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Warranty Repairs - patrickh
Have had a couple of experiences with Honda garages that lead me to believe that Honda are giving their dealers a rough deal with respect to warranty claims.

The first issue was a faulty bluetooth device which my supplying dealer could not repair due to a design fault. This ultimately led to a very difficult discussion where they have blamed the whole issue on Honda and feel badly towards me because they have lost money on the attempted repairs.

Recently I took my car to another dealer with a cold running problem, which has been there for 4 weeks with no resolution. It would appear that the dealer is only working on this at quiet times as they are not reimbursed by Honda unless they carry out a recognised repair e.g. replace a faulty component. I strongly suspect this also means that they are taking spares off 'donor cars' to assist fault finding. The end result is that the car is taking too long to be fixed and to be honest whilst I have every sympathy for the (very courteous and helpful) dealer in question, it means that my 'super-reliable' Honda is not much use at the moment.

I would be interested to know if this is a common situation as I have been told it is not unique to Honda


Warranty Repairs - Pendlebury
I have experienced this with one of the european brands which caused me to buy Honda and fortunatley I have not had any cause to use the dealer for any warranty work. If I find out this is the case then I doubt I would buy another Honda in all honesty. My reason for buying is firstly reliability and then I want to be safe in the knowledge that anything that does go wrong gets fixed quickly.
I am suprised (but I do not doubt what you say) by what you say because judging by the reliability of their cars their warranty costs should be very small relative to other brands.
My experience of Toyota is that I have had problems with the cars but the dealers have always been very helpful and I got the feeling that was supported by Toyota UK.
It would be interesting to see how this thread develops because Honda could lose customers if this is the case.
Warranty Repairs - J1mbo
How old is the car? Mileage? Did you purchase it new??
Warranty Repairs - Pendlebury
I began to wonder the same question J1mbo as after I posted above I was thinking about this and it reminded me of how Honda supported auto gearbox repairs in cars that were 5 years old - and they did it without question.
I am not doubting in any way patrickh but a reminder of age and mileage may help us understand the issue a bit more.
Warranty Repairs - patrickh
The car is 21 months old and has done 62000 miles.

The first problem occurred when new and cause my supplying dealer no end of grief as they replaced the radio and sat-nav system. It was only when they had a second car with the same problem that the penny dropped. They told me that Honda wouldn't support the bluetooth system as they had developed a new built in system in the 07 Accords.

The second problem occurred more recently and I had to go to a second dealer because the first was unable to even look at the problem. The second dealer has been very helpful but is struggling for the reasons I have mentioned in my previous post.

I guess my point is that Honda make very reliable cars, but when they go wrong, unless it is a known fault the dealer network isn't set up to deal with it. The evidence speaks for itself as a car shouldn't still have a undiagnosed fueling fault after more than 5 weeks in the garage.
Warranty Repairs - daveyjp
"They told me that Honda wouldn't support the bluetooth system as they had developed a new built in system in the 07 Accords."

A colleague has an S type with bluetooth which didn't work when he tried his phone in it. Jaguar had changed the system in the car, hence the problem. It was all sorted under warranty.
Warranty Repairs - Ruperts Trooper
Perversely, reliability can be a double-edged sword - dealers of brands with high reliability under warranty have much less experience of investigating and fixing problems than dealers of low reliability cars.

Just an observation, as it doesn't alter the buying decision, we all want a reliable car.
Warranty Repairs - Altea Ego
"They told me that Honda wouldn't support the bluetooth system as they had developed a
new built in system in the 07 Accords."


Dont blame Honda for the bluetooth issue. Bluetooth is basically a set of universal standards. Nokia for example drove and led the bluetooth take up, serving on the body to set the standards. Nokia then proceeded to implement bluetooth on their phones without using all the standards or functions.
------
< Ulla>
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
I'm sitting in the waiting area of a Honda dealer waiting for them to have a look at the cold running problem on my Accord Tourer at the moment.

