Owners of Honda CR-V or Civic beware as the Japanese automaker recently announced that it will be extending the powertrain warranties on more than 1 million vehicles in the United States. Models affected, in particular, are the 2017-2018 CR-V and 2016-2018 Civic equipped with the 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine.
According to reports, the company issued a memo to their dealers as there have been complaints about gasoline seeping into the engine oil of the units, possible causing the vehicles to stall, especially when exposed to cold weather. However, there have also been claims of the same incidents during summer months in California and Texas, which have a warmer climate.
The engine oil, as stated in the memo, gets diluted due to software settings or potential hardware failure. When this happens, the affected vehicles begin to loose power, causing cylinder misfire or engine noise.
Honda previously made efforts to address the issue in 2018, offering a free fix for CR-V owners with the same 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine. A total of 239,000 vehicles benefited, but it was only limited to those located in 21 cold-weather states.
The fix included new engine and transmission software as well as an oil change and replacement of air conditioning control units.
However, in order to completely address the problem, Honda would probably need to conduct an engine software update because the increase in oil levels was revealed to be caused by excess gasoline that wasn’t vaporized in the combustion chamber. As a result, the oil’s lubricity is diluted, which could result in internal engine damage.
A spokesperson from Honda said that the problem on abnormal oil dilution is “extremely rare,” especially in places with warm weather. The company also clarified that it is not issuing an official recall of the affected models. Instead, they are using the warranty extension as a means to solve the problem. Honda also assured that the engines in its 2019 CR-Vs are being updated before going on sale.
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