I recently purchased a set of 16 Crower Titainium Retainers for my 2001 Acura Integra GSR. I had a few other performance modifications and decided to "upgrade" my Dual Valve Springs and Retainers to a "high performance" setup.
I did my research and found that Crower products seemed to be good, even if they were not the cheapest. I ordered part number "68185" which was their Dual Valve Springs and then ordered the suggested part "87093" Titanium Retainers. I had these installed by a professional Honda Mechanic and the valves were adjusted after install to verify accurate installation.
All was well for 4000 miles.
I was driving home, and just cruising... I revved to 7000 RPM (my car has a stock redline of 8000). I was just about to shift when I heard a loud sound come from the motor and it died along with clanking really bad. I pulled off, and immediately knew something was really wrong. I called for a tow truck and towed my car to a Honda Professional Mechanic, who inspected my spark plugs and found that the one in cylinder #3 had been bent from contact with the piston. We then pulled the valve cover off and found that one of the retainers on the intake side looked like a donut. The center was broken off perfectly and the outer ring was loose. The center was still attached to the keeper, meaning that it obviously was installed correctly, and the retainer
was definitely a defective part.
The tech said he had never seen anything like that before in his life, with 7 years of Honda Race cars under his belt. I have pictures to show the damage and the situation. I will be contacting Crower tomorrow, but from my research I found 3 others that had this exact problem and Crower told them they would offer no support what so ever. I expect the same treatment.
Since Crower manufactures their own retainers in house, they obviously have a problem with defects. I would expect that they would be a solid enough company to stand up and admit fault when a product is defective, but apparently they have no interest in assisting customers. They are merely in the automotive business for the money.
I now have a 2001 Acura Integra GSR with 15000 miles on the motor sitting on jack stands and unusable. This is unacceptable. I obviously have no faith in Crower products after this incident, but I seriously hope that they are at least a company that is honest enough to admit fault and pay for damages.
I hope the word gets out and that they figure out they need to fix the problem in manufacturing and also assist customers whose engines have been ruined by their products. Hopefully usacomplaints.com can assist me in getting damages to my fairly new motor paid for by the company that caused the damage in the first place...
Gloria C
Freshwater Florida
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