[karthikkr]

Congratulations in reaching 1 year, Tejas! I own a Micra now and am looking for a Sedan - this review will help me a lot!!!

Thanks!

[tejas08]

Update on Alternator Belt Grinding Noise

Post the 1st Paid Servicing on 10-Apr-2015, I have had to take my vehicle three times for the Alternator Belt Grinding Noise.

For Three continous Weeks, each Monday morning I have taken the vehicle to Arya Honda Service Center.

13-Apr-15 - Dropped the car at the Service center in the morning. They cleaned the Drive Belt and Lubricated the Pulley (That's what I was told) and observed it for a day and returned the car on Tuesday. Wednesday Evening the noise was back. Informed the Service Manager (Went a level up this time on reporting the issue)

20-Apr-15 - Dropped the car at the Service center in the morning. This time the mechanic removed the drive belt in front of me and turned the car ON. There was no grinding noise when the Drive belt was removed. They replaced the Drive Belt this time and kept it under observation for a day. Returned the car to me on Tuesday. The Grinding noise was back on Thursday. Talked to the Service Manager and decided to give one more try next week before I think about writing to Honda.

27-Apr-15 - Dropped the car at the Service center today morning. Hoping for a good long-term solution to the problem.

It's been frustrating every monday taking the car to the ASC. Spending about 600 Rs. everytime on Fuel, Auto-Rickshaw & Toll.

[govindremesh]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Update on Alternator Belt Grinding Noise

Post the 1st Paid Servicing on 10-Apr-2015, I have had to take my vehicle three times for the Alternator Belt Grinding Noise.

For Three continuous Weeks, each Monday morning I have taken the vehicle to Arya Honda Service Center.

Sorry to hear about this experience. Honda,it seems, is taking their customers for granted. I've had similar experience with the two-wheeler arm of the company while servicing my Honda Trigger.

We've booked a V-MT iVTEC and are awaiting delivery. The SA strongly vouched that the regular service cost of the city would not exceed 2.5K per service and annually, the service cost would be less than 6K.

It would be really helpful if you could post the cost incurred during the first paid service of your car.

Wonder if they have rectified the alternator belt issue in the cars rolling out of Rajasthan factory. Will know once we have the car.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by govindremesh

Sorry to hear about this experience. Honda,it seems, is taking their customers for granted. I've had similar experience with the two-wheeler arm of the company while servicing my Honda Trigger.

We've booked a V-MT iVTEC and are awaiting delivery. The SA strongly vouched that the regular service cost of the city would not exceed 2.5K per service and annually, the service cost would be less than 6K.

It would be really helpful if you could post the cost incurred during the first paid service of your car.

Wonder if they have rectified the alternator belt issue in the cars rolling out of Rajasthan factory. Will know once we have the car.

I wouldn't say that Honda is taking customers for granted. The ASC guys are doing their bit in trying to sort out the problem. Not just the SA but his senior too is now involved in looking at the problem himself.

The treatment by the ASC all the while has been very good. They have borne the brunt of my frustration. It's like they are approaching the problem by eliminating solutions one by one. If I tell them to solve the problem and then give the car to me, it would probably take 7-10 days for them and they'll have to keep the car with them. But what I am doing is when they try out a solution, I use the car for couple of days and check and inform the Service Manager. In fact, om the second occasion he called me up to check whether the problem is solved after couple of days. I said no.

Looks like the ASC guys need to prove to Honda that they have tried multiple solutions before indicating replacement requirement.

For the 1st Paid service costs, please refer post # 4 of this thread. It gives the break-up of each and every cost incurred on the car.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by tejas08

Update on Alternator Belt Grinding Noise

27-Apr-15 - Dropped the car at the Service center today morning. Hoping for a good long-term solution to the problem.

LATEST Update on Alternator Belt Grinding Noise

On 27-Apr-15, the ASC has done the removal and refitment of the Aternator and Crank Pulley. The car was returned to me on 28-Apr-15. The ASC informed me that they had tested th ecar for noise and they felt that the problem was solved.

