Me, Honda, and PepBoys. A story.

[BuudWeizErr]

So some of you remember that little rainstorm that SoCal had a few weeks ago. Some guys in suits who I've never heard of said it was the biggest storm of the year. Anyway, that day was a Saturday, and it happened to be my sisters 16th birthday. My mom is teaching my sister to drive on my Accord because the Accord is my sisters when she gets her license. So the plan for the day is for my mom to go with my sister to some point outside of LA then have my mom take over the wheel, do a little shopping in LA, drive home a little, then switch it up again for my sister to get some experience.

Apparently, they made it to and from LA fine. The water wasn't a real problem. At some point on the ride home, they decided that they needed to stop at the Montclair mall to get that one last morsel of shopping in before the ride home. The story is that they made a turn, and the car died for no apparent reason. No noises, no shakes, just died, like it was turned off. So, it won't turn on. Mom calls AAA. AAA genious says that it's the battery, which, duh, it's not, and since I'm not there, I can't tell this lamebrain that he is wrong. So they tow the car to PepBoys to get a battery. Car doesn't start. Big suprise. So they put it on the rack and do some test on the car. They decide that it's the starter. Semi-believable, but I still doubted it. Car doesn't start. They don't know whats going on, and I have to get my mom, my sister, and her friend home somehow. So I have the car towed to my friends house a couple miles from Montclair, and I drive about 60 miles to pick them up, in my 240 (yeah, it was packed). The weather was still atrocious at this time. So I gave my friend the keys and told him to check it out the following day, when the weather cleared (my friend has a 12 second Z31, so I trust him about car stuff). Before I get into the good stuff, I was a little suprised when I opened the door into my car. My starter was sitting on the driver side floorboard, and the filter part of my air filter was sitting on my passenger floorboard. The filter section had been ripped off the base somehow and left on the floorboard. Ripped in half... why? who knows.

Anyway, on to what we found after a short time looking at the engine:

Yeah, that's a giant hole in the block where the #1 cylinder is. Why it decided to blow out? Who knows. No water in the oil, no water in the cylinder, oil wasn't low. We'll have to wait till we pull the engine out to find out.

On that note, I will never buy another Honda ever again. There was no reason for this to happen, it's unexplainable. I hear everyone say it'll last forever, well.. no it won't. And also, I will never spend another cent at PepBoys. Why they didn't feel the need to put stuff back on that they took off, I don't know. And breaking the air filter is still a mystery.

But whatever. All stuff for my SR has been put on hold... and I am now daily driving it. I don't like doing that.

[BuudWeizErr]

Couple more pics:

[daniel240]

your damn right about pep-boys. f**k them, i hate them more than anything. me and my dad, and all my friends have had so many problems with them. my problem, i ordered a set of A. racing wheels for my S10 there. they cam in and the dumbasses orders 3 15' 5 lug and one 14' 4 lug. my dads been screwed over so many times by them and my friends had 3 clutches put in by them because they just mysteriously keep going out. my friend went in there and said the guy putting in his clutch was wearing a Tshirt and jeans and everyone else was in uniform. and he was asking everyone where things were and he had no clue what the hell he was doing. my friend got his car back the third clutch, and it wouldnt start. well it was because the battery wasnt hooked up, but they didnt think so so they gladdly gave him a new battery. also when they took his car in, they cracked his front bumper and broke his brand new under lights. well a week later his car died so he took it back and they said he needed a new water pump. well he got that put in and two days later his engine blows up. and they wouldnt pay for it. so he took it somewhere else and they said the water pump was not put on right at all and wasnt even the right size. well ive got many more storries about that place but not enough time to tell them.

[240Kuminachu]

They drove thru a lake.

[BuudWeizErr]

Honda isn't lowered, they didn't drive through a lake, try again.

[Dano]

They drove thru a lake.

WTF?...........OOOK.... :rolleyes

BUDD.....SORRY TO HEAR MAN!!!! thats weird how everything happened!!! and sorry u have to drive the 240 daily...keep us posted if u find out why that cylinder blew out. Best of luck to ya!

