We were headed on a 900-mile road trip for a wedding and a family reunion. We've always stayed current on our oil changes and maintenance. The morning we were leaving we decided to get an oil change even though it wasn't due for another 1k miles. Had the place change the transmission fluid, oil, filters, etc. Eight hours into the drive we started to hear a little noise and immediately changed lanes and started to pull over. Before we were able to get off the freeway and come to a complete stop, the low oil pressure light came on briefly, then a loud knock/clank. In the final few yards off the road there was a loud clanking noise and the car was losing power.
We were out in the middle Idaho, near Burley. We had to have it towed to a place in Burley and pay for a hotel. The mechanic immediately said he thought it was a rod bearing and that it probably needed a whole new engine. So the following morning we had it towed to the nearest Honda dealership/service center (28 miles away in Twin Falls, ID). The mechanics there confirmed the diagnosis and said we needed a new engine.
Worried there was something wrong with the oil or the oil filter, we got a sample of the old engine's oil and the oil filter that was put on the day we left so they can be tested, but Honda did not think it likely that the oil or oil filter would have caused this.
Not only did it make us miss most of a sibling's wedding, we had to pay for hotels and were delayed from traveling home for an additional 5 days while they waited for the engine to arrive. It was about a $10K cost, all told--$8,411 of which was the Honda bill, almost $480 for the two tows, $200 for the first hotel, almost $600 for a rental car so we could continue our trip, and several other expenses along the way due to the delay.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
We were headed on a 900-mile road trip for a wedding and a family reunion. We've always stayed current on our oil changes and maintenance. The morning we were leaving we decided to get an oil change even though it wasn't due for another 1k miles. Had the place change the transmission fluid, oil, filters, etc. Eight hours into the drive we started to hear a little noise and immediately changed lanes and started to pull over. Before we were able to get off the freeway and come to a complete stop, the low oil pressure light came on briefly, then a loud knock/clank. In the final few yards off the road there was a loud clanking noise and the car was losing power.
We were out in the middle Idaho, near Burley. We had to have it towed to a place in Burley and pay for a hotel. The mechanic immediately said he thought it was a rod bearing and that it probably needed a whole new engine. So the following morning we had it towed to the nearest Honda dealership/service center (28 miles away in Twin Falls, ID). The mechanics there confirmed the diagnosis and said we needed a new engine.
Worried there was something wrong with the oil or the oil filter, we got a sample of the old engine's oil and the oil filter that was put on the day we left so they can be tested, but Honda did not think it likely that the oil or oil filter would have caused this.
Not only did it make us miss most of a sibling's wedding, we had to pay for hotels and were delayed from traveling home for an additional 5 days while they waited for the engine to arrive. It was about a $10K cost, all told--$8,411 of which was the Honda bill, almost $480 for the two tows, $200 for the first hotel, almost $600 for a rental car so we could continue our trip, and several other expenses along the way due to the delay.
- Heidi B., Portland, US