Valve cover gasket leaking on '17 Type R

aldksgo

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I’ve seen too many stories of people having damaged hoses and things not being put back where they should, at this point I don’t even want it covered under warranty
I got mine done last year.

Upon receiving the car, CEL was present (I'm modded and tuned, but had no present lights to begin with). Found out they forgot to plug in one of the solenoids when putting the car back together. No big deal.. happens I guess.. although they would've surely seen the code when moving my car from the bay to the pickup.

A week or two later I'm on a cruise with with miss, and I decide to do a 3rd gear pull on the on ramp. I get choking/backfires at the top of the gear, and immediately I know something is up. On the way back I decide to log and do it again, and instantly get a CEL with a code on my hondata showing cylinder 4 misfire as expected.

Long story short now since re-writing this pisses me off, I go to a buddy's house and check out the plugs as two weeks PRIOR to getting it serviced for the valve cover gasket leak, I had gapped down my plugs as per tuner request. To my utter disgust, as we inspect cylinder 3 and 4 (1 and 2 clean and dry), the coil packs are dirty and have some dried residue, dirt, and BLUE. Plugs 3 and 4 are SOAKED with coolant, still able to wipe away with a cloth. It was all over the plugs, dried up on the coil packs, and deep down the wells/chamber.

Cleaned it as best as we could, and haven't had misfires since. However when bringing it up to the dealership who did it out of "good will" because I was modded, they said they never touched that and don't know how coolant got into the wells.

SO, that's my story. Make sure to check your car after getting warranty work. These scumbags decided to leave a bunch of things unchecked and if my theory is true (coolant hose right beside cyl 3 and 4), spilled coolant when replacing the valve cover (taking out coil packs) and decided to give the car back in this condition.

Honda Civic 10th gen Valve cover gasket leaking on '17 Type R socket_well_cleanu


Honda Civic 10th gen Valve cover gasket leaking on '17 Type R coolant_plugs


Honda Civic 10th gen Valve cover gasket leaking on '17 Type R socket_coolant


Honda Civic 10th gen Valve cover gasket leaking on '17 Type R spark_plug_cylinder_4


Honda Civic 10th gen Valve cover gasket leaking on '17 Type R cylinder_3_4


Honda Civic 10th gen Valve cover gasket leaking on '17 Type R coilpack
 

Tev42

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yikes man, sorry to see that, I hope the worst is behind you. Definitely just gonna replace it myself if the problem gets worse
 

askro

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I never understood why technicians would take a shortcut on a warranty job, they still get paid the same.... or am I wrong???
 

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How many miles have you got and are you driving in cold weather trying to figure out what could be the cause and thanks for the pic
I think in my posting above, I mention 5.5k miles. I’m driving in the cold weather, but I’ve had this car since Memorial Day last year so I have no idea when this started and have driven in all conditions. I just happened to stumble across this when I was doing my oil change.
 

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I’m local to Dublin too! Hopefully I see you around the streets. The Dublin dealership is god awful tho. I will not go there for sales/service unless I need something simple from the parts guy. I go to Elton at Oakland or Drew in Serramonte for warranty / installs
Good to know. I have a friend who recommended somebody on the Dublin staff. (Jessica I think) when I talked to her and arranged the service through her, she seemed pretty sharp. The others though, I’m not quite sure about. I try to run through Niles canyon when I can so maybe I’ll see your car around the area.
 


aldksgo

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yikes man, sorry to see that, I hope the worst is behind you. Definitely just gonna replace it myself if the problem gets worse
I'd recommend that or go to a place where you know other Type Rs have had theirs replaced with no issues for sure.

I never understood why technicians would take a shortcut on a warranty job, they still get paid the same.... or am I wrong???
Exactly what I'm thinking. Have they no pride in their work? It's an absolute embarrassment it got to this point. After contacting them and them telling me they swear they didn't mess this up and to remember they did it out of "goodwill" because I'm modded, I don't think that's an excuse for the terrible quality of work. Everyday I think about this encounter I get mad all over again.
 

