Blown Engine "Fear Factor"

How concerned are you that you could blow your engine?

  • Not at all. My car in invincible.

  • A little bit. The blown engine topics worry me a bit.

  • Concerned. I know I'm pushing things.

  • Very concerned. Not sure if I should stay tuned.

  • Scared shitless and plan on going back to stock.


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Brays18SI

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I was scared at first when I put on the 19.5/23 ktuner basemap but after a weekend at the track running the 20 psi going full throttle for pretty much 30 minutes straight for 6 sessions the car took everything in stride and felt completely normal. If you don’t do stupid shit your engine will last, simple.
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a c i d.f l y

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Seeing reports of tuned vehicles running hard, I mean very, very hard, track time, and seeing no loss in parity or performance over long periods of time, and long distances, I'm not at all concerned with the current platform.

Engines have the potential to shit a brick, but we're not seeing that at all, at least with folks who know the expected hp/tq limits. You're more likely to burn out a clutch than have a rod pop through the bottom end.

It's a Honda.
 

Kmbradley87

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If your scared to modify a car, your likely in the wrong place. If you want a car that will last as long as a stock Civic and has no aftermarket companies to complain about, I'm sure you'd look great in a new Corolla!
 
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gtman

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Seems to me there are more KTuners/Flashpros popping up in the classifieds here than I ever remember before. I wonder how many are being sold due to recent posts about tuning and engine/transmission problems.

Random screenshot from today's classifieds forum:

Honda Civic 10th gen Blown Engine "Fear Factor" IMG_20190908_193915
 
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joshhjackson2112

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Seems to me there are more KTuners/Flashpros popping up in the classifieds here than I ever remember before. I wonder how many are being sold due to recent posts about tuning and engine/transmission problems.

Random screenshot from today's classifieds forum:

IMG_20190908_193915.jpg
If I'm selling my ktuner and mods, I'm selling the whole damn car with it. Car is just no good without it. Worth the mild risk. I know I drive my car carefully and with respect. I'm not gonna let these blown motor threads bug me anymore!
 


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gtman

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If I'm selling my ktuner and mods, I'm selling the whole damn car with it. Car is just no good without it. Worth the mild risk. I know I drive my car carefully and with respect. I'm not gonna let these blown motor threads bug me anymore!
I wouldn't say the car is no good without a tune. But, once you're tuned, going back to the stock tune is a real letdown.
 

dallasjhawk

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Seems to me there are more KTuners/Flashpros popping up in the classifieds here than I ever remember before. I wonder how many are being sold due to recent posts about tuning and engine/transmission problems.

Random screenshot from today's classifieds forum:

IMG_20190908_193915.jpg
probably has 0 to do with it. when you have over 10,000 users on your platform, there are always going to be people selling. This is year 4 of this platform as well. lots of people are probably just moving on to newer cars since most people keep cars 3-5 years.
 

theblackdogman

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Ok...

source (1).gif


If basemaps were blowing up cars left and right... then that would make for pretty convincing argument that the product comes with high risk and would likely cause poor(er) sales. It behooves the makers of the tuning devices to provide a product with software that makes a noticeable difference to the end-user so they feel it's money well spent... while not damaging cars to scare off more potential customers. You can say that Ktuner/Hondata aren't liable for damages so all they care about is selling units but if there were cars dead left and right... then the community would not recommend their products. These forums and our generally positive experiences we share are free advertising. It's a small niche market and car product companies are made... or broken on their reputation or the changing tides of things.. Want to see how things can go south for a product? Look at BOV makers or Injen intakes. Bad experiences make for the community recommend against them. It's a fickle business. Even the change to going from N/A to Turbo shook things up. CT Engineering folded after making SCers for 8th and 9th gen Civics and the original NSX. No more NA Civics Sis or NSX... their market collapsed.

Hondata and Ktuner have been pretty transparent about the basemaps… but also about how there is more advanced functionality that can be detrimental to the car. They chose to provide the functionality anyways. One can modify boost targets... timing... fuel trims... any quick enable... any quick adjustment... use anti-lag... use advanced VSA... use whatever concentration of ethanol when running flex-fuel... to their hearts content and possibly to the detriment of their cars.

In my experience, the folks at Ktuner are somewhat free on information about their devices and basic tuning theory but are tight with recommending certain courses of action when making any adjustment off a basemap. They sold a wide-open unlocked item that can let you make adjustments that should be done with someone who's knowledgeable in making the changes and has the ability to analyze the affect of those changes to ensure they are safe for long-term use. They don't freely give very specific tuning advice to novices who neither know really what they changing or how know whether what they changed was good for the car or not. They say the basemaps are safe based on in-house testing... willing beta testers... and based on good history afterwards with it out in the wild... beyond that, you're on your own for the most part.

Even on a basemap… you're out of bounds so far as warranty is concerned to me and you'd better be ready to come out-of-pocket for repairs. That's the way it's always been. If you get Honda to cover a car who's powertrain was damaged due to... or even just in the course of having a tune... you're lucky. If you need to maintain your warranty because you can't afford to pay to play... then you should play it safe and stay stock. 99% of the eventual ~2 million CIvicXs will probably remain stock from the day they're bought to the day they're crushed for scrap. If you're here and looking at reflashing it... congratulations... you're an advanced user.

