Do not allow any misinformation about Honda being involved with this to influence what you do or do not do.
This is a dealer screwup pure and simple and Honda Motor Company is not going to provide any warranty or guarantee anything.
(I’ve only seen 2 instances of the corporate parent getting involved in repairing a dealer screwup. One was on a Subaru whose owner botched an oil change and it was discovered later by me that the service manager lied to Subaru of America about the cause. The other was on a VW botched crank seal repair (not our dealer and the tech failed to tighten the crank bolt properly which led to a destroyed crankshaft nose. No idea why VW decided to step in on this one; it was strictly an anomaly.)
Honda Motor Company will still be in around in 5 or 10 years. It’s a coin flip as to whether the dealer will be or not. If the dealer is still around with new owners then the new owners would be under no obligation to stand behind anything that occurred with the previous dealer.
It’s also very debateable even with the promises made they would stand behind a problem that may crop up in 10k, 30k miles, etc. Whose to say they would not claim a future problem on “normal wear and tear”, “oil changes not performed regularly enough”, etc.
I know what I would do if the car were mine. The oil pan would be off and some bearing caps dropped to allow inspection of the bearings; both rods and mains.
If copper underlayment is showing anywhere, there are grooves present, any bearing shows a scuffing in one particular area, etc. then I would want a new engine because the outlook for the long term is not good.
At this point the vehicle would be down until this matter is resolved but it’s better to sort it out now rather than fight it out later.
On a used car one could make the point that a good low miles used engine would be fine but a 1 year old car with a measly 8k miles is essentially a brand new vehicle IMHO and deserves a brand new engine.
Their offer is fair. Any damage will manifest itself LONG before 100,000 miles is driven. The FIRST parts to suffer damage would be the crankshaft bearings and an engine with damaged bearings will not last very long. A compression test, while helpful, is not definitive. Dropping the pan and inspecting a couple of the bearings would provide more information.
But again, if damage was done, it will manifest itself in a few weeks, not years. Take the car out for a 50 mile run at interstate speeds, do some full-throttle acceleration runs shifting at the red-line. THAT will force the issue if there is an issue…
I have used Blackstone Labs for a total of 8 times on my '07 Nissan Altima.
I have pulled a sample at each oil change, plus once at the 700 mile mark to see how the break in process was going, and if I should consider changing my oil due to “metal shavings” in the oil.
They are very fast with returning the results, as they email them directly to you.
I would recommend that the OP order a kit, pull an oil sample, and send it off to Blackstone.
I’m pretty sure this has come up on the Car Talk radio show at least once, and I remember Tom & Ray’s answer as being that you should get a third party to inspect the engine. “Every shop has bonehead insurance for situations like this,” I can hear Ray saying, and Shop #1 may be buying you a new engine. Shops don’t like to have to file claims though, because just like your insurance, they may get canceled or their rates may go up. So they’re trying to sweet talk you into a warranty that is cheap for them. A big danger, though, is that they may be out of business in two years when you need the warranty. I think I remember reading one estimate that 40% of existing dealers will vanish in this economic downturn. So if you’re going to need an engine, you want to get it now, while you can.
There are problems caused by running on low oil that my now show up until AFTER 100k. I tend to keep my vehicles well past 250k miles. I would NOT trust an engine that was run without oil for any length of time to last 250k miles. I would DEMAND a new engine.
My Dealer did have insurance for these type of things. If the mechanic was found to be responsible for the situation (by a internal kangaroo court) you had to pay the first $200.00.
We need to have either a teardown and inspection (paid for initally by the OP) or the OP must accept the Dealer offer.
Yesterday I finally resolved this situation.The engine had gotten a bit noisy lately,especially the first start up of the day.I negotiated a VERY GOOD trade in for a brand new 2009 Fit.Thanks again to everyone for your advice.