[wh500special]

I got the truck back today. Aside from some coolant smell from spillage (I presume) it’s running like it should. Assuming no issues crop up, this turned out to not be too bad of an experience.

The cost for the camshaft, a new camshaft position sensor, and the thrust plate plus shop rate came out to almost $2000. My out of pocket was $100.

The camshaft itself was only about $325. That seems like a pretty fair price considering how much machining and grinding goes into one of these things. Mass production is amazing. The tiny camshaft position sensor was $185 which seems like a ripoff in comparison.

They saved all the parts for me but I can’t get pix now because I put them in the trunk then went to Menards and bought a bunch of stuff that is filling the bed. It will probably eventually end up in the recycling, but for now I thought the camshaft would be a nice trophy.

I also had them replace the timing belt, tensioner, and water pump since it was (almost) due. That ended up costing me about $800. No complaints.

The dealer had three Ridgelines on the lot. One red RTLE and two white RTL’s. The Red-E has been there a couple of weeks. Maybe demand is subsiding a bit for our gas guzzlers?? As I mentioned I have a Red RTL on order at another dealership. The white looks nice and I’d be happy with it, but my wife isn’t crazy about white. I think the E is more than I want to spend but it confirms that I like the color combo. And it just occurred to me that it will match my boat

They gave me a loaner CR-V EX AWD while my truck was under the knife. I think it’s the same red they spray in Ridgelines. What a nice car that thing is. Plenty of room and very comfortable seats. My 6’1” son had plenty of room in the back seat too. Aside from the weird sensation that comes from a CVT and the somewhat abrupt restart after idle stopping I really really liked it. Really. And it averaged 32 mpg (hand calculated) while I had it. Lately I’ve been running right at 25 mpg in my RL. My wife said maybe the next van will be a CR-V instead. Would be nice if they offered it as a PHEV as I’ve read the hybrid is a bit disappointing, but the little engine in the regular model is pretty nice.

I gave the lane keeping and adaptive cruise control a fair shake but not sure they are for me. It’s unsettling to have the car steering itself. And of course it has no idea it’s supposed to try to dodge the potholes instead of drive right through them. It also doesn’t know how to react to widenings in the road when a turn lane appears…it feels like it wants to center itself in the double wide lane. I know most of you folks like this feature so maybe a week isn’t enough time to get used to it.

Anyway, that’s the news from here.
Steve

 

[zroger73]

The CR-V is an incredibly practical vehicle. I really enjoyed the 2016 Touring I owned briefly while in between Ridgelines. It's also boringly comfortable or comfortably boring - and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The CR-V's red is Radiant Red Metallic (R-569M) while the Ridgeline's red is Radiant Red Metallic II (R-580M) - two slightly different colors.

 

[wh500special]

I’m case anybody is wondering what your front camshaft, thrust plate, and sensor look like see the pictures below.

I see basically no wear on the lobes and bearing surfaces. Nothing on the ends that would suggest end play. The plastic sensor face has a concavity to it that probably isn’t supposed to be there.

 

[Chris_R]

My 2017 experienced a loss of power along with multiple error codes at the weekend when I attempted to pass another vehicle. The dealer has diagnosed it a the P0369 error. I'm just out of the powertrain warranty at 64k, I've had all my servicing done at a Honda dealer so there would be no question about where and when work was completed.

My question is has anyone had success with Honda getting this issue resolved outside of the warranty period? It seems that this is a known issue potentially related to a manufacturing defect and should be covered under a TSB even if it only happens in rare instances. I'm waiting to hear back from the dealer and I'd like some information beforehand on what to expect.

 

[wh500special]

For what it’s worth, since mine was still under warranty I didn’t bother pursuing it. However, the dealer wasn’t optimistic that Honda was going to chip in.

I hope you get some help with this.
Steve

 

[MattGent]

Update on my camshaft, meant to post this a while ago.

I repaired it myself. Will post pics when I'm on a computer rather than the phone.

