NHTSA Complaint #11556105 — 2017 HONDA RIDGELINE

My wife was driving our 2017 Honda Ridgeline when the engine suddenly stopped running and she lost power steering. She was able to coast a short distance as close to the side of the road as possible. Luckily she was only a hundred yards or so from our house on a quiet side street, however if it had been 20-30 seconds earlier she would have been on the highway or in the middle of a major intersection. There were no warnings or any other indication of a problem. The engine would not start despite a full charge on the battery. After towing it to the dealer for service, the engine was completely seized and they diagnosed it as the connecting rod bearing. The only remedy offered was full engine replacement. Hours after paying $9k for the repair, we saw news articles about NHTSA Campaign 23V751000 for 2017 Honda Ridgelines regarding a manufacturing error for the connecting rod bearing causing engine wear and may cause the engine to seize. Exactly the issue with our 2017 Ridgeline. Our VIN does not show in the campaign, so I believe Honda has mistakenly narrowed the breadth of the campaign or surreptitiously removed our VIN by the dealer since we had already paid on our own. There is also no way for me to verify that the replacement engine will not suffer the same issue. We opted for a used engine over OEM to save money, but were intentionally not warned about the recall before making the choice.