NHTSA Complaint #11656921 — 2017 HONDA ACCORD

On Sunday, March 30th, while driving on the highway, the car jerked and a hard vibration was felt before the engine died. The orange engine light flashed two or three times on the instrument panel but that was it. The owners manual states that a flashing orange engine light indicates a misfire. No other lights prior to that moment had illuminated on the instrument panel. The car is a 2017 Accord Sport with approximately 101k miles. Purchased in November 2021, this is the first time there’s ever been a problem and my car is maintained regularly. The car was towed to a local mechanic and I was told there was a misfire on cylinder 3, the valve spring is broken, the valve is bent, and the timing chain is loose. I was told I need a new engine. I don’t understand what happened because there was no warning or indication that anything was wrong. The safety concern is that the car died while driving on the highway and the vibration and jerking was scary trying to control the car while traveling at high speeds. I called Honda directly and I was told that my vin isn’t included in any recalls so there’s nothing they can do to help. I know there was a service bulletin in 2019 for the cam chain tensioner but I don’t know if this car was serviced since I bought it in 2021. I can’t afford to replace the engine and I’m still making payments. My VIN isn’t included with the fuel pump or oil pump recalls despite now including the L4 2.0 engines. This is my third Honda and I’ve never had anything like this happen before. The customer service rep said there was nothing they could do to help after confirming that my vin wasn’t included in any of the recalls. I had the car towed to a Honda dealership earlier this week for a deeper look into how and why this happened and the tech said the engine suffered a catastrophic failure. He also stated that he’s never seen anything like this before - referring to the broken valve spring. Valve springs are not wear and tear items.