Bent connecting rods on 1.5t Hatchback

[fahmzhatch]

I have a sport touring hatch 6spd with 28xxx kms (17xxx miles) (picked up October 2019). It was making a loud knocking sound after getting off the highway one day (I was running the factory tune when it happened.) Ended up towing it to the dealer. A while later they tell me that rods 2&3 are bent & that the crankshaft had 2mm of play. Of course they are giving me a hard time & don't want to cover it under warranty. They say it is not a defect of the motor. The car was FBO at one point but I always revert it back to stock for the winters as it is my daily (& no I do not track the car). I did also notice that my oil smelled like fuel yet they said that was irrelevant. Changed oil at regular intervals with amsoil.

Any advice as to what I could do about this? Any repair options? Could I fight warranty for this issue?

pics below.

 

[ayau]

Bent rods? How much power were you running? Custom tune?

If you were tuned at some point, the ECU is going to show that. Chances of getting this covered under warranty is very low. You can try contacting Honda directly and see if they will cover this as a one-time nice gesture.

 

[gtman]

Sorry to hear this.

Having run the tuning reliability survey for a while, I know that most 1.5T's do very well even tuned without issues. I checked and your car is not part of the survey thread.

So here are my questions:

Are you tuned? What tune?

What are your full bolt ons? (For some FBO setups, you really need a custom tune)

What is your driving style? Have you ever misshifted?

Generally speaking you have to push it extremely hard to bend connecting rods. As far as the smell of gas, that's normal on a DI engine, and without testing doesn't prove you had bad oil dilution.

Edit: I checked some of your old posts and at one point you asked about rolling anti lag and a pop crackle tune. That suggests to me there may be more than meets the eye here.

Fill in the details for the community if you can. Thank you. And again, sorry this happened.

 

[fahmzhatch]

Bent rods? How much power were you running? Custom tune?

If you were tuned at some point, the ECU is going to show that. Chances of getting this covered under warranty is very low. You can try contacting Honda directly and see if they will cover this as a one-time nice gesture.

I was running the Ktuner 19/21. I tried contacting them however they said the dealership does not want to cover it. They told me to try another dealership.

 

[ayau]

I was running the Ktuner 19/21. I tried contacting them however they said the dealership does not want to cover it. They told me to try another dealership.

Dealerships don’t decide to cover something or not. It’s up to Honda to decide that. Are you saying Honda has denied your warranty claim?

 

[fahmzhatch]

Sorry to hear this.

Having run the tuning reliability survey for a while, I know that most 1.5T's do very well even tuned without issues. I checked and your car is not part of the survey thread.

So here are my questions:

Are you tuned? What tune?

What are your full bolts ons?

What is your driving style? Have you ever missshifted?

Generally speaking you have to push it extremely hard to bend connecting rods. As far as the smell of gas, that's normal on a DI engine, and without testing doesn't prove you had bad oil dilution.

Edit: I checked some of your old posts and at one point you asked about rolling anti lag. That suggests to me, there may be more than meets the eye here.

Yes I was curious about rolling antilag, however I later realized how bad it was for our cars & lost interest pretty quickly.

I was tuned on Ktuner 19/21 base map.

Boltons:
FKX catless dp/fp
27WON intercooler & charge pipes
PRL SRI
27WON turbo inlet pipe
Mishi catch can
invidia R400

Never miss shifted. I average about 30 mpg. Handful of highway pulls with friends but again it is my daily.

 

[fahmzhatch]

Dealerships don’t decide to cover something or not. It’s up to Honda to decide that. Are you saying Honda has denied your warranty claim?

Thats what I was told on the phone (regarding the dealerships decision). There wasn't much data on the car as I had only recently flashed the car back to stock. They said it wasn't a "defect" of the engine. They said they had someone from honda techline look at the car.

 

[hobby-man]

Ktuner has beat the living hell out of their test cars so I'm inclined to say it's not the tune.

In these situations it usually comes down to abuse/neglect or bad luck. Maybe you had a weak/borderline engine to start with and tuning sent it over the edge. Regardless, you were tuned so you might have a hard time getting anything covered under warranty.

 

[fahmzhatch]

Ktuner has beat the living hell out of their test cars so I'm inclined to say it's not the tune.

In these situations it usually comes down to abuse/neglect or bad luck. Maybe you had a weak/borderline engine to start with and tuning sent it over the edge. Regardless, you were tuned so you might have a hard time getting anything covered under warranty.

Agreed, that's why I was confused lol. Especially with mileage this low.

 

[gtman]

Water under the bridge here but once you go that deep with the bolt ons, dialing in the right settings with a custom tune is key. Not just for power output, but to get things like fuel trims in line.

 

[hobby-man]

Agreed, that's why I was confused lol. Especially with mileage this low.

Not sure where in Ontario you are but if you end up needing to rebuild the engine, or want to swap it for an L15B7 from an Si, I can put you in contact with a guy. He's top notch.

 

[fahmzhatch]

Water under the bridge here but once you go that deep with the bolt ons, dialing in the right settings with a custom tune is key. Not just for power output, but to get things like fuel trims in line.

Yeah I always thought about it but didn't want to push the car as I was happy with the power. But you're right thanks for the input

 

[fahmzhatch]

Not sure where in Ontario you are but if you end up needing to rebuild the engine, or want to swap it for an L15B7 from an Si, I can put you in contact with a guy. He's top notch.

I am located in Ottawa. That would be great. Im not looking to spend too much as Im a student with tuition to pay still hahah

 

[DRUSA]

Dealerships don’t decide to cover something or not. It’s up to Honda to decide that. Are you saying Honda has denied your warranty claim?

Not entirely true. We are all franchise dealers, when warranty is performed the dealer is doing the repair and Honda is reimbursing the dealer back for the repair. If we feel that Honda will deny the reimbursement claim (the warranty repair) we can chose to not do the work. In most cases we will contact our district manager for approval on these cases. The dealers have a "cover their ass" policy on warranty work, if they think they may not get paid on a $6000 engine repair, they are at zero loss by telling you no.

Your best course of action is to appeal to Honda corp and get the district manager (DPSM) involved for 100% covered or even a partial warranty deal. Every claim is on a case by case basis, so you won't know your outcome until you ask.

 

[ivanCivix]

Sorry about that, what kind of fuel?

Can you specific your exact configuration in ktuner? Like early spool and other quick enables too.

Good luck

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