J35A91 vs J35Z5

[IanRTL]

Still amazing to me how badly those Russians destroyed that transmission. Haha!

[Gouranga]

Originally Posted by jeb

Couldnt have said it better. I wonder what made OP think there were so many complaints about about the j35a motors? Go look at GM motors. JUNKKK.

sure this forum has many memebers but realisticly only 100 or so members actually post here

out of those 100 something 10 had problems to me thats bad news
I never had an engine go on me and or so many problems and ive only owned the truck for 4months

thats sad

and I always baby my cars

[Gouranga]

Problems & Issues section also has the most threads out of all the forum

just saying I keep seeing the same 20-30 people usually post all the time and I would say around 100 members post semi often the rest they join and you never hear fro them again also the reason why would they post when there is a problem I wasnt even gonna post I had a problem because
im not planning on keeping or having another ridgeline ever again after what happened to me

but I posted anyways not bashing ridgelines but honda is not what it used to be.. headgasket leaked and mixed with oil at 59.000 miles on 2nd engine... previous engine has 110miles and connecting rod went.

pffff

[jeb]

Wow man, Sorry to hear about your problems. Ive had 4 cars now with J motors in them varying in Mileage, 60000km right up to 400000km and Ive had 0 problems with them.

Sorry your Honda wasnt better to you.

[speedlever]

What you will find is that many posters only come here to post about an issue they have... then they seldom re-appear. You simply cannot judge product reliability based on forum traffic.

You may well baby your vehicles. OTOH, you are not the original owner and your RL has already had one engine replaced. So something is definitely amiss in your scenario. If the replacement engine was used... you also have no idea how it was operated/maintained.

Frankly, judging a product with such a checkered past is not realistic. OTOH, when it happens to you, it flavors the whole product line from a company... that's simply human nature.

You typically save money buying used... but you also take a chance when you buy an out of warranty vehicle unless you know the vehicle history.... which I think you did...at least to some extent. Your whole situation is puzzling and I suspect there is more to the history of your vehicle than we know... and maybe you too.

Wish there was better news for you on your problem. Do you know yet what you will replace the RL with?

[pudgiesinwaverly]

FWIW my wife had a 2005 Nissan Sentra bought in 2006 with 20000 miles. Not certified from a Nissan dealer. Someone and perhaps the dealer unloaded the lemon with 11000 miles and we returned the favor at 96000 miles. Hole in the head gasket. RED FLAG was it not being certified. Buyer beware.

[IanRTL]

Anything can go wrong with any vehicle at any time. Things go wrong with vehicles. That's just the way it is. Doesn't matter if it's Honda, Toyota, Dodge, Ford or Ferrari... vehicles break and things happen. Gouranga, I'm very sorry that so many things have happened with your truck, but buying used is always a risk. You have no idea how that truck was treated before you owned it. It could have been thrashed on test-drives at the dealership. It could have been neglected by its previous owner. It could have had a flaw at the factory that was never caught until now. Even if it has good maintenance records, the owner still could have been a very aggressive driver. That's just the risk you take buying used.

That being said, I bought my truck with 75k miles on it from a guy on Craigslist. Sound scary? Absolutely. However, doing some vital research before I committed to buy it made me feel comfortable about it. I don't part with tens of thousands of dollars easily, but my truck was a one-owner vehicle that was in Florida. The guy who was selling it was the nephew of the guy who owned it. Unfortunately, the original owner passed away and the nephew inherited it. He already had a pickup, so he sold it. The truck was serviced regularly with receipts as proof, garaged constantly and it even had pictures of the road trips the gentleman had taken in it. Carfax was clean and the truck was in great condition. I've been very strict with my maintenance and my truck is still running like it was new at 127k miles now.

If you go to ANY other vehicle forum out there, the most posts will always be in a "Problems and Issues" section. Just check out any Dodge, Volkswagen or Saab forum. They make this one look tame. Things go wrong, people want to know how to fix them, so they post there. They may not post ever again, but they do when something is wrong. I am a member over at Hondaaccordforum.com. I have 12 posts there and all of them are asking about issues and how to correct them. Bottom line is that you have a truck that is not good. It's extremely unfortunate for you, but it is not the norm for the RL or for Honda in general. I can't blame you for never wanting to have another one based on the issues you've had so far, but, as I've said before, for every one member who posts about a serious problem with their trucks, there are hundreds of others with tens of thousands of trouble-free miles. The J is a very strong, reliable engine that is used in several Honda vehicles (I have two), but there are bound to be a few that have issues. I'm sorry you've been one of them. If you trade yours in on a new one or a newer pre-owned one with a warranty, I'm sure you'd be happier.