Fri night I got back late from a 24 hour trip to Munich, and had great difficulty pulling away from the car park barriers. After nearly getting rear-ended when I couldn't pull onto the M11 roundabout, I pulled into the services. AA came out and diagnosed a probable EGR valve (as predicted by Manatee on the Tech forums). A cold hour later I was able to drive home.

Sat morning, I was unable to rouse the service depts of two local dealers. One just didn't answer, one promised to ring back and didn't. As both have previously messed up services, I'm trying a much further away dealer - traffic on the M42 meant that it's just taken me 2 hours to get here. I'll report back when I've been given a diagnosis / solution.

Honda - proof that statistics may not help in individual cases.
Warranty Repairs - patrickh
"Dont blame Honda for the bluetooth issue. Bluetooth is basically a set of universal standards. Nokia for example drove and led the bluetooth take up, serving on the body to set the standards. Nokia then proceeded to implement bluetooth on their phones without using all the standards or functions."

I should have explained the main issue with the bluetooth system was not its ability to connect to phones but the effect that it had on my combined sat-nav audio system. I agree in the early days there were compatibility issues but they seem better these days.

BTW - latest theory is that water if freezing in the fuel filter hence causing starvation when cold.
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Well, having sat waiting for two hours getting some work done, I went and asked how long it was going to be.

Turns out the keys and paperwork were on the service reception desk. The fuel filter has been changed, apparently. I'm surprised, it was changed in October at the 50k service. Well, at least I was charged for "strainer comp, fuel" at £25.92.

Wasn't impressed with the service, the car's not been washed, the car smelt of diesel for the first 5 miles, and I noticed once I was back on the motorwar that about 1/5 of a tank of diesel has gone missing - at least 10 litres at a guess.

Not happy. Not convinced they've done anything but fob me off. Would now not recommend Honda to anyone - I've never had another car that's left me stranded, let alone twice in two years. I know that's an anomaly, but the dealer service is very poor.

Thoughts as to where to go now?
Warranty Repairs - patrickh
Gordon

Was your problem related to cold starting- mine only occurred in the first 5 minutes after starting. If so I guess you won't know till tommorow if it has fixed it. Would appreciate an update.

My dealer is carrying out a pretty major bit of work at the moment following a new Honda service bulletin that was issued on Friday - it sounds like more than the filter.

On the subject of service from Honda - the main office at Slough will not contact me to discuss despite phone calls, emails and a letter. How do you get them to take ownership?
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Patrick, mine has only ever been when it's cold, but isn't so much starting, which is no problem, but running. When the fault occurs, anything over 1500 rpm is not happening if you see what I mean? Think of a petrol running on 3 cylinders, but without the roughness, and you'll get some idea. No turbo at 2k rpm as well, which is a bit odd.

It's never been below freezing when it's happened tho, so I don't buy the freezing idea. We'll see over the next few weeks I guess.

Regarding ownership - I had no problems at all with getting hold of Honda UK last time. They got straight onto it and were excellent. It's only their dealers who need shooting in my experience. Perhaps it's all going downhill tho?
Warranty Repairs - patrickh
Gordon - your symptoms are the same as mine - I would like to know when you think it is cured.

Thanks
Warranty Repairs - joenormal
I can not comment on Blue tooth, but generally my Honda Dealer has been superb, I got new alloys - Twice, year after year due to pitting (and I had scuffed them), also a new front light which had clouded.

D.
Warranty Repairs - Avant
Gordon - when you come to change, I can highly recommend the Golf estate 2.0 TDI or the very similar Skoda Octavia 2.0 TDI. Choosing between them might depend on the quality and location of the dealer: clearly the last thing you want is another dud dealer.

The Golf will hold its value better, but the Skoda is also available as a vRS with 197 bhp petrol or 170 bhp dlesel power.

I hope that Ian Johnson (ijws) will keep us posted in another thread as to his progress with replacing his Accord Tourer. I've forgotten why he doesn't want another Honda, but I don't think unreliability has been the problem.
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Thanks Avant, both undoubtedly excellent cars - indeed I recommended that my parents got a 2.0 TDi Octavia. Unfortunately both are a bit small for my needs.