The noise was back in the evening itself. Waited for the next morning (29-Apr-15) to check again. It was there.

29-Apr-15 Frustrated again, I decided to once more go the ASC and tell them that fix the problem once and for all. I don't want to be coming to the ASC again and again for the same problem. On 30-Apr-15, they did not have an answer to the problem. They said the Honda Tech Team will be coming to the Service centre in first week of May-2015 and the problem will be sorted out alongwith them. I decided to take the car and not leave it at the Service Center for 5 days without any work being done on it.

The Tech Team did not come in the first week and came in the second week of May-2015. So I decided to drop the car at the ASC on 11-May-15. Meanwhile, the issue was escalated to the highest level in the Dealership workshop.

11-May-15 The Alternator was replaced under warranty as per the ASC guys. The car returned to me on 12-May-15.

Post this, there has been no noise heard yet. Hopefully this time the problem is solved once and for all.

[Seran Manian]

Originally Posted by tejas08

LATEST Update on Alternator Belt Grinding Noise

On 27-Apr-15, the ASC has done the removal and refitment of the Aternator and Crank Pulley. The car was returned to me on 28-Apr-15. The ASC informed me that they had tested th ecar for noise and they felt that the problem was solved.

11-May-15 The Alternator was replaced under warranty as per the ASC guys. The car returned to me on 12-May-15.

Post this, there has been no noise heard yet. Hopefully this time the problem is solved once and for all.

That was a great effort to get the problem solved. I don't know how many of us will keep visiting like you did . Hope you have got it solved for ever. All the best. Keep us posted.

[govindremesh]

Originally Posted by tejas08

LATEST Update on Alternator Belt Grinding Noise

Hi Tejas and other City owners,

I put my city in for the first service today (just 10 days into the ownership, clocked 700 KM. A 1000 KM road trip pending this weekend, hence the early service)

I had some doubts and the response from service center was not really satisfactory. I would be glad if you could comment on the same. I'm listing the issues below

Car: V-MT petrol

Complaint: ivtec engine vibrates (slightly)on its mount while at idle (Warm engine, vibrations not noticeable in cabin). Vibrations disappear when revved.

ASC Response: It's normal. (Made a note of it on jobcard on my insistence)

Complaint: Cabin shakes a bit (similar to swift diesel) on engine start-up and shut down.

ASC: Normal.

Complaint: Driver side mirror folding/unfolding is slower than the passenger side mirror.

ASC: Common complaint. Issue with the product design. No fix possible.

Complaint: Rear AC cooling not effective while in automatic mode. Better when in Manual.

ASC: Will check.

An Issue that i missed out: Power window operation causes the door pads to flex in and out. I didn't say this because I did not want them to open the door pads of a new car. Had seen this point in the T-BHP official review.

Am I being too conscious about the issues?

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by govindremesh

I had some doubts and the response from service center was not really satisfactory. I would be glad if you could comment on the same. I'm listing the issues below

Complaint: ivtec engine vibrates (slightly)on its mount while at idle (Warm engine, vibrations not noticeable in cabin). Vibrations disappear when revved.

It's normal. While I was getting my Alternator Area Grinding Noise sorted out, I did check a couple of other cars in the showroom for the noise. As long as the vibration is limited to the mount and just slightly, its normal. Inside the cabin, you shouldn't be noting any vibration.

Originally Posted by govindremesh

Complaint: Cabin shakes a bit (similar to swift diesel) on engine start-up and shut down.

Again seen this on at least three other Honda City. This Vibration is only limited to the cranking. Once the cranking is done and the engine starts it should go away. And also during the shut-down of the engine. During the turning off the engine too its only for a split second unless you are turning the key slowly.

Originally Posted by govindremesh

Complaint: Driver side mirror folding/unfolding is slower than the passenger side mirror.