-Dan

[stretch240sx]

man that sucks...

i cant stand pep boys... i have and never will take my car to them, they are the home depot of cars. they have poeple there that know nothing of cars.

so your sister just turned 16.... j/k

i would drop by pep boys and tell em to get you a new filter

[nlzmo400r]

yea, pep boys is crap, my friend goes there every now and then, and whenever they put stuff on his car, he has to drive it to my house so i can do it right ,its a pain, someone should keep qualified workers at pepboys, they are nothing but a bunch of drop outs who couldnt do anything else but change oil, and that makes them a qualified technician

[Cyberkreig]

wow, bad bad luck. Who ever heard of just driving along doing some daily stuff and blowing a chunk of your block off? It was probably faulted from day 1.. Hey, at least be glad it didnt die on the highway in traffic with such a young driver behind the wheel.. could have been much much worse..

[MasterMan]

does it have a cold air intake? if it sucked up some water it could do that i would guess.. kinda a long shot tho.. man that sucks..

oh yea got any pix of your sis

[BuudWeizErr]

No pics of my sister. You can go to jail if you'd like now.

Yes, I have a CAI, but the car isn't lowered, and the water would have had to be up to my headlight for it to suck enough water in. Plus there is no water in the cylinders, so I don't know.

[Stock-S13]

well i wouldnt be illegal for me =), but yeah that sucks ryan..Now as far as the transmission thing ill be able to go for it in April, 1st or 2nd week.. i have to raise money,back to mooching off rides for me.. yeah i have to call planet nissan for that TO bearing and Pilot bushing tommarow... so dont get rid of that transmission..and if your friend can get them cheaper let me know as long as there OEM parts ill be cool i also need a Oil filter as well so give me a price and ill compare..

Edgar

[Syntax360]

I took my old DSM to them once and wanted to have the AC belt put back on cause the kid who had it b4 me took it off. They came back and asked if I wanted a power steering belt installed too. I told them the car didn't have power steering, they said it did, i said whatever, do it, and after about half an hour of listening to the guy tell his boss or whoever that he didn't know how to install the belt, i walkd to the car and showed him the tensoner (the who idea was for them to do it faster than i could cause i wanted it done quick) and he said ok, but he didn't know where the AC belt went. After another 30 minutes, he came back and said he couldn't get the power steering belt on and didn't know *where* the ac belt went. Me and my friend laughed and asked him to show us the power steering pump. The car did *not* have power steering, regardless of how many "technicians" (about 3) said it did. We laughed and went back to my house and installed the A/C belt ourselves.

[nametakennow]

I knew there was some subconscious reason to my dislike for Pep Boys...

[MainEvent212]

can i see pics of ur sister? i'm only 16...

i just wanna see what she looks like...really!

wait nvm ur in cali anyways...i'd only use her to get to ur sweet 240 anyways... :-\ i got a girl *snaps fingers* darnit

[88accordlxcarb]

Hello.

That engine looks like A20 engine off of the 86-89 accord. Am I correct? If not an early 90's accord? I happen to have one of these great cars. This engine, along with all of the accord engines has been proven to be some of the toughest and best engines on the market. The fact that you are bashing all Hondas because of one problem is not acceptable. Now I tend to agree with you about pep-boys, or most "shop" mechanics for that matter. The only way to keep any car running more than 200,000 or 300,000 miles (same engine) is to fix it yourself.

I have a 1988 Accord LX, with an A20 engine in it. My car currently has around 185,000 miles on the original engine. I know someone, actually more like 5 or 6 people that have well over 300,000 miles on their "3gee". I know one person that has 650,000 miles on the original engine, and still drives it 80+ miles to work etc.

I know Honda as cars get bashed quite often; also they are called "rice-burners" quite often too. The fact is the engine behind the Honda is far from under par. I would like to make this board aware of a test done by a person I know who has one of these cars. He took a 45mm gun and shot a round into the engine compartment of the car. Then got in the car, and preceded to drive the car. Not only did the car run, but ran up to 100MPH with out fault. After returning home he found that 2 shots hit the carburetor, one shot hit the power steering well. Other shots went into the air filter, and the valve cover of the car.

I am sorry if I come pissed, but when people bash an entire car and company because of one mishap need to sort out their thinking.

Also I must point out, that engine looks like it has been run though a lake, dropped in a pile of cow ****, then run over with a 18-wheeler. I don’t think I have seen one that dirty before. You know it’s amazing what an hour of work will do to a car. I am not sure who does the work to your car (or if you do) but I would seriously suggest changing. I am not all surprised that something did happen.

