[Ragin_Ice]

Two years back, I had given my Honda City ZX for servicing at Hallmark Honda Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Immediately after I got the car back, I noticed that the car used to jerk while changing gears and accelerating, especially when changing from 2nd to 3rd.

I took the car back to Hallmark Honda and they held it back for diagnosing the problem. I went back home and 2 hours later I get a call from the Service Advisor. He

said that 4 ignition coils have gone bad (there are 8 in total) and it will cost about Rs.20,000 in parts and labor to replace them. However, he said that he can help me get it done for Rs.10,000 unofficially. I asked,where was he going to source the parts from? (4 ignition coils) Doesn't Hallmark Honda have an Inventory Management System (IMS) or was he removing it from unsuspecting customers and selling it ahead?

I told him that my car was absolutely fine at the time of servicing. In fact, their car check up/diagnosis which is part of the service routine had also not thrown up anything. And I strongly suspected that my car had its ignition coil replaced with a faulty one. I told him that I will not go ahead with this and escalate it to higher authorities. The service advisor was taken aback and pleaded not to do this. He said he will fix my car at no cost. I got my car back in the evening and was back to normal.

Fast forwarding to last week, I had given the same car for servicing. I got its break pad and wheel bearing replaced. Along with that, I also got the car serviced which included the car checkup/diagnosis. I spent around Rs.21,000 for all of this. In the next few hours, the car started behaving exactly the way it did 2 years back. Same problem, the car jerking while changing gears and accelerating. I took the car to Hallmark Honda and straight away asked for the 'Head of Service'. I explained my ordeal to him and he suggested that we get the car diagnosed. 4 hours later, voila! the same diagnosis, two of the car's ignition coils had gone bad.

Again, this time the service routine where the car is checked didnt throw up anything. The Head of Service (General Manager) did not heed to my suggestion (that these coils are being replaced with faulty ones) and said that problems can occur anytime. In the end, he so much said that I am looking to get the car fixed for free! (yes ofcourse, after spending Rs. 21,000 just last week, I am trying to skimp on Rs.10,000!)

I agree and understand that the car can face issues and parts fail or deteriorate with time and that is precisely why I had no issues spending Rs.21,000 for getting the break pad and bearings replaced.

BUT, what happened with the ignition coils is too much of a co-incidence.

1. On both occasions (now and 2 years back) the car started giving the same problem after service.
2. The service advisor offered to replace the ignition coils for a lesser cost unofficially.
3. The car checkup/diagnostics test for which they charge, didnt throw up anything at the time of servicing.

This is too much of a co-incidence and makes me firmly believe that Hallmark Honda or its employees are up to malpractices.

My fellow members, I wanted to bring this to your notice. I would also like to know your suggestions on what should I do ahead? It is not about money, but about being cheated and stolen from. My father, in all probability would get the ignition coils fixed (as they need move around in the car) and we are buying a new honda city for the same dealership (for which we have paid an advance) but I want to pursue this to the end. Looking forward to your replies.

[swiftnfurious]

In all probability, they are trying to fill their quota by doing this. If you really want to check, you can take the history of cars which underwent the same problem with this dealership and check with their owners. If they keep doing this, am sure you will get a sizeable lead to take it with Honda. I also suggest you talk to other dealers / A$$ or even Honda technical team on the symptoms which will lead to the ignition coil and how long does the car run before a similar issue is noticed. I suggest you build a case on the basis on these tips and finally take it up Honda itself.

Originally Posted by Ragin_Ice

...and we are buying a new honda city for the same dealership (for which we have paid an advance) but I want to pursue this to the end. Looking forward to your replies.

Still?? You got to be insane if you still go ahead with this dealership. Or don't you have any other dealerships around?

[GTO]

The probability of an ignition coil failing once is in the single digits.....that of it failing twice on a Japanese car in less than 2 years is extremely unlikely. They're taking you for a royal ride.

Originally Posted by Ragin_Ice

He said that 4 ignition coils have gone bad (there are 8 in total) and it will cost about Rs.20,000 in parts and labor to replace them.

A Honda City with 8 ignition coils

However, he said that he can help me get it done for Rs.10,000 unofficially.

This offer should have raised a flag. Clearly, the dealership suffers from malpractices by their staff.

I spent around Rs.21,000 for all of this. In the next few hours, the car started behaving exactly the way it did 2 years back. Same problem, the car jerking while changing gears and accelerating. I took the car to Hallmark Honda and straight away asked for the 'Head of Service'.

I'm surprised you even went back to the dealer after the last experience. Out of curiosity, what service was this? 21,000 sounds awfully expensive. Please share the breakup.

I explained my ordeal to him and he suggested that we get the car diagnosed. 4 hours later, voila! the same diagnosis, two of the car's ignition coils had gone bad.

S-C-A-M

we are buying a new honda city for the same dealership

You're really a glutton for punishment, aren't you

Since your car is out of warranty, please recruit the services of a good independent (link)

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by Ragin_Ice

1. On both occasions (now and 2 years back) the car started giving the same problem after service.

My father, in all probability would get the ignition coils fixed (as they need move around in the car) and we are buying a new honda city for the same dealership

When the writing was clearly on the wall two years back, I fail to understand why you had to go to the same dealer for service again and to top it, buy a new car from the same dealer, yet again.

[paragsachania]

May be you must think around this angle too:

Since you mentioned that the car started to show signs of haphazard jerking only after the servicing, I also suspect the people who washed your car.

Not sure with the Honda but ideally these washing folks are trained how not to point the washing gun directly towards parts inside the engine bay.

