I bought my Ridgeline from the dealer 3 years ago with 62,000 miles and dealer records for all maintenance. It has been flawless the entire time. The transmission and rear diff fluid was changed with Honda fluid at ~75,000 per the minder. It's only seen full synthetic oil and Honda fluids.

I hit ~100,700 miles and got a CEL/VTM light one day. Checked the codes and it was misfiring on all cylinders. I changed all the plugs with OEM NGK's. Cylinder 3 was oil fouled but I assumed with 100k on it, that can happen. That cleared it up and it went for about 300 miles before the CEL came back on. Pulled #3's plug and it was completely fouled again. There is a ton of white smoke on startup and it hasn't run smooth since. Cleaned #3's plug, installed a new OEM coil, and the light came on again within 5 miles.

It's heartbreaking as I was about to get the 105k service done and new tires. I expected this to last me 200,000+ miles, not need a full engine rebuild at 101k. I'm taking it to the Honda dealer tomorrow for a oil consumption test. My mechanic said Honda knows about these failures and is paying for them although it can be a pain to make them pay. I'm guessing its the oil control ring or a blown head gasket. The truck was never overheated.

In the case that Honda won't repair my truck, I'm looking for suggestions for a new vehicle. It has to be wife friendly as it's essentially "hers", although I do 99% of the driving when we go places together. It needs to be able to tow my boat which is ~3500lbs. I am considering possible getting the gen 2 Ridgeline, an MDX, or Suburban.

***UPDATE***
Instead of trying to temporarily fix the truck and pawn it off, we traded in to the dealer that did the inspection. I got more than I owed on the trade even with a bad engine and also picked up a 2017 Pilot EX-L AWD Res. It's my first new car and awesome!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SIG4EVA,

That really sucks.

I HATE car troubles.

How about a few more details on what you want if you need a replacement?
Ballpark budget?
New/Used - mileage?
Import / domestic?
4wd-2wd?

Best of luck with repairs first~

Honda does great with small cars like the Civic and Accord. Their SUV's and "trucks" have not enjoyed the reliability of their small vehicle line. It's a design philosophy issue where the least acceptable margin is utilized, all in the name of "efficiency". I have a friend who is a chief engineer there and he constantly fights internal battles over these very issues, even on their high profile halo vehicles.

I know some people have had good luck but I owned an MDX and I will never own another one. I also expected at least a 200k mile vehicle and the transmission and engine problems at 100K miles were astonishing (and common as I came to learn).

For a light duty truck get a Tacoma and don't look back. If you want an SUV instead get a 4Runner.

I don't want to tempt fate, but my 2006 Ridgeline is still going strong, with 166k miles and counting. Just passed it on to my son when I got a new '17 one. Knock on wood, never had engine problems. Just routine maintenance.

The Ridgeline uses the same V-6 as the Odyssey, and we've had very good results with our two Odysseys in the engine department. The earlier one needed a transmission rebuild, a known problem. OTOH haven't exceeded 150,000 miles in either one.
If Honda is going to pay for an engine rebuild, I'd say they're standing behind their product.
Acura rep paid for a cylinder/valve rebuild when my 86 Integra blew a timing belt.

I would try to get Honda to fix it or at least cover some of the cost.

Cylinder deactivation has probably contributed to the problem. It concerns me because Honda is still doing this with their 3.5 V6 which is in my 2018 Ridgeline. They have made some changes since 2015 which supposedly address the oil consumption problem, but we'll see.....

After you get it fixed install a device that disables cylinder deactivation.

As a replacement, I like a lot about the Gen2 Ridgeline.
Just not a huge fan of the front end & small back seat space (compared to my F150 cavernous backseat).

Keeping with mid-size trucks, I'd probably go Tacoma, Colorado/Canyon, then Frontier.

I'd see what Honda says before I'd get too stressed. They generally build good products, though there are a few quirky models. I had a first gen Ridgeline for 3 years and it ran great. I also had a MDX for a few years and it was fine too. Fortunately I never had transmission problems but earlier MDX models were known to have issues with the torque converter I believe.

If you haven't checked some Ridgeline forums yet, it might be worth seeing what other folks are saying. Wish I could help more but the mechanical issues you're experiencing are beyond my understand.

My 03 Ody with a similar V6 had an unexplained oil leak at 200K. It didn't burn, just leaked on the backside. I put a used 04 Pilot V6 and haven't had a problem since.