For work I need to get our equipment in the boot and covered, otherwise I'm not able to leave the car unattended at any time. Means that the Honda is just large enough, I'd have to go for something like a Mondeo (a real option), A6 Avant or suchlike if I was replacing. But frankly, by this time next year I'm going ot have 14k sunk into the car, so I'm reluctant to change it.

Thing is, I'm really not dissing the car - statistically they are reliable, it's the dealers that have caused most of the problems. We'll see, I've not used the car since driving it home form the dealer, so the test is going to be over Xmas. Can anyone see the flaw in that? Ah well, finger's crossed.

Merry Xmas all!

Gord.
Warranty Repairs - patrickh
Have had the latest update from the garage. Thus far the car has had new exhaust manifold, air flow sensor, fuel filter and possibly ecu. The car appeared to be ok but now needs an egr (or something) valve. They hope to get one in on Monday so I can have the car back for Christmas.

Gordon - I sort of agree with you about the car it is nice, but I think the real problem is the poor support that Honda give dealers. I have now experienced two dealers and they have both been left in the lurch by Honda. The current dealer has dealt with a bad situation well, whilst the previous one has just given up and blames Honda for problems. Like you I am stuck with a car that really would like to dump, but the resale will be poor. I will not buy another.


Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Well, the car's still broken, and now it?s Xmas as well. But at least this time it has had the decency to still play up when the AA came to look at it.

Trouble is, despite not revving at all, and no turbo spinning up, there are also no error codes beyond 'misfire'. So, it needs to go to Honda. Over Xmas. When I doubt any dealers will be open. I don?t know, it?s hard to tell, my local dealers don?t give any indication of their opening times.

Patrick, perhaps you could contact me via the moderators? It might be useful to pool experience on this one, as it?s just been described by the recovery guy as ?the biggest nightmare that you can have on a newish car ? a clear fault but no fault codes?.
Warranty Repairs - Screwloose
?the biggest nightmare that you can have on a newish car ? a clear fault but
no fault codes?.


There speaks a bio-robot. Fault-codes are only a guide - not the fault itself. To interpret them, you need a comprehensive knowledge of the system that flagged them and the ability to reason out what the ECU really saw to make it log them.

Here we seem to have an intermittent fault - always the trickiest to diagnose. It is essential that the man[?] investigating the problem thoroughly interrogates the driver - the only holder of the crucial information necessary to build a picture.

If this is an EGR fault; then large quantities of black smoke would have been produced when it tried to rev.

Are there any rattles from the front of the exhaust?
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
No obvious rattles at all, although it does sound a bit rough when the revs are settling back down once it's a bit warmer and you can get it to rev a bit more.

It's always been dark, but I don't think there are any palls of black smoke when trying to rev.
Warranty Repairs - Avant
Not sure whether yours is a petrol or a diesel, Patrick (I suspect the latter in view of your high mileage), but I suspect that Honda's reputation for reliability is built on its petrol models.

SWMBO had a Jazz and a Civic - both were faultless, and petrol-powered. There haven't been Honda diesels for very long, and maybe we're seeing problems now that some of them are putting on the miles.
Warranty Repairs - rtj70
good point on Honda being new to diesels. Hope they are reliable like the petrolz.

As for EGR failure. Had two or was it three go on the Mondeo Tdci....

... Cannot remember which way round but one stuck open and other closed. One had no power before 2000rpm and lots of smoke. Other lost power and revved badly and then cut out totally a d would not restart. Made a strange quaking type noise too.

Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Have been onto Honda this morning. There is nobody there to deal with either the car or giving me a courtesy car. Basically tough.

I'm going to have some breakfast and a calm down, then get back onto Honda Assistance. I'm supposed to be guaranteed a courtesy car if mine is out of action for more than 8 hours.

