My FD2 "hospitalized"....

As mentioned earlier, I checked my FD2 into the Honda SC in Muar, Mr Lee later confirmed with me that the sound was definitely coming from my 3 year old K20Z2, with just under 40,000 k's on the clock.

Describing the troubleshooting procedure to me, I caught on that they'd have to remove the oil pan and peer inside first. If that turned up empty, they'll proceed with the 2nd block. Ha, ha. Never thought my engine would be taken apart in its lifetime....

The night before, I took my car round for a spin, for what I anticipate to be our last ride together for a long, long time. Once the revs rise, there's no tell tale sign of engine trouble. Only during idling and the first few moments of acceleration from standstill does the soft but sure "tak-tak-tak" whisper to me. Don't want to be caught dead in the middle of the road like the guy from Initial D when challenging the Evo (thought that would add a bit of drama to the story). Plus, delays would inevitably result in more damage and higher repair cost, not to mention a higher risk to me and my passenger(s)!

Side issue, while taking the roundabout at MITC (the smaller one with nothing in the middle), the car in front of me nearly "merged" with the car in front of it (looks like a near miss of inches). Luckily, trailing from a safe distance, I swerved to avoid the two (who were at that moment stopped right in the middle of the road, still on the roundabout). Even so, missed the nearest car by a foot. Accidents can happen in spite of our best driving practices, so we should always drive in a manner that would allow us to respond to a dangerous situation. Or, as my dear father advises, "assume all other drivers on the road are 'incompetent'". 'Incompetent' wasn't exactly the word he used (though it has a very close meaning), but let's use it to avoid offending anyone reading this....

Well, just out of interest, I'll be counting the days till my ride is up and running once again. I'm curious to know how speedy (or slow) Honda is when it comes to fixing cars. As my experience with the team at this service center has been nothing else but commendable, I reckon that the major bottlenecks would be a) the time to isolate the actual root cause of the problem and b) ordering spare parts (hopefully, not all the way from Japan!). The first one could be quite fast, having more or less isolated it to the engine block. The second, well, is really out of any of our hands.

In retrospect, I compare with my experience with my Digital SLR camera system. In that situation, the team performing diagnostics and repair was unfamiliar to me, and neither was there comprehensive feedback on the status of repair. To cut a long story short, my cumulative disappointing experience on service and support has resulted in my discontinuation of any further purchase from that particular brand of DSLR (and lens). But that is a different story - only after 6 months were me and my gear finally reunited. I hope that in the case of my FD2, it does not take half a year before I hear the sweet sound of the humble I-VTEC motor again....

Thus on this note, for the official record, DAY 1 and counting....