it up when it was their fault for not having the car prepared for a tow! The tow truck driver charged us $60 extra for that mistake on the part of Community Honda!!!! 

At no time did we every agree or authorize a tear down inspection fee of $840. We were never told that this was going to be charged to us, we were given estimates for repair only and told their was a $60 fee for diagnosis.   Additionally we were never given a written estimate and in accordance with THE AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR ACT OF 1974, A CUSTOMER IS ENTITLED TO: 1. A DETAILED INVOICE OF WORK DONE AND PARTS SUPPLIED. 2. A WRITTEN ESTIMATE FOR REPAIR WORK.     I respectfully request a refund of $846 immediately upon this request and a written response to my inquiry with in 24 hours of this request. 

Thank you for your immediate attention.  

I really hate my car right now. I have owned a honda for the past 10 yrs. and have never had this kind of problem. The check engine light came on AGAIN and my car was making weird noises, clunking, ticking, low idol and I couldn't get home fast enough. Turns out (not sure exactly when) the spark plug blew off the 1st cylinder. How in the world does this happen? I only have 51,888 miles on my car I bought brand new in 2005. The spark plug strips the threads itself and comes off! Now, the whole head of the cylinders have to be replaced to the tune of $1780.

This really sucks. Of course Honda says we don't have a problem with that, there are no recalls on my car either. I buy what I thought was a dependable car. Not to have major maintence till 100,000 miles, no so. I am reading other people haveing spark plug issues, why isn't this being addressed by Honda? What is to say once it is replaced it won't happen again? Can't wait to get rid of this car.

My wife calls to say that her engine started running rough and the check engine light came on. She immediately turned around and took the car to a nearby Pep Boys for evaluation. They were shocked to find that the coil for one of the spark plugs had malfunctioned to the point where it melted/sealed onto the spark plug. After extracting the plug (taking the cylinder threads with it) found that the plug itself had blown up (ceramic and tang gone). They did what they could to put it back together (New Helicoil threads) with a new coil and got it to run, but with a very distinct "tapping" sound. I took the car to a reputable import mechanic for a second opinion. He then pulled the head and removed the spark plug debris and inspected the cylinder walls which were not too bad. He got it back together and it runs fine. After networking with Honda and other local mechanics have found that there were 2 other Honda's (one Pilot and one Accord) in the shop with the same problem.

Of course this happened out of warrenty and has cost me $2300 to fix. This is a serious problem that Honda needs to address. With the kind of heat /electrical surge that can melt coils and blow up spark plugs can also cause other serious problems. Not only in relation to trashing an engine but could easily a cause a fire or other significant safety hazard.