pwjazz
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- Thread starter
- #1
So, a couple of weeks ago I got my first scheduled maintenance. I took it to the dealer and was happy to learn that routine maintenance is free for a while - cool!
Well, a few days ago I'm prepping for my first track day and notice a little bit of oil on the valve cover, including around the filler neck. Guess someone got sloppy with the oil change, oh well. I wiped it off and didn't think much about it.
After my first round on the track, while checking things over, I noticed a little bit of oil on the valve cover again. I guess maybe I didn't get it all. Wipe it clean, oil level seems fine, so back out I go. I get back, and sure enough there's oil there again, and oh look, there's a crack!
So today, I took it to the dealer to get fixed, showed the service advisor exactly where the crack is. Five hours later, no call, so I call them. Their story - oh we're done, the junior tech doing my oil change must have just made a mess, tech cleaned it up, ran the engine and verified no leaking. Hmm, that's surprising, but I'll be happy to be wrong.
I show up, there's already oil on the valve cover again. I wipe it off, go for a 5 minute drive, check again, and hey, more oil, clearly coming out of the crack. Service advisor looks none too happy to see me when I demand to speak to a tech directly, gives me a sob story about what a busy day it's been for him and refuses to commit to getting me a tech in less than an hour. So I tell him fine, I'll just stand right here by your desk until I get a tech. Fortunately, in walks a tech 5 minutes later, I grab him, show him the valve cover and he says yup, that's cracked. He says it's in a weird spot, then says that maybe the guy doing the oil change accidentally dropped the oil gun on there.
Well, I finally got a mealy mouthed apology from the service advisor who mumbled something about having a talk with his techs. They've ordered a new valve cover and it should theoretically get fixed tomorrow.
So to recap what I think(?) happened:
- Honda choses to use a plastic valve cover probably for weight/cost/whatever. This is my first car with a plastic cover, but I didn't really think anything of it until now.
- Sloppy junior tech at Honda dealership makes a mess of my engine bay and accidentally cracks the valve cover.
- Lazy service advisor fails to advocate for fixing the broken valve cover even though I clearly pointed out the crack to him, wasting my time having to go back and show them their error.
- Finally I manage to talk to someone possibly(?) competent who can clearly see the issue and unsticks the process for me.
Part of why I bought this Civic as a new car was to have something I don't need to fuss over, and so that when I've got my nearly 20 year old Montero taken apart for whatever I'm fixing at this moment, I can still get around without having to borrow my wife's car. After this experience, I think my next purchase will have to be something gently used but old enough that I'm not dealing with dealer warranty service anymore, then either work on stuff myself, or take it to a competent mechanic when it's beyond my abilities. And I'll probably want something with a metal valve cover lol!
Well, a few days ago I'm prepping for my first track day and notice a little bit of oil on the valve cover, including around the filler neck. Guess someone got sloppy with the oil change, oh well. I wiped it off and didn't think much about it.
After my first round on the track, while checking things over, I noticed a little bit of oil on the valve cover again. I guess maybe I didn't get it all. Wipe it clean, oil level seems fine, so back out I go. I get back, and sure enough there's oil there again, and oh look, there's a crack!
So today, I took it to the dealer to get fixed, showed the service advisor exactly where the crack is. Five hours later, no call, so I call them. Their story - oh we're done, the junior tech doing my oil change must have just made a mess, tech cleaned it up, ran the engine and verified no leaking. Hmm, that's surprising, but I'll be happy to be wrong.
I show up, there's already oil on the valve cover again. I wipe it off, go for a 5 minute drive, check again, and hey, more oil, clearly coming out of the crack. Service advisor looks none too happy to see me when I demand to speak to a tech directly, gives me a sob story about what a busy day it's been for him and refuses to commit to getting me a tech in less than an hour. So I tell him fine, I'll just stand right here by your desk until I get a tech. Fortunately, in walks a tech 5 minutes later, I grab him, show him the valve cover and he says yup, that's cracked. He says it's in a weird spot, then says that maybe the guy doing the oil change accidentally dropped the oil gun on there.
Well, I finally got a mealy mouthed apology from the service advisor who mumbled something about having a talk with his techs. They've ordered a new valve cover and it should theoretically get fixed tomorrow.
So to recap what I think(?) happened:
- Honda choses to use a plastic valve cover probably for weight/cost/whatever. This is my first car with a plastic cover, but I didn't really think anything of it until now.
- Sloppy junior tech at Honda dealership makes a mess of my engine bay and accidentally cracks the valve cover.
- Lazy service advisor fails to advocate for fixing the broken valve cover even though I clearly pointed out the crack to him, wasting my time having to go back and show them their error.
- Finally I manage to talk to someone possibly(?) competent who can clearly see the issue and unsticks the process for me.
Part of why I bought this Civic as a new car was to have something I don't need to fuss over, and so that when I've got my nearly 20 year old Montero taken apart for whatever I'm fixing at this moment, I can still get around without having to borrow my wife's car. After this experience, I think my next purchase will have to be something gently used but old enough that I'm not dealing with dealer warranty service anymore, then either work on stuff myself, or take it to a competent mechanic when it's beyond my abilities. And I'll probably want something with a metal valve cover lol!
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