It's an enthusiast forum... a few really (and I mean really) know what they're doing. Some (and I'd like to group myself in with this group) have a general idea... have read a lot and asked questions and can make some sense of out of things but have neither the experience or tools to be very effective... but are here largely for the experience. Some know next to nothing but jump in anyways and stay in bounds. Some jump in knowing next to nothing and tinker where they shouldn't.

Honda won't willingly warranty a modified car they can prove that the modifications caused the damage... even if they can make a passing assumption it caused the damage. Why would a company selling a product to cause modifications to a vehicle's software and who has zero control of what that customer does to either the software, given it's open-ended nature... or control of how the end user uses their car...? There are some dealers that'll do Hondata locked down tunes... like APR plus tunes will do a light-end tune through a dealer. They are .. again, locked down and don't allow you to do any amount of customization which gets a lot of people in trouble because they can't help themselves. Remember as well... the recent failure was not done on a basemap. This was done while on a 3rd party locked reflash. Ktuner basemap was not involved. Why would Ktuner be liable for any tune any other entity developed and put on a car... with any number of other products added on top of it? I bet if they could get in and do locked basemaps through Honda dealers and there was a buck to be made and hold the warranty... they'd go for it and I'd congratulate them at opening the door to more business.

@mikey003 ... I understand you're taking on the role of the person "against"... but we're talking about grown ass people making decisions to modify something based on a want... and not a need. There's consequences to our choices in life. Risks that are taken to achieve them. If folks weren't willing to accept the consequences of their actions, they shouldn't have taken the risk. Being ignorant of the risk... or being one unlucky person in a hundred or a thousand isn't an excuse either. No one's making anyone buy a tuner and reflash their car... and badgering a person selling a product as not taking responsibility for any and all consequences for actions they largely have no control over isn't presenting a good argument. Honda will duck and dodge warranty claims as they see fit too. Anyone modifying a car should know they may be up shit creek without a warranty.

If your taking up the banner of defending grown ass people who make choices and don't like their outcomes and expect to get bailed out... well... you're going to find this world exhausting.
Statement of the day! "If your taking up the banner of defending grown ass people who make choices and don't like their outcomes and expect to get bailed out... well... you're going to find this world exhausting."
 

KTuner

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Seems to me there are more KTuners/Flashpros popping up in the classifieds here than I ever remember before. I wonder how many are being sold due to recent posts about tuning and engine/transmission problems.
Doubt it is related. Seeing 10 for sale is way less than .01% of the total registered CivicX members.
 
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gtman

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Bringing this old topic back to life. When I wrote this 3.5 years ago we didn't know that the hatchbacks had the weaker rods. How are you tuned hatchback guys feeling these days? Feel free to take the poll!

Side note: It was soon after I started this thread that I came up with the idea for the Tuned CivicX Experience & Reliabilty Thread. Well, back then I called it a "survey".

Also after going back and looking at the poll numbers and posts in this thread, this place sure used to be a lot livelier. :D
 
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Longislandcivic

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If it happens, it happens. I'm at 85k, and I ve had unturned cars break engines and transmissions before. I don't baby my car at all, so I'm certainly getting my money's worth.
 

charleswrivers

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Bringing this old topic back to life. When I wrote this 3.5 years ago we didn't know that the hatchbacks had the weaker rods. How are you tuned hatchback guys feeling these days? Feel free to take the poll!

Side note: It was soon after I started this thread that I came up with the idea for the Tuned CivicX Experience & Reliabilty Thread. Well, back then I called it a "survey".

Also after going back and looking at the poll numbers and posts in this thread, this place sure used to be a lot livelier. :D
It did used to be a bit more Wild West when we didn’t know much about the cars.

I think you’re seeing a lot of the first owners come and go and the 2nd owner crowd doing a lot of lurking of our old posts. I don’t know this for sure, but I’d bet the site gets more non-member traffic just poking through old stuff that it did back in 2016-2018 when the original owners were creating accounts and chatting a lot.

Edit: I just looked and the site has a 43 member to 1371 ratio of members to non-members/guests. Over a thousand lurkers when they should be watching Saturday morning cartoons.
 
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gtman

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Oh no doubt Charles. Or some newly tuned guy will ask a question get an answer and leave the forum for good (go back to lurking). I've contemplated closing my tuning thread numerous times recently because no one I ask adds their car anymore. I barely get one every couple months when I've asked them to join in.

Another example. A guy asks a million tuning questions and people here help them with answers. I'll ask the guy to "give back" to the community by adding their car to my tuning thread and it's crickets.

I'll readily admit I'm old and old school but still, it's kind of messed up.

Sorry for the vent.
 

Bootleg Bill

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Engine blowing up nah but the CVT blowing up more worried about that especially running ethanol🤧 but I do try to keep everything low especially when I see the k.con hit atleast 0.70 after a pull still worries me or especially trans.temp.
 

charleswrivers

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Oh no doubt Charles. Or some newly tuned guy will ask a question get an answer and leave the forum for good (go back to lurking). I've contemplated closing my tuning thread numerous times recently because no one I ask adds their car anymore. I barely get one every couple months when I've asked them to join in.

Another example. A guy asks a million tuning questions and people here help them with answers. I'll ask the guy to "give back" to the community by adding their car to my tuning thread and it's crickets.

I'll readily admit I'm old and old school but still, it's kind of messed up.

Sorry for the vent.
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