Treat your car with respect and it will respect you.

Jason

[BuudWeizErr]

88,

That's an F22A1, 4th gen LX.

Quote »The fact that you are bashing all Hondas because of one problem is not acceptable.[/quote]The fact that you are telling me what to say is unacceptable, how you like that? I don't care if you have friends that drove your Hondas past 500K. I don't care if your car has 214398732984732498327498 miles on it. The fact remains that this POS threw a rod at 160K.

Quote »Also I must point out, that engine looks like it has been run though a lake, dropped in a pile of cow ****, then run over with a 18-wheeler. I don’t think I have seen one that dirty before. You know it’s amazing what an hour of work will do to a car. I am not sure who does the work to your car (or if you do) but I would seriously suggest changing[/quote]Hehehe.

Apparently you aren't aware that the engine threw a rod. I'd say most of that oil was there beforehand, but a lof of oil came out during all the times that they tried cranking it. Plus, I'm sure a fair amount of oil came out when the hole blew out. As far as taking care of it. I do know how to take care of cars. The car got regular oil changes, had transmission flushed about 10K ago. Please also remember what I said... it was raining. A small amount of water getting on the engine and mating with even a minimal amount of dirt will create something that resembles sludge. One other note: dirt/grease on an engine block does not affect whats going on on the inside, unless it's like layered on there.

So please, take your assumptions somewhere else. Also, please STFU, kthx.

[88accordlxcarb]

Ha you are funny.

nuff said

Jason

[Holisticbeatz]

I'm gunna start a crew, Team Pep Boys Racing

[Onizuka]

I'm gunna start a crew, Team Pep Boys Racing

OOOOOO, can i join??? I want to street race so bad and put vinal stickers all over my car (I will continue to beat this joke until everyone is sick of hearing it )

[lessthanjakejohn]

personally, I like vinyl more.

[Josh]

My freind to his truck to a local Toyota dealer to get the brakes changed and they ran it into a wall. Said the brakes were bad... Hmmm... Yeah, I think they're about ****ing idiots. Well, he got them to pay for the damages (close to $1000 i believe) so that wasnt to bad... And I'm sure he won't take it there anymore.

As for saying Honda's can get 500k miles, so what? My work has a Dodge trcuk with over 600k miles on it (yes, a Dodge). Anything can last for a long time if it is taken care of. But the fact is, almost all the people on this board hate Hondas, and one Honda throwing a rod for no apperent reason is just more of a reason. Hell, a Honda throwing a rod because of complete lack of care, maintainance, and 600,000+ miles is another reason for me ; )

Oh yeah, my engine is pretty dirty from the middle down, but for some reason it still runs good.... Kinda odd.

[slw240sx]

that motor looks fairly clean from what i can tell other then all the oil on it above the pan, where im sure plenty was shooting out when it threw the rod! the pan gasket area has no sludge on it and the pan itself is rather clean !!

[Holisticbeatz]

Yea, what's up with the Honda hating/bashing? Not all Hondas are bad. We can all agree that there are a few bad apples that ruin the bunch.

[BuudWeizErr]

I have a reason not to like Hondas now.

[240_Keyy]

my wife's honda has about 120k miles on it and it is nice. Oh well, maybe yours just sucks

Perhaps you should be glad that it was your pos honda that threw a rod and not your not so POS SR

[BuudWeizErr]

Perhaps you should be glad that it was your pos honda that threw a rod and not your not so POS SR

blasphemy!

The Honda was only mine for another couple months. Why couldn't it have happened later on? GRRRR.

[240_Keyy]

lol

Don't worry bud, god hates me too

[Nismo1182]

I used to own a 93 civic before and i beat the crap out of that car every single day. It had 165k miles when I got hit, but it ran like a champ. Hell, it still ran after my accident, only thing that stopped it from moving was a transmission split in 2 pieces. My friends 96 civic hatch did the same thing your accord did. It broke a small hole in the block for no reason at all. It has 140k miles btw. He ran the car hard also.

So sometimes you get lucky sometimes you dont.

[f8sjester]

hey. . i love my 240. . . i respect my friends' hondas or whatever you drive. . . all's fair and cool in the realm of cars (ricers not included). . .

but, honda or not, what the h*ll's up with shooting two rounds into your engine bay???????

just curious . .