A design flaw. Have to live with it. Common complaint and observation from many BHPians.

Originally Posted by govindremesh

Complaint: Rear AC cooling not effective while in automatic mode. Better when in Manual.

That's because on Auto Mode at around 23-24 Deg C, the AC Fan is just above slowest. Although the Cabin Cools the Air-flow seems to be not there. Also, this difference is due to 4 AC vents in the front and 2 AC vents (which again do not have a blower, are only vents). I tend to switch to Manual in between on long drives or move the temperature down to 22 Deg C in between.

Originally Posted by govindremesh

An Issue that i missed out: Power window operation causes the door pads to flex in and out. I didn't say this because I did not want them to open the door pads of a new car. Had seen this point in the T-BHP official review

You said it yourself. You have seen in on the official review. It has to do with the thin door panels used to free up more cabin space. Again need to live with it. There's nothing the ASC guys are going to do about it.

Originally Posted by govindremesh

Am I being too conscious about the issues?

It's good to be conscious. This way you keep an eye out for any issues. But make sure you don't get over-obsessed with finding faults and miss out the fun of driving this beauty.

[govindremesh]

Originally Posted by tejas08

It's good to be conscious. This way you keep an eye out for any issues. But make sure you don't get over-obsessed with finding faults and miss out the fun of driving this beauty.

Thank you Tejas. Based on your response, I now know that the car is normal.

Thanks for the advice, I won't brood over much over imperfections.

[tejas08]

Finally decided to BHP-fy my ride.

[srideep233]

Hi tejas08,

Thanks for your ownership report with full details of service cost.

I was planning to by a sedan, and Honda City is one of the cars I am thinking about.

Would be much obliged if you could kindly answer a few questions I had.

1. Did changing to wider tires on day 1 not void (some part of) the warranty?
Did you get new alloys?
Appreciate it if you could kindly post some photos of the new wheels.

2. The sales person who accompanied me on city's test drive said a Rs 10K per year for maintenance is to be expected. From your report it doesn't seem to be so. I guess for those who run less than 10K kms per year, an annual maintenance is ok? The sales person said the City should be serviced every six months.

3. How do you maintain those beige interiors ?

Thanks,

srideep233.

[tejas08]

Originally Posted by srideep233

1. Did changing to wider tires on day 1 not void (some part of) the warranty?
Did you get new alloys?
Appreciate it if you could kindly post some photos of the new wheels.

The logic of the manufacturers say that we have tickled with the car setup. So the warranty would be void. In this case, the suspension and possibly power steering could be a part of that. Again, from the forums I have seen different responses by different SA.

No I did not change the alloys. Alloys are still stock. 5.5J rims are sufficient for 195/60 R15.

Originally Posted by srideep233

2. The sales person who accompanied me on city's test drive said a Rs 10K per year for maintenance is to be expected. From your report it doesn't seem to be so. I guess for those who run less than 10K kms per year, an annual maintenance is ok? The sales person said the City should be serviced every six months.

10K per year is about correct. But beware for the Service Advisor pushing for unnecessary things like AC Disinfectant and Throttle Body Cleaning and stuff like that.

Till the car is in warranty it is advisable to service the car as per intervals indicated by the manufacturer's so that they cannot cry warranty void due to service intervals being not met.

Take a look at the 1st Paid Service Break-up which is at 12M / 20K Kms. The total damage to pocket was Rs. 4344. Add to this Wheel Alignment and Balancing.

Interior and Exterior detailing are personal preferences. That cost can vary based on one's level of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

Originally Posted by srideep233

3. How do you maintain those beige interiors ?

1. No Eating in the Car
2. No Drinking / Smoking in the Car
3. 3M Nomad Mats
4. Interior Detailing once every year
5. Vacuum Cleaning by 3M once every 6 months.

[RJ2285]

Hi Tejas,

Can you update whether the grinding noise issue has been sorted? Also, it's been a while since you have updated the ownership thread.