Just wanted to say that I'm glad I went through with the extended warranty
for my '03 TL-S. I bought the car used sometime at the end of 2005 when it
still had the original warranty...
Three weeks ago, when I took it for the 60K mi mark check up to my dealer,
the dealer told me that they noticed a nock coming out of the lower part of
the engine... To make the long story short, they replaced the whole short
block assembly including the timing belt, gasket kit (rear and front), and
some other parts. The noise was coming from the rod bearings, as the dealer
explained to me. He explained that the previous owner (since he knew I
couldn't be me as I'm very vigilant taking care of the car) must've driven
the car with very low on engine oil or no oil at all for an extensive period
of time thus causing the dangerous rod bearing wear.
I must say that I sort of heard the noise myself too but never gave it much
meaning as it was rather subtle to me. And who knows, maybe the engine even
would have run like that for a while with no significant problems. But hey,
since it's all done under the warranty, costing me only the $100 deductible,
why not be proactive and do the whole thing now. Just out of curiosity, I
asked the dealer how much a repair like this would've cost me with no
warranty and his reply was about $4000. I felt especially lucky after that

Dimitri