So my brother down in Florida just told me that he installed his intake awhile ago and a few days ago he noticed some of his hoses getting hot. Apparently the radiator hose had become super hot and melted the dipstick made of plastic, leaving antifreeze all over the place. He took it in to the local Honda Dealer and they told him his warranty would be voided because of the intake, then charged him $481 for repairs. Is this just a faulty hose or what I was really confused?

 

there is usually never anything touching the radiator hoses on a car. and IIRC the hoses are not nera the dipstick. chances are he lost coolant and the engine was running too hot....maybe caused things to melt....but he would have noticed alot of other problems if it was that hot.

and yes, a intake on a civic requires replacing a coolant hose...if coolant leaked out and his was low, it could void the warrenty.

BTW $481 is alot of money to replace a dipstick and add coolant (if thats what is was). so ask the details of what the problem was and what they did that was $481 worth.

 

I've never heard or experienced an Intake pipe melting anything.I can drive all day,open the hood,and touch the intake with no problem.The only intake pipe I could possible imagine melting anything,would be one of those Injen(unpowdercoated)steel type one.Otherwise it's might be the humitity in Florida that maybe wore the hose out quicker and the intake just was to much.Also a aftermarket header might cause that problem if he has one and took off the heat shield.

 

wow im sorry but he got ripped off, seriously. a dipstick costs like $30 and the rad. hose costs MAX $40, and the rest of the cost is labor. I would have done it myself cuz it's soo easy.

 

Does he not check his engine temperature? It's huge and in plain site on the 8th gens.

 

well if its sitting on the rad hoses the metal of the intake is gonna get super hot...why didnt he put in his stock intake before he took it to honda...?

 

dude that sucks

thats the first time i've ever heard of that happening but i don't know too much about cars, but it doesn't seem that the intake would cause overheating

any pics of it?

 

Ok I have a little update from my brother so heres what happened. He ordered a CAI from HPS (hiprospeed) and it came with two hoses. One of the hoses connected to the engine block to allow coolant to flow from the radiator. This hose was a thinner hose, but was the one HPS gave him to use. He installed it and it became too hot and burst, leaving the coolant all over and his radiator dry. With that being said, his engine overheated, melted the plastic dipstick inside, and now there is even more damage (says the dealer). The dealer now wants to pull apart the whole engine and replace a possible burnt out piston that maybe got fried from the engine overheating, estimating 2-3K dollars of work.

I feel really bad for him, cause he got screwed like 4 times on that, I mean 3K will get you a great different engine. He called HPS and they immediately told him that they didn't want anything to do with it. IMO I don't think HPS is being fair, they could at least take some customer support lessons. I told him if it's 3K he should prolly just get one of his airforce buddies to help him put in a new motor and call it quits.

 

That's what I was wondering, I would think that on a nicer car like that there would be obvious warning signs for that kind of stuff. Then again with the humidity and heat in florida, I never really asked him how long it took the engine to overheat. But still, I hope he learned his lesson to pay more attention to the car.

 

I'll see if I can get any pics, it will prolly just be of the engine set up as is, since he cleaned his engine of the coolant already and replaced the hose. But I still want to see the poor quality hose that shipped from HPS and wouldnt mind seeing the intake.

I currently have an HPS SRI on my Fit, thank god it doesnt need a coolant hose swap or I would be throwing it away! I'm still kind of compelled to take it off just because of what happened, but it's not like a metal tube and filter are gonna cause that problem.

 

this is a sidenote but a modification won't "void" your warranty. It may void a warranty claim but will not wipe away the warranty.

 

Truth! If he installed an after-market coolant line(hose) and it failed, then either himself or the manufacturer of the intake kit would be responsible for all damages, not Honda.

 

This is true, I have asked Honda many times with Mods and the response is always the same. Any after-market items installed on the car will not VOID warranty unless the car becomes damaged and the damage is caused directly by the after-market setup. They have to be able to prove that the part messed up your car basically. This is not true for all parts as FI has some pretty fine lines, and internals will too. It's all about asking your local Honda service manager. This is only what Honda told me, who knows what fine lines are in the Warranty these days.

And I agree that Honda should not be responsible, however, I truly believe the manufacturer of the intake should take some responsibility for the faulty hose.

 

oh man that sucks. i wonder if your friend installed everything correctly? if he did then the intake manufacturer is the one to blame. good luck to your friend getting everything worked out.

 

On the Fit/Jazz if there is very low or no coolant the IDIOT LIGHT IN THE DASH FOR OVERHEATING WILL NOT LIGHT. The problem is with little or no coolant circulating nothing touches the temperature sensor (it works fine it there is coolant in the system) until the little coolant left becomes super heated steam which is so super hot the air becomes hot enough to give a reading on the temperature sensor and by then IT'S TOO LATE fried engine....

For those of you that are not familiar with Fit/Jazz mechanical workings the coolant system the case of the melted dipstick is easy to explain. The Fit/Jazz has a metal pipe running across the engine from the water pump area to the right side (looking from the front) then changing into rubber coolant hoses going into the radiator. This pipe runs diagonally across the dipstick tube and is in close proximity. The rest is simple the hot coolant pipe full of super heated steam radiates heat into the dipstick tube which then conducts the heat into the plastic dipstick handle which then melts. So you can imagine how hot that steam filled pipe was and that means the engine was hot enough to melt plastic not good really not good, so the dealership explanation is very plausible.

That is just ONE MORE reason to install your own temperature gauge.

Your brothers problem was caused by the intake kit with cheap hoses letting the coolant escape so sorry to say it's is not a problem covered by Honda's warranty he will have to pursue civil litigation against the kit company.

 

That doesnt make sense on the Fit. If coolant wasnt feeding the engine and the engine started to overheat I would think at least one sensor would be affected from the heat in the engine. But maybe not, that would really suck and poor job on Hondas part if thats the design layout IMO. We can have TPMS but no way to monitor out engine heat???

Yep I know, however, to clarify this is an 07 civic lx that overheated. And for all you out there who are curious of what to stay away from here is the information:

The retail store of hiprospeed.com (HPS) makes there own intake for the fit which I have and works great. However, they also sell intakes from other manufacturers, namely CP, who was bought out by Spider. I contacted HPS and they told me the intake my brother installed was not an HPS so I looked at his order. I agreed with them, and continued to push and get the CP (now Spider) sku for the intake and the number for Spider. I was very upset with the lack of help at HPS since they were not willing to do anything. If you sell the product you are liable for that product being a licensed retail agent. So finally I got them to reimberse the cost of the intake, and I am now bickering it out with a supervisor at Spider Manufacturing. I will update to let you know how this turns out.

It's just too bad that customer service has gone way down in some of the cheaper auto retailers. Even with my HPS intake working fine and no problems to be concerned about (just the intake pipe and filter, with 02 senser hole and vacuum line), I would not recommend to anyone buying from HPS for your Fit, and especially Civics.