ENGINE CHECK LIGHT CAME ON. VEHICLE TAKEN TO DEALER ON 12/28/11. AFTER THREE MORE TRIPS THE PROBLEM WAS DIAGNOSED AS A BLOWN HEAD GASKET. AFTER EACH TRIP I WAS TOLD THAT DRIVING WOULD NOT DAMAGE THE ENGINE. I AM PERMANENTLY NEGATIVELY IMPRESSED WITH HONDA'S DIAGONISTIC ABILITY. THE HEAD GASKET PLUS OTHER 'SUPPOSEDLY DAMAGED' PARTS WERE REPLACED (i.e. 2 SETS OF SPARK PLUGS ! WATER PUMP, ETC ) AS OF 1/18/12. AS OF 2/08/12 THE REPAIR IS HOLDING. WE HAVE DEALER SERVICED THIS CAR BY THE BOOK. ANOTHER HONDA (?), DOUBTFUL.

As a long-time Honda owner, I find myself in the regrettable position of writing to appeal the denial of a recent claim for warranty coverage on my 2007 Honda Odyssey minivan. I request that American Honda cover 50 to 100 percent of the cost of the repairs, including parts and labor.

My wife and I purchased the our Odyssey minivan last year after our excellent previous experiences with a 1982 Honda Accord, a 1988 Honda CRX, and a 1992 Honda Civic, each of which we drove for more than a decade for nearly 150,000 trouble-free miles.

The issue with our Odyssey, which at the time had 44,000 miles on it, began when I noticed slight engine roughness each morning when I started up the engine. The intermittent check engine light (CEL) would also stay lit for a few seconds and then go out.

Although the roughness always leveled out within a minute, the CEL would go out, and the engine would then run smoothly, I felt that something wasn't quite right. So I brought the minivan to Curry’s Auto Service, a local independent repair shop on September 19, and they diagnosed a misfire in cylinder five and replaced the coil (invoice attached).

The problem persisted, however, so my wife brought the minivan back to Curry’s on Monday, September 26. They did a leakdown test and found that cylinder number 5 had a 40% leakdown (estimate attached). Because the labor to adjust or replace the valve was estimated at $2,000, and because it seemed an unusually large problem for a van with only 44,000 miles to have, we decided to get a second opinion.

My wife brought the van to Honda of Tysons Corner. The engine was running smoothly when she arrived with the van in the service bay, and no dashboard warning lights were lit, so the on-site technician was not able to immediately diagnose a problem. Later that day, they test drove the van and ran more diagnostics, but they were unable to replicate the engine roughness we had been experiencing with morning cold-starts. I requested that they keep the van overnight so they could do a cold start in the morning and see if they could replicate the cold-start roughness, diagnose the problem and fix it.

The following morning, Tuesday, September 27, the Honda tech reportedly ran the van in the service bay and the engine overheated. The tech and then the service team leader next told me that coolant was leaking into cylinder 5 and that this was likely the cause of our engine trouble. Both the tech and the team leader told me on the phone that they were confident that American Honda would cover 50 or 100 percent of the repairs under the 60,000 mile power train warranty, and they indicated that an American Honda field representative would be out that afternoon to verify this.

That afternoon, upon their request, we also faxed over all of our service records for the van, which showed that we had brought the van in for various recalls, changed the oil on a timely schedule, and had to this point experienced no other trouble with the van. I also reminded them that I had brought the van in to Tysons of Honda on September 12 to have the valet key reprogrammed and, while there, the van easily passed the routine, multi-point vehicle inspection on all counts (see invoice).

On Wednesday morning, September 28 – more than 36 hours after my wife brought the van in -- I received a phone call from the service manager that there would be no warranty coverage. Further inspection apparently revealed that the radiator was low on coolant and, based on a closer inspection, the techs asserted that the engine must have overheated in the previous two weeks, blowing the head gasket and causing coolant to leak into cylinder 5.

This explanation simply doesn’t square with the facts: As noted, I had been at Tysons Honda two weeks previously, and the routine, multi-point inspection of the van, which included checking all fluid levels, showed that the coolant level was normal. Furthermore, the minivan never overheated on us, the temperature gauge never indicated anything other than normal engine temperatures, none of the dashboard warning lights ever lit up to indicate high engine temperatures or overheating, and no codes in the onboard computer ever indicated an engine overheat condition.

In fact, when my wife arrived with the van for the initial diagnosis, she had driven about 25 minutes in heavy, stop-and-go rush hour traffic. In spite of that, the van was not overheated when she arrived, no gauges or lights were indicating anything unusual, there was no unusual engine steam or tailpipe smoke, and the engine was running perfectly smoothly. The test drive that the techs took that afternoon also revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

What I find most troubling is that after we received Honda of Tysons’ diagnosis, we asked several times why no sensors, temperature gauges, or dashboard warning lights ever indicated an overheat. We never got an explanation although we were assured repeatedly that all the sensors were working fine. However, the October 6 invoice from Honda of Tysons Corner indicates that as part of the $3,000 repair to replace the blown head gasket and radiator, they replaced the engine thermostat (19301-P8E-A10 Thermostat Assy). Notably, no one at Honda of Tysons Corner ever told me about this, and I only noticed it later upon reviewing the invoice.

Clearly, something isn’t right here. Either Honda of Tysons misdiagnosed the origin of the problem, or the sensors and head gasket should be covered by warranty.

All of the service paperwork is attached. I ask that you reconsider the denial of warranty coverage and look forward to a mutually satisfactory resolution to this unfortunate and disappointing situation. It’s my first ever negative encounter with Honda, and I am confident that you will do your utmost to restore my confidence in a company that I have always held in the highest regard.