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I'd recommend that or go to a place where you know other Type Rs have had theirs replaced with no issues for sure.



Exactly what I'm thinking. Have they no pride in their work? It's an absolute embarrassment it got to this point. After contacting them and them telling me they swear they didn't mess this up and to remember they did it out of "goodwill" because I'm modded, I don't think that's an excuse for the terrible quality of work. Everyday I think about this encounter I get mad all over again.
Are you sure it was coolant? I ask because plugs 3 and 4 are the ones that are notorious for collecting rainwater if you park outside frequently. Could have been a totally separate issue.
 

stariq812

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I think in my posting above, I mention 5.5k miles. I’m driving in the cold weather, but I’ve had this car since Memorial Day last year so I have no idea when this started and have driven in all conditions. I just happened to stumble across this when I was doing my oil change.
I am at 5K and I got mine around the end of May, oil change is due soon havent changed the factory fill so will definitely check. Dont see any residue on the back of the valve cover. Thanks for sharing and responding
 

boosted180sx

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I never understood why technicians would take a shortcut on a warranty job, they still get paid the same.... or am I wrong???
they dont get paid the same for a warranty job as they would if it was a regular job.
they only flag 1/2 iirc of what they would usually get if its warranty work.
 
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samji

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they dont get paid the same for a warranty job as they would if it was a regular job.
they only flag 1/2 iirc of what they would usually get if its warranty work.
I did not know this... This explains why most warranty work I've done has been so shitty.

I have creaks and buzzing sounds in the cabin and now this oil leak issue. At this point I'm too scared to bring it into any dealers as I haven't heard about one good Honda dealership in the Bay Area (I've heard places like Anderson Honda is good for sales but never hear anything about the service department).
 

aldksgo

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Are you sure it was coolant? I ask because plugs 3 and 4 are the ones that are notorious for collecting rainwater if you park outside frequently. Could have been a totally separate issue.
My car is garage parked all the time. You can see the blue coolant on the plug, and on the spark plug socket.
 

DRUSA

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they dont get paid the same for a warranty job as they would if it was a regular job.
they only flag 1/2 iirc of what they would usually get if its warranty work.
Correct. Warranty work does NOT pay the same. It varies for every job and model.

Most all technicians are paid on flat-rate, it's like commission. Every job has a labor time assigned to it. During the course of a day you work on several cars doing several jobs and add up all your times. Brakes could pay 1.4 hours, a transmission could pay 6.7 hours, you add up all these jobs. You are only paid this amount for the job. If it takes you 20 minutes to do the brakes, you still get paid 1.4hours, if it takes you 4 hours to do the brakes you still only get paid 1.4 hours.

At the end of the pay period, they take your grand total and multiply it by your hourly pay rate your boss agrees to pay you and that's your paycheck.

Warranty work pays less, much less. In this case, a valve cover gasket for a FK8 pays 0.9hr only. Out of warranty work we can make up our own labor rate that is fair or refer to 3rd party labor guides, usually 140% of warranty time.
 

DRUSA

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I did not know this... This explains why most warranty work I've done has been so shitty.

I have creaks and buzzing sounds in the cabin and now this oil leak issue. At this point I'm too scared to bring it into any dealers as I haven't heard about one good Honda dealership in the Bay Area (I've heard places like Anderson Honda is good for sales but never hear anything about the service department).
Full disclosure here: We do not get paid for noise/rattle cars if we can't find anything wrong. 90% of my test drives cannot duplicate the issue on a basic test drive, even with the customer in the car with me. While not getting paid, I can only allocate about 20 minutes of my time to a noise issue. If I can't hear the noise that "I always hear" within a 10 mile test drive under various loads and conditions, I gotta send it on it's way. Videos of the noise helps A LOT, having you in the car with me helps even more.

I've had people cuss me out on test drives over rattle concerns only to point out it was their sunglasses in the overhead bin, or a dozen golf balls in the glovebox etc. What is even worse is when we have to compare to a new car only to find out they all make the noise, "characteristic of the vehicle, vehicle is performing to manufacturer specifications at this time".
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