Anybody familiar with 2012 Honda Odyssey van piston ring replacement?

jcramsey

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Location
Marion, NC
On our way back from vacation last week and my sister's 2012 Honda van started flashing CEL and and vehicle stability light. We took it to autozone to run the codes on it when she got home. Random misfires on 1-3, so I looked it up and this is a well documented issue that Honda extended the warranty 8 years as a result of a class action. She lives in VA, but is staying at our folks place in Marion, so she took it to the Morganton Honda dealer and they confirmed it needs new piston rings and are going to take care of it under warranty next week (woulda ran out in 30 days!) Her van's got 100k miles on it so I told her might be good to get them to put a new timing belt on it while its apart. She said the asked them about it today, and they told her normally a $1300 job, but we can do it for $700. o_O Sounds like they're trying to pull one over on her to me and trying to double charge on the labor. I figured they would have pull the timing belt off to replace the piston rings anyway, so buying a new belt to put on seems like a no brainer.

Anybody familiar with servicing a Honda 3.5 engine?

@a_kelley?
 
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@RHSCTJ loves minivans almost as much as he loves Hondas.
 
Yes. The belt has to come off. Fwiw we charge $750 for t belt, waterpump, tension adjuster, and drive belt. So yeah they are double dipping on labor. I would order a vcm tuner when she gets it back to keep it from fouling plugs and burning rings. It just keeps it from going in to eco mode.
 
As long as they are doing the pump and tension adjuster for that price its not bad I guess.
 
RHSCTJ said:
Yes. The belt has to come off. Fwiw we charge $750 for t belt, waterpump, tension adjuster, and drive belt. So yeah they are double dipping on labor. I would order a vcm tuner when she gets it back to keep it from fouling plugs and burning rings. It just keeps it from going in to eco mode.
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Thanks for the info! I did already tell my brother in law to order the vcm tuner to put on it after its fixed. Good to know it isn't snake oil. I'll have my sister find out if that is a water pump/tensioner job as well or just simply a belt swap.
 
jcramsey said:
Thanks for the info! I did already tell my brother in law to order the vcm tuner to put on it after its fixed. Good to know it isn't snake oil. I'll have my sister find out if that is a water pump/tensioner job as well or just simply a belt swap.
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Its the tension adjuster not the tensioner.
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I've done one or two...
 
RHSCTJ said:
As long as they are doing the pump and tension adjuster for that price its not bad I guess.
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I did call them and confirm its a timing belt/pump/tension adjuster/drive belt job so that makes me feel a little better about it. Doesn't NEED all of that, but worth it to have that all done since its gonna be opened up already? Get another 100k trouble free miles out of her mommy missle?
 
jeepinmatt said:
Man, if every one of those was worth a dollar, you could buy a bunch of lottery tickets :lol:
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Nah man, I just steal loose change for that.
 
jcramsey said:
I did call them and confirm its a timing belt/pump/tension adjuster/drive belt job so that makes me feel a little better about it. Doesn't NEED all of that, but worth it to have that all done since its gonna be opened up already? Get another 100k trouble free miles out of her mommy missle?
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The tension adjusters usually start rattling by 150. I have never seen a belt break before the tension adjust comes apart. I would just get it all done now for peace of mind.
 
the t belt turns the water pump so no reason not to change it while you are in there.
 
RHSCTJ said:
I would order a vcm tuner when she gets it back to keep it from fouling plugs and burning rings. It just keeps it from going in to eco mode.
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Do you have a recommendation on a VCM tuning device? I have been reading about them for a few weeks for our van and would like to order one.
 
vcmtuner.com
 
Would this ECO mode thing be a problem on a 2014 Honda Pilot? This is my wife's car. Doesn't use any oil, and runs fine.
 
drkelly said:
Would this ECO mode thing be a problem on a 2014 Honda Pilot? This is my wife's car. Doesn't use any oil, and runs fine.
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If it was mine I would absolutely disable the vcm. Its just a little adjustable resistor the that plugs in to the ect so you can easily remove it should you need any warranty work. I think the lawsuit only went up to the 13 models so WHEN it does fail youre SOL.
 
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