Only bright side that's occurred to me overnight. It's on PCP, and I'm more than half way through, so I could cut my losses and give it back if worst comes to worst.
Warranty Repairs - Bill Payer
Only bright side that's occurred to me overnight. It's on PCP and I'm more than
half way through so I could cut my losses and give it back if worst
comes to worst.

Is that correct for a PCP?

You can walk away from an HP agreement once you've paid half the amount owing.
Warranty Repairs - Avant
You can end a PCP at any time without penalty, but if the car is less than (usually) 2 years old there will be some negative equity as the car's value will be less than the amount you still owe.

I got rid of my B-class after 18 months and there was still several hundred pounds of negative equity - but the last 4 months and 7500 miles in the Golf have been so enjoyable that it was worth it.

But if the agreement is over 2 years old and the car is one that holds its value well, as I think Accord Tourers do, it could be worth getting shot of it. If the Golf and Skoda are too small (are you sure - both are roomier than they look) there are the Passat and Mondeo which are much roomier, and both 2.0 diesels are good to drive.

And depending on the T & C, you should be able simply to hand it back if that gives you a better deal.

Edited by Avant on 23/12/2007 at 16:50

Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
The car has gone into the Honda dealer this morning after a pre-arranged pickup from the AA. The AA have also sorted me out a Vectra, authorised until the 27th initially. It's all gone smoothly this morning really, I wasn't expecting to be mobile again by 10.

The garage tell me that they won't be able to look at my car until the 27th, so I'm going to try and get Honda to authorise another day to give them a chance to see if they can mend it. I've been told not to hold my breath until the 2nd tho.

Hohum. Merry Xmas all!
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
I clearly have my unlucky hat on at the moment. The flywheel failed (?AA diagnosis) on the hire Vectra the AA supplied last night after less than 200 miles in my hands. The car had only done 17k, but felt more worn than cars I've driven at 200k! I ended up stuck in the middle of Bassetts Pole roundabout on the A38 for almost 2 hours until I was recovered.

Grrr.
Warranty Repairs - Altea Ego
Well Gordon, it was only authorised till the 27th. It just died a few hours early thats all. It was obviously a pretty good estimate of its lifespan.
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And I dream Im on vacation - cos I like the way that sounds -
Warranty Repairs - cheddar
Reckon getting a hire car authorised until the 2nd at least should be the case now, real hassle having to phone to extend hire cars, let alone changing hire cars at this time of year.


And I dream Im on vacation - cos I like the way that sounds
-


Good album! Needs a few more listens to get fully familiar though was good company for our two day, two stop, 300 mile Christmas family round trip.

Edited by cheddar on 27/12/2007 at 10:36

Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
AE, that's a good point, well made :-)

Anyway, it might be useful to be on friendly terms with the local AA man.
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
I now have a Saab 95 Saloon. Don't know about engine, but it's an auto petrol with a turbo, so can't be that bad. Lots of leather and stuff as well.

Signed off until the 2nd, so I'm off on holiday. Hurrah!

Edited by Gordon M on 27/12/2007 at 17:10

Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
I?ve got my Honda back.

When the Vectra died and was taken away I negotiated directly with the manager of my local hire car company about getting something appropriate. He was understandably quite embarrassed about the first car failing, and was quite helpful. Rather than taking something immediately, I said I wanted something big, and was happy to wait until the end of the day if necessary.

I ended up with a Saab 95 2.3t auto. Quite a nice car, though not as quick as I?d expected, pretty thirsty (27 mpg on Wales trip, 32 mpg on 99% motorway run to Orpington) and not as good to drive as I?d thought it would be either. It has very low geared steering that makes it feel quite lost on mountain roads, and it manages to give an impression of impending understeer that strongly encouraged me to keep things very calm indeed. Also the seats appear to be the same as the 93 I tried before buying the Honda. A bit lacking in lumbar support, and with non-adjustable headrests that are far too far forward ? less of a problem for me than for my gf, who needed a pillow behind her not to have her chin forced towards her chest. Great car for A-road overtaking though, although he sport button didn?t appear to help in the slightest as it seems to have the most shove at lower revs.

