Acura MDX engine exploded - Advice Requested (Insurance folks?)

Hey guys,

My dad bought new and has been driving his 2005 Acura MDX since. It's up around 180k, and has been well taken care of (1 owner, obviously). He started parking at the airport, so there are some dents and scratches around the exterior of the car.

Last week he was driving home from the airport, and heard some bad noises; stopped the car and got a tow. The dealership sent him this picture today..

The rusty clump on the left was the spark plug that bounced around and destroyed half the engine. So, they quoted $5500, and at this point that's not going to happen.

So where do we go from here? Can we get this totaled through insurance so that there's some kind of payout still? Or is it Junkyard for $200 or bust? We're looking to just maximize whatever is left in the car at this point and move on.

I've never heard of auto insurance covering an engine failure.

Ditto. Insurance isn't going to cover a mechanical failure. 180k....he got his money's worth out of it. Put it on CL for $1k as-is and get rid of it. Maybe someone will buy it for a part-out or something.

I would take a hard look at the rear body mounts for the rear sub frame. Those rust out. If those are rotted it I a gonner. I would get quotes from a regular shop. The dealer is probably the most expensive place to get a motor changed.

Lastly what are you talking about with respect to insurance? Does he have repair insurance? Standard FTC will not cover any of this.

Ummm... Just how does the OUTSIDE part of the spark plug fall INTO the engine!?! I know the insulator can drop. But that pic shows the outer part which is much bigger than the spark plug hole. And why does it look like it came off the deck of the Titanic? Something is not right.

Yeah, uh, unless the head has a big hole in it or they're waaaaaaay closer to the intake tract than I thought, there's no way that spark plug entered the engine. And how did it have time to get so rusty? I'm calling dealer BS here.

yep I need to see the piston, dosn't look like the plug was in there.that much rust takes time.

The hex on that rusty plug is several mm larger than the threaded section (therefore, larger than the hole it threads into.

What the dealer told him happened, didn't.

Plus, that thing would've been pulverized. I can still see it was a spark plug.

you may Need a Lawyer for A Lawsuit, against that Dealership.

Two different plugs

None of this makes sense.

Why would mechanic send picture of a berkeleyed plug when the damage caused to the reciprocating parts would be more relevant to the situation

Aside from the awful noise (which is a big aside) it seems more likely that the plug was dangling from the wire out in the elements.

Looks like someone wanted to both charge him for a new motor plus labor when all it needed was the threads cleaned and a new plug installed. (But my theory doesn't hold up because and ejected plug is LOUD, had one on my Ranger and it couldn't be ignore for the time it took for that plug to get so degraded.)

I would head down there to see that personally. Something is not right there.

In reply to NOHOME:

You're right. Not even close to being the same plugs.

This thread is starting to make me mad (I hate when people get ripped off. At least this looks like what is happening, can't be sure)

Holy E36 M3. This sounds like something hennesy hinda of Woodstock would do.

Where are you guys? Maybe one of us acn cone look, or at least punch the lying berkeleytard in the teeth.

I got my sentra se-r because her trusted mechanic told her it needed an engine. He iffered her 100 for it due to that. I cut the ac belt off and my buddy drove it for 3 years lime that.

It sounds lime tbat is happening here.

You guys have to be kidding...you really think a dealer service department would do something like that???

Ford Powerstroke diesels are notorious for lunching their HPFP and sending metal shards throughout the fuel system and often into the motor. Many Ford dealer service departments now keep a water bottle (I swear they're all 16oz Aquafina bottles) with about 2oz worth of diesel fuel and 4oz of water in it. They try to show it to customers and insurance companies to say it's "bad gas" and should be covered by insurance. Sigh....

No, insurance wouldn't cover it. You can throw flames at the dealer (I probably would too), but your still left with a blown engine, so have to decide what to do with it.

Not only do I also call BS I will go look if on the Northside of ATL. I live Just above WoodStock. On the Other Hand the Putter Has No wear at all.

To my untrained eye, it looks like that rusty sparkplug is "road debris" that he hit and it resulted in $5500 in damage.

There is no way that plug came out of his engine unless, like I said...he hit some road debris.

That is a pretty typical Honda problem. For some reason, the plugs will loosen, wear the threads, start pumping exhaust up the spark plug hole, rust the coil in place, and beat the spark plug and cylinder head to death.

I have seen it where the coil failed quickly and set misfire codes, which the driver dealt with @ right away. Those heads got helicoils and are running. The owners who ignored the mil got a junk motor. And, the plug wasn't inside the motor, it was outside beating the head to death and sending chunks through the engine.

TL;DR version- Happens pretty regularly on that vintage of Honda V6. I've seen it three times, and I'm not a Honda specialist.

Just to be noticed, I'm gonna say it again. I've seen that on 3.5 Hondas regularly. This isn't a dealer fabrication. Really.

For an engine donor, the same motor was offered in the '04-'07 Saturn Vue and junkyards are full of them

Streetwiseguy wrote: Just to be noticed, I'm gonna say it again. I've seen that on 3.5 Hondas regularly. This isn't a dealer fabrication. Really.

This. The dealer may have misphrased the issue (the spark plug never physically entered a cylinder) but the plugs blowing out and doing damage are very much a known issue on the Honda V6.

That is a pretty typical Honda problem. For some reason, the plugs will loosen, wear the threads, start pumping exhaust up the spark plug hole, rust the coil in place, and beat the spark plug and cylinder head to death. I have seen it where the coil failed quickly and set misfire codes, which the driver dealt with @ right away. Those heads got helicoils and are running. The owners who ignored the mil got a junk motor. And, the plug wasn't inside the motor, it was outside beating the head to death and sending chunks through the engine.

I was worried for a little bit reading some of these responses! Thank you guys for chiming and clarifying what really happened.

Our next hurdle is how to get rid of it. The CL for $1000 is seeming like the best bet right now. Any other options? I'll check the rear subframe but I believe I've looked at that once before and found nothing worrisome. Anybody in the Atlanta area want a really nice (inside) black on tan MDX for cheap? lol

If the rest of the thing is in good shape, I'd see if you can find a used motor at a decent enough price. If so, throw it in and either keep it or sell it. The difference in value between running and not is probably more than the cost of the motor.

From what we're seeing, he could maybe sell it for $4k, at the top of the market on a good day. It's been well taken care of but it's a 12 year old car that's at almost 200K (around 190, not 180k like i thought), and has parked at the airport for a good bit of it, aka dinged and scratched in a lot of places.

The dealer quoted $5500, an independent would maybe do it for less, but at the end of the day it would be pumping money into something that's not going to be valued much above the repair cost (if at all). I'm not in a position to do the swap at home for him, and even if he had the time that's not up his alley to do either.

I think he's looking for the best way to cut free and get something back out of it and move into something a little newer.

Here are a few more pictures. I wasn't really sure what I was looking at on some of these, but maybe they'll mean something to you guys.

If this is a legit failure, why are the plugs not even close to being the same.

It took a bit of prep to find a nasty plug and pose it for a picture next to a good one...