I had just entered Golden Gate Park when my car started making unusual noises. I checked the trouble lights, gauges etc looking for clues as to what was wrong. I finally realized that the temperature gauge was pegged to hot, hot, hot. I drove the car to a gas station on 19th Avenue. The service tech poured gallons of water into the radiator to cool the engine. After two weeks of wondering what had happened, we found that the engine block was defective. It had a "porous" spot that was caused during the manufacturing. So there I was, stranded on a street corner in San Francisco on a Friday afternoon. Try getting a rental car and hotel room at 5:00 on Friday in San Francisco!

The car is being repaired at no cost by a Honda dealership, but I am almost $2000 in the hole for the towing, car rental, hotel rooms and meals!

Will Honda reimburse me for my expenses? It remains to be seen.

This was leaking around the plug at bottom of the engine, I had it checked at local repair shop. They called Honda and found out it was a "recall" so I made appt & got it in last week. I received the car back and drove it to work this morning. It was making a really bad noise so I had my dad and a co worker to look at it. The engine was dirty and did not appear to have been worked on. We called the dealer & told them of the noise, they ask it if sounded like a belt, yes my dad & co worker said it was, they made appt for later in day.

I returned to pick it up & they said the water pump was defective and fan belt needed tightening, they said they replaced pump and tightened the belt. My dad called & spoke to him and ask what they had done to the car, they again told him they had replaced the "engine block, water pump, fan belt" and checked the head again. they said the head was within specs and didn't have to do anything else to it. Again, we told him the car "did not appear to have been worked on" but he insisted they did but didn't clean it under hood. so we are taking it in to another repair shop tomorrow to try and verify it was done.

I have a 2006 Honda Civic with 93,100 miles on it with the same symptoms as the other Honda owners with cracked engine block complaints. The initial inspection from Mike's Radiator Shop in Fresno was the same cracked block scenario. I called a technician at a Honda dealership in a nearby small town and he recalled replacing 3 supposed cracked Honda engine blocks. I also called American Honda since I understood that there may be a negotiated settlement on the cost to replace the block even if it was outside of the 60,000 mile drive train warranty. They would not specify the amount until a Honda dealership also looked at the engine so I went on-line and read of other complaints and judged that I would be on the hook for more than half of this $4000 repair. I went along with the radiator shops recommendation for a $95 repair using specialty aluminum epoxy called Accu-Tech 5000. When they got in and cleaned and prepped the area they did not find a crack but there was a porous strip in the engine block behind the exhust manifold that was about 5" long that was obviously due to poor casting when it was made. The aluminum epoxy repair was successfully pressure tested after setting-up for 24 hours and I have driven the car about 200 miles since then over the course of one week with zero leakage. I asked why there was no puddle of anti freeze in the garage other than a few oily greenish blue drops. Mike explained that most of the leakage dripped directly onto the exhaust manifold and evaporated when the vehicle was stopped and when it was driving down the highway it was being blown back along the bottom side of the vehicle and the residue would have been obvious by someone performing service work. Unfortunately we only had Honda dealerships do all the service work so it was not caught while it was still under warranty. My issue with this is that the casting was defective from day one and Honda must have known about this at the factory when it was initially pressure tested and certainly after many complaints while all of these vehicles were still under warranty. Allowing their customers drive these vehicles with engine coolant problems is a huge mistake in judgment. I perceive this as an intentional deception so this will be the last Honda I will ever purchase.

Engine coolant is leaking through a porous portion of the engine block. The block is not cracked but the surface of the engine block has visible pores. It is an obvious casting defect and not a mileage, maintenance, or use dependent problem. After three weeks of avoidance and unreturned calls, Honda has chosen to hide behind the 60,000 mile warranty. Interesting that the new head of Honda America was on the front page of the Sunday business section purporting his commitment to quality.

Do not plan on your Honda lasting past 60,000 miles. Be sure to factor the cost of an extended warranty into your cost of ownership.

pourus head ? what the heck is that ? i had not purchased the extended warranty - no need its a Honda right ? On the highway, overheated and lost power, had to be towed. Initially i was told if I had an extended warranty it would be covered but since I didn't the cost could be 5,000 + but the dealer would check with the local rep.to see if there was anything they could do. The dealer than asked for proof of regular oil changes and since I was able to provide the receipts all within the 10,000 range, they stated it was covered -under warranty just like if i had purchased it -- they charged me a 100 deductible and the cost of a new starter coil.

Update from Apr 26, 2010: car is now at 78,000 and no further problems. I appreciate Honda doing the right thing...