Anyway, the Honda. It refused to play up before Xmas or on the 27th, but finally did on the 28th, when I was off on holiday. Fair play to the service manager ? he simply said to take the Saab and he?d speak to me on the 2nd. When I left, he?d still not managed to get my car to play up, so he?d asked increasingly detailed questions about the symptoms.

I spoke to him on the morning of the 2nd, and they?d replaced the alarm sounder as apparently it had been going off. They were also pretty sure they had tracked down the problems to the EGR valve sticking open. As I needed to go to London for work, the Saab was signed off until the 4th without a murmur or my having to request it. On the 4th, I was told that my car was ready for collection, and that I could do so at my convenience. I was actually offered any time Fri evening, over the weekend, or on the Monday, whatever was most convenient, and keeping the Saab until I collected.

In the end, I opted to just go get my car back. I dropped the Saab at the nearest car hire outlet (didn?t have to, but wanted to supervise the check-in), was given a free taxi to the dealer, and found a fully valleted car. It?s early days, but it appears to be okay and working fine. I?m also a lot less annoyed with Honda after they went to some lengths to minimise the ongoing disruption to me, and actually appeared to be taking the problem seriously (direct line to service manager, updates about progress, no hassle on courtesy car). Time will tell.
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
An update.

I've now done about 1500 miles since getting the car back from the dealer. Although the problems are enormously improved, the car still isn't running quite right. The overall impression is that of hesitancy: the effect is rather like that you get when you're driving at high altitude, you need more revs to get the turbo spinning and the engine is completely gutless below about 2400 rpm. However, it does pull normally above that.

This has been completely reproducible for the last 1200 miles. As luck would have it, it was booked back into the Honda garage this morning for more work to be done. Having misbehaved all the way up to the Lake District, the car began driving normally on the way back last night, and behaved itself absolutely perfectly at the garage this morning. I took the service manager for a 20 minute test drive, the car pulled hard from low revs, had no turbo lag, and generally was exactly as it should have been. Good in some ways, but extremely frustratingly because it leaves us no further towards finding what the actual problem is.

Good news is that Honda do now seem serious about finding out what the problem is. The car is booked in next week for three days so they can try and reproduce the problem, if that doesn't work then things will be a bit more difficult.
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
A question that should maybe be in the technical section? As I just outlined above, the car was running normally when running on fumes. I tanked it with £63 of V-Power diesel last night, and the car instantly started hesitating again.

Obviously as a one-off this is inconclusive, but does this give any pointers as to what other causes of the problem there could be?
Warranty Repairs - Altea Ego
A question that should maybe be in the technical section? As I just outlined above
the car was running normally when running on fumes. I tanked it with £63 of
V-Power diesel last night and the car instantly started hesitating again.


How low did it get? You may have picked up some scum thats been floating around in your tank? Possible this is a seondary "symptom" introduced that may be cleared with a new fuel filter?

Just a hypothesis dont want it confusing your main problem.
Warranty Repairs - cheddar
Could be that the fuel tank is not venting properly, perhaps leave the cap a little loose and take it for a run - be careful! You dont want to spill a couple of gallons of diesel as you corner in front of a motorcycle.

Otherwise do you know it it has a lift pump as well as the CR HP pump?

Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Cheddar, I wondered about the venting issue - it was the only thing I could think of that would make the fuel more difficult to get out of the tank when it was full. I have no idea if there is a lift as well as a CR pump - I will ask the garage.

I'll try the leaving the cap slightly loose, but not until I've burnt off a bit of fuel - don't want a motorcyclist on my conscience.
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
How low did it get? You may have picked up some scum thats been floating
around in your tank? Possible this is a seondary "symptom" introduced that may be cleared
with a new fuel filter?


I put 55 litres into a 65 litre tank, so not that low really. I can't remember ever letting it get lower. The thing is, the problem came back with a full fuel tank, not went away. The car is on a brand new fuel filter tho, the second in 8k miles.

