This is hard to believe but…the engine was making a freaky clicking noise. It started to getting a little louder and then the car suddenly lost acceleration on us. We took it in and the mechanic said that a spark plug broke off inside the cylinder and chewed things up badly. The threads in the block are bored out also. He states he can “band aid” it with some kit, but then recommends selling in and buying new. My question - Should I go that route or is engine replacement a better option? 90K miles, 6 years old. Not sure what engine replacement would cost but it is not $30K!
This is very strange - the idea of the plug braking & ending up in the cylinder & the notion that he could “band aid” it. If its just a matter of stripped spark plug thread those can be repaired, but presumably debris ended up inside of the engine? If debris from a broken plug ended up inside the engine then there is no band aid for that.
Who last changed your spark plugs? This is very strange.
Anyway, if I were you and if the van has been well cared for according to schedule I’d just price out a salvage yard engine for it and go that route.
The FIRST thing you need is a new mechanic…
Yes debris broke off and rattled around. We changed from a dealer shop mechanic to this one. We believe it was the original mechanic, a Honda dealership that did an oil change with 3 qts of oil! Cars maybe good, but dealership mechanics in North NJ are very suspect in my book now.
When was the last time your spark plugs were removed before this happened?
Any hard metal getting into the combustion chamber is NOT good.
Get the motor fixed or replaced with a used one.
This motor is not hard to find as its in very popular vehicles so the wrecking yard selection is excellent.
To make you feel slightly better you were already facing a $1000+ maintenance job(timing belt/spark plugs). Those Honda V6’s are nice but incredibly expensive to maintain around 100K.
Chaulk it up to bad luck.
I suspect that what he’s recommending is that he clean the debris out of the cylinder, replace the sparkplug threads with a hellicoil, get the motor running, and you trade the vehicle. The debris will probably have torn up the cylinder walls and his recommendation may be a good one. As a matter of fact it suonds like he’s already checked. If the walls are torn up the engine will always run poorly and will drink oil, and the oil burning will ruin your oxygen sensors and cat converter(s) repeatedly.
In short, the engine is history.
If the vehicle is otherwise in good shap, I’d look into replacing the block and head(s) with a rebuilt “long block”. It’ll be cheaper than trading. Ask him about this option.
I would say that it depends on the details behind this problem. Debris in the cylinder is not always an engine killer and if by band-aid he means a spark plug hole repair then that is not a band-air repair at all.
The only question would be if a piston was cracked (unlikely) or badly nicked up, cylinder wall gouged, or valve face/valve seat damaged.
The best thing to do is pull the cylinder head and take a good look before condemning the engine. A Bore Scope would work if he has one but removing the head would be far better and it’s not that hard to do.
80K, sparks were never touched to my knowledge. The plugs in the other cylinders show original equipment.
Thanks.
We used a scope on it. Hard to tell. THe helicoil was no use. The hole is now so big that the insert just fell into the head. I took pictures. Called Honda America. They assigned a case manager and want a dealership to look at it to assess a possible “goodwill repair” because it is out of warranty. From what I see in a Ody forum this is not the first time on a 2005-6 that this has happened. I will post when I get more info. Thanks to all.
Closing this out now. The dealership, district manager and Honda America negotiated a used engine replacement and we split the cost 50/50. I am good with that. The car runs well. There was no determination of what/why happened. But it was not normal and I think the deal is fair. After all it was out of warranty and had 89K miles on it.