I would press hard, politely and consistently to have Honda rebuild the motor.

What year is your Ridgeline? Some late production 2006/early 2007 models have bad cylinder heads, and develop a crack around the values over cylinder #3. Mine is a 2007, but was actually built in 09/2006. Google your symptoms, you'll probably end up on the same websites I found regarding this. I just went thru nearly exactly the symptoms you described 6 months ago at just over 100K and ended up sinking $5K into a new front cylinder head because I plan on driving this vehicle for at least another 5 yrs. I did not buy the vehicle new (used from a Ford dealer w/75K), and had no service records prior to my purchase, so they would not warranty it. Don't let them dik around, they need to pull the cylinder head and power wash/blast it to see the hairline crack. They tried to tell me piston rings and head gasket. I can email you pics of mine if you need to show them what to look for.

bigeinkcmo - Thanks a lot. I know I am stressing a ton and I haven't brought it to them yet. I know how it goes though. I will think positive and see what happens.

robotoid - It's a 2008 and pretty rare for this to happen. It was mostly the 2006 models but lucky me, I may have the same issue anyway.

It seems that the Japanese auto makers have issues with burning oil in the vehicles they sell. Friends 2008 Legacy 2.5 blew two head gaskets. Both known issues Subaru could care less.

Hondas burn oil in small lawn mower engines all they way up through SUV engines. Several Civic's I know of have issues with engines.

The CR-V 1.5T eh no power.

Sorry to hear about your Ridgeline.

My 2003 Pilot travelled 335,000 miles before I donated it to Goodwill. It brought $1,700 at auction.

I followed the maint. schedule and had tremendous success with it.

Please let us know what Honda says.

quote:

Originally posted by ThankGod4Sig:
It seems that the Japanese auto makers have issues with burning oil in the vehicles they sell. Friends 2008 Legacy 2.5 blew two head gaskets. Both known issues Subaru could care less.

Hondas burn oil in small lawn mower engines all they way up through SUV engines. Several Civic's I know of have issues with engines.

The CR-V 1.5T eh no power.

Not just Honda or Japanese manufactures, but most manufacturers now trying to eek every mpg they can to meet CAFE numbers. Google “GM oil burning motor problem”.
Low tension piston rings reduce friction but allow a bit of oil to get past. In addition without combustion pressure on piston rings oil can get past which has plagued all manufacturers employing cylinder deactivation.

quote:

Originally posted by Brett B:
Honda does great with small cars like the Civic and Accord. Their SUV's and "trucks" have not enjoyed the reliability of their small vehicle line.

It's the engine. Honda's 6 cylinder engines aren't very good. There's a lot of trouble with them and they typically manifest before 100k. For those that have well over 100k with no issues thus far, you're probably ok.

quote:

Originally posted by pessimist:

quote:

Originally posted by Brett B:
Honda does great with small cars like the Civic and Accord. Their SUV's and "trucks" have not enjoyed the reliability of their small vehicle line.

It's the engine. Honda's 6 cylinder engines aren't very good. There's a lot of trouble with them and they typically manifest before 100k. For those that have well over 100k with no issues thus far, you're probably ok.

First I've heard of J-series unreliability, but mine were all pre-VCM. I know some of the 3.7 Acuras had some issues, but from most of what I'e seen, the J32/J35 are pretty solid.

Honda transmissions, though. That's another story. Again, 2004 & prior.

Sorry to hear. I had a 06 Ridgeline, no issues at all. Currently wife has 14 MDX, has been great (a couple of electrical componennts changes under warranty however). The MDX is good, but avoid 2014 (my year) as it had the most issues to work out.

I think either the new Ridgeline or new MDX would be good.

Did you check for Technical Service bulletins for your truck? Our 2012 Odyssey had a TSB that said the piston rings were defective on three of the cylinders. Honda fixed the problem under warranty.

Thank you guys. Today is the day. I will gladly accept any prayers, luck, or goodwill thrown my way. I'm taking her to the dealership after work to hopefully find out the actual issue.

I checked and there is no recall, mine predates VCM. There was an issue Honda is aware of with cylinder #4 going bad and also cracked heads. It's rare to see an 08 affected and mine is cylinder 3.

Best of luck to you.
Hopefully it's resolved, or there's a new Ridgeline in your driveway. Win-win.