Edited by Gordon M on 29/01/2008 at 16:47

Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Well it's left me stranded for a 4th time this morning. As usual, at the worst possible time. It's now ruined a foreign holiday, left me by the side of the road at Xmas, and now won't start when I have to present to 200 people in an hour and a half. I'm on the train and should get there in time, but no demo of kit today.

Basically won't start, will turn over, but only catches on one or two cylinders and lots of black smoke out the back. I decided to leave it after two or three attempts, no sense in writing the thing off (although it's tempting!).

Kit wouldn't go in the back of a taxi, no hire cars at local place on no notice (they needed an hour) so on the train am I.

So, so annoyed.
Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
On a lighter note, just got this suggested message for Honda from a friend I texted while waiting for the train:

----
Dear Honda,

Words cannot express my deep disapointment with the reliability of my Accord tourer. The performance of this vehicle in the last two months has been at best commical, at worst down right disgraceful. I would expect better reliability from a kit car screwed togther by a group of reception age school children, or even a Renault. For the love of god, infact life itself, would you please repair my car, properly. Is that too much to ask???
----

I think he's got a point!
Warranty Repairs - ijws15
Gordon

Sorry to hear of your problems, I presume the dealer you drove round the M42 to was Shirley, mine generally goes in there as it is the nearest to work.

Two weeks ago they MOTd mine and I asked them to sort out the courtesy lights which are working intermittently (drivers only). Bulb is fine as occasionally it comes on when I am driving. I do not believe they did anything as it still shows the same fault.

Some time ago they were going to do something while I waited (and I turned up at the booked time) just to see the car stand for 30 minutes...... Service manager saw the point when I explained it to him.

Nearly as bad was the earlier dealer on the A45 who had the car booked in for second service and a minor warranty job, when it came back I was told they could not do the warranty work as they had lost the Honda franchise the day before! Now Mitsubishi.

They are far from the standard I would expect from a company who are reputed to sell largely to the public rather than companies. I am still very happy with the car but the dealers . . . .
Warranty Repairs - cheddar
a group of reception age school children or even a Renault. For the love of
god infact life itself would you please repair my car properly.


Its nearly funny though the Renault reference makes it simply crass because there is no reason to think that if you had 10 year old Laguna estate on your drive you wouldnt have got your kit to the presentation !!!!!

Worry about your Honda and not comments about other makes that are really way off reality.

Honda and snob can go together, please dont go down that road!

-----------

Gordon, I was feeling sorry for you after reading the 10:46 post, a little less so after the 10:49 post.

All the best anyway!

Edited by cheddar on 01/02/2008 at 14:03

Warranty Repairs - Statistical outlier
Cheddar, you're taking my post far too literally. It was intended entirely as tounge in cheek, and I meant no offence to Renault, their owners, or any backroomers. Insert any car there that might be stereotyped in a comedy fashion.

Seriously, this is the first non-French car I've ever had. And it's the first to leave me stranded by the roadside once, let alone four times!! Actually, that's not quote true, my 405 did konk out once, but a change of amplifier by the roadside got it going again within an hour.

The email was entirely meant as a comical rant at Honda that I wouldn't dream of actually sending. Please don't take it literally!

Saying that, I am pretty annoyed, I just failed to demo to a very serious potential customer - the fault could now have potentially cost my company (MY company) tens of thousands of pounds. Not happy. I'm now on my way back home to call the AA and go through the whole sorry tow it to the garage saga again.
Warranty Repairs - cheddar
Cheddar you're taking my post far too literally.>>


Perhaps so I accept that and apologise.

We have a Renault and a Ford, combined age 14, had one since new, one since nearly new, combined mileage around 180,000, have suffered less faults between them than your Honda and only immobile twice, flat battery on the Clio fixed in 30mins and sticking brake caliper on the Mondeo when nearly new.

Moving on, I would rant at Honda and remind them of their well earned reputation.

However I feel that Honda and Toyota may have got to where VW did a couple of years ago, VW had a good reputation for reliability and marketed on the back of it ("a man has to have one thing he can rely on" etc) though got to the point where the reality could not sustain the reputation.