My cam cover had worn down 0.015-0.020" relative to the new one I bought to replace it. It was smooth with some very light circumferential ridges from the cam.

The cam itself had zero indication of wear. Maybe a very slight discoloration, but no change in surface roughness and definitely no measurable material removal.

The cam is much harder alloy than the cover. It wears the cover. My first one lasted 100k, if I get 50k out of the next one that's much cheaper than either a new truck or paying the dealer for a camshaft. I actually tried to trade in my truck, broken, because I was too busy to fix it. Glad they didn't have what I wanted in stock.

The cam cover itself was like $13 and easily swapped in less than 20minutes. The rest of the job (timing belt, water pump, cam sensor) took much longer.

I took some wayward advice from the internet and tried to change the cam sensor without removing the cam gear. That was not possible on this engine variant and took me a lot of time. Pulling and reinstalling the gear was easy.

I've got 8k and a lot of towing miles on it since, running great.

I'd advise anyone with the affected engine years and higher miles to just swap the cover preemptively. It's cheap and easy, the sensor is more expensive and you basically need to do an entire timing belt job to get to it.

 

[onerailunder]

Hmm, seems like an easy job. Thinking I might wanna do this...

 

[Chris_R]

So an update now that I got the truck back this afternoon. Honda ended up contributing 3/4 of the cost of the repair, my out of pocket was about $500. All in all I'm less pissed off than I was last Wednesday but my faith in the reliability of a Honda is pretty much gone. I was planning on giving the truck to my son in a few years when he starts driving, but now I'm reconsidering.

If replacing the thrust plate is as easy as shown in the video above I guess I'll replace it preemptively when I go to do the timing belt, assuming I keep the truck that long.

 

[MattGent]

Honda offered me nothing, and corporate customer service didn't know anything.

Mainly I was looking for statistics rather than money or parts and they couldn't offer that either.

 

[stevem5215]

They are all lying. They (Honda) knew about it back in 16'. We saw posts about it back then and I'm sure Honda was PISSED to see that on this forum. They are no better than GM hiding stuff.

 

[Isaace91331]

So an update now that I got the truck back this afternoon. Honda ended up contributing 3/4 of the cost of the repair, my out of pocket was about $500. All in all I'm less pissed off than I was last Wednesday but my faith in the reliability of a Honda is pretty much gone. I was planning on giving the truck to my son in a few years when he starts driving

How did you get Honda to chip in? Dealer wants 4700?

 

[Jeffie P]

Good day all, thanks for those that posted regarding the P0369 code and the causes. My 2017 has about 135,000 miles and this code just came up last week. I continue to drive the truck although the RPM was limited to 2000 which made it difficult to get up to speed on the highway, but I managed. Ordered the thrust cover and sensor.
Thrust cover was Honda OEM camshaft sensor off of Amazon. Finally got time to install it today. Cam thrust cover is easy. Probably about a half hour job and it was the one on the front bank. Measurements indicated.0.020” wear based on New part measurements. Pretty sure the Amazon sensors the wrong one. So after replacing the cover, I took it for a test drive. Everything was good. No fault came up and I did drive it pretty hard on the highway RPMs between three and 4000. Hopefully this helps someone else I’m not a big fan of dropping 1500 or $2000 at the dealership for a simple fix.

I will update here if the fault reappears in the next 10,000 miles or so.

 

[speedfreak0920]

2017 Honda Pilot 135k miles Through P0369 code. Honda quoted $6700 for repair that included oil pump replacement (they saw oil seepage). Asked for “goodwill” help from Honda. We were denied. Found an independent Honda tech to repair. He is writing up the quote now but expect it to be under $2,000. Will this problem rear its ugly head for the other camshaft? Or is this problem only for the (1) camshaft? Sad Honda knows about this but doesn’t offer to help. I’ve been a Honda guy all my life thanks to my first car, 1992 Honda Civic DX hatchback. This might be the last Honda I ever own…