I had noticed the fluid leak while at a friends house who lives in a near by neighborhood. I investigated the cause of the leak and discovered that my radiator was completely dry at that point. I then attempted to drive home, less than a mile.. And the car nearly overheated on me.. The following morning I topped off all my fluid levels and noticed a Heavy leak, I then proceeded to take the car to my local Honda dealer. Later that day I received a call explaining to me that my aluminum engine block has a monstrous crack dividing it and that I will need to replace the engine. Luckily, This repair is covered under warranty and Honda is going to give me a full engine replacement and even pay my $100.00 deductible as well. In addition to supplying a loaner vehicle that they have yet to issue.

On a side note, I would just like to state that this car hasn't had any other major problems, it has however had minor door, window, and radio/GPS problems as well. Window motors will lock up, door locks wont unlock, and the head unit will freeze up. All of these problems seem to happen at random and will temporarily fix themselves at a moments notice. I have also had all these problems looked at by the Honda dealer but they have not been able to diagnose the causes.

This vehicle has been driven as a daily commuter in L.A it has never been in any accidents, nor has it been improperly used or maintained. Apparently one in every thousand Honda Civics will have a cracked engine block due to faulty factory manufacturing. I must say that I am rather unhappy with this vehicle in general and I am already planning to sell it as soon as the dealer returns it to me.

I drive a daily commute over 320 miles round trip...needless to say that I have put in 105,000 miles in 1 1/2 yrs. Oil is changed monthly at the dealer. Car never overheated, the only symptom was that the A/C stopped cooling while driving at night at highway speed. Next day noticed that A/C cooled just fine until car hit 30 mpg and then stopped cooling. Took it in to a mechanic(not honda dealer) to have the A/C checked and got the news that the Engine block was Cracked! I definitely think this is a manufacturing flaw. I fully expected this car to exceed 150,000 miles without any issue especially since 98% of my miles are highway miles, now I wonder. I took it to the Honda dealer and asked to speak to Honda parts rep. They checked car and came back and said best they could do was a 50/50 split on the cost. I got it fixed, new engine has a 36,000 warranty. We'll see how it holds by October, when I will definitely exceed that mileage. So much for reliability.