But I have also seen them employ road side jugnus to only do the washing and wiping when the load is high and they screw up many things and we complain.

Pressurized water on top the Head Gasket cover and there is a likely chance of water droplets making the Ignition coils go bust. Replacement comes second but what you can do is open these coils and blow dry air till the minutest feeling of wetness vanishes from the coil as well as the cylinder head.

My WagonR has this problem 3 out of 10 times I gave for service and the problem would crop up only after driving 10 kms way from the ASC.

Maruti now have come up with Ignition coil with a thick plastic covering in the stem so that there is no room for water to enter inside the cylinder head where this coils are inserted.

[StarScream]

Originally Posted by Ragin_Ice

Two years back, I had given my Honda City ZX for servicing at Hallmark Honda Nerul, Navi Mumbai. Immediately after I got the car back, I noticed that the car used to jerk while changing gears and accelerating, especially when changing from 2nd to 3rd.

I took the car back to Hallmark Honda and they held it back for diagnosing the problem. I went back home and 2 hours later I get a call from the Service Advisor. He

said that 4 ignition coils have gone bad (there are 8 in total) and it will cost about Rs.20,000 in parts and labor to replace them. However, he said that he can help me get it done for Rs.10,000 unofficially. I asked,where was he going to source the parts from? (4 ignition coils) Doesn't Hallmark Honda have an Inventory Management System (IMS) or was he removing it from unsuspecting customers and selling it ahead?

I told him that my car was absolutely fine at the time of servicing. In fact, their car check up/diagnosis which is part of the service routine had also not thrown up anything. And I strongly suspected that my car had its ignition coil replaced with a faulty one. I told him that I will not go ahead with this and escalate it to higher authorities. The service advisor was taken aback and pleaded not to do this. He said he will fix my car at no cost. I got my car back in the evening and was back to normal.

Fast forwarding to last week, I had given the same car for servicing. I got its break pad and wheel bearing replaced. Along with that, I also got the car serviced which included the car checkup/diagnosis. I spent around Rs.21,000 for all of this. In the next few hours, the car started behaving exactly the way it did 2 years back. Same problem, the car jerking while changing gears and accelerating. I took the car to Hallmark Honda and straight away asked for the 'Head of Service'. I explained my ordeal to him and he suggested that we get the car diagnosed. 4 hours later, voila! the same diagnosis, two of the car's ignition coils had gone bad.

Again, this time the service routine where the car is checked didnt throw up anything. The Head of Service (General Manager) did not heed to my suggestion (that these coils are being replaced with faulty ones) and said that problems can occur anytime. In the end, he so much said that I am looking to get the car fixed for free! (yes ofcourse, after spending Rs. 21,000 just last week, I am trying to skimp on Rs.10,000!)

I agree and understand that the car can face issues and parts fail or deteriorate with time and that is precisely why I had no issues spending Rs.21,000 for getting the break pad and bearings replaced.

BUT, what happened with the ignition coils is too much of a co-incidence.

1. On both occasions (now and 2 years back) the car started giving the same problem after service.
2. The service advisor offered to replace the ignition coils for a lesser cost unofficially.
3. The car checkup/diagnostics test for which they charge, didnt throw up anything at the time of servicing.

This is too much of a co-incidence and makes me firmly believe that Hallmark Honda or its employees are up to malpractices.

My fellow members, I wanted to bring this to your notice. I would also like to know your suggestions on what should I do ahead? It is not about money, but about being cheated and stolen from. My father, in all probability would get the ignition coils fixed (as they need move around in the car) and we are buying a new honda city for the same dealership (for which we have paid an advance) but I want to pursue this to the end. Looking forward to your replies.

As someone who owned that Honda City model for over 9 years/160,000 kilometers, I have a question and a few suggestions -
How many kilometers has your car done and how old is it?

The inside ignition coils in i-DSI City do fail. The car has eight - four facing the bumper and four facing the cabin. That is what is special about the i-DSI - the dual spark tech. The inside ones are prone to failure because of the greater heat they have to deal with.

The problem that you faced - the disconcerting jerking at low City speeds - happened in my case around 100,000 kilometers. It was not after a service and was diagnosed in one ignition coil. As in your case, the service center asked me to change all four saying they will eventually all fail. Considering they are Rs. 5-6k apiece, I got only one changed. Six months later another one went and was changed. After maybe 7-8 months, the issue recurred and I changed the last two in one shot. After that the car run about 40k kms and the problem didn't surface until I sold the car earlier this year.

Having said that, the behavior of Hallmark Honda and the timing of the failures is suspicious. That is why I asked how old the car is and how much it has traveled.

The wheel bearings is also a common issue and towards the end of my ownership I was told 2-3 need to be changed but I never got it done because I couldn't hear anything. A car driven for 160,000 kms never had its wheel bearings changed. Even if it starts to fail, it'll only create noise and won't lead to catastrophic failure. I can bet you, that one of the other things they'll soon be asking you to change for close to Rs. 50-60k is the steering rack assembly because they can feel a "rattle" in it. Don't bother if you cant feel it.

In my ownership, the major repairs that I can recall were:
1. An A/C transmission/clutch coupling for 11k (clunking sound from under the car and A/C would stop working).
2. Four rear ignition coils over a year and a half - 20-25k.
3. Front suspension components - 15-20k
4. Towards the fag end of my ownership (close to 160k kms), clutch plate - 13k. Original flywheel was retained.

[amitk26]

Damn expensive ignition coils what is the OEM brand for these ? Can't you buy from an auto parts dealer and fix them yourself ?

[vorajay]

Need help once again. I have a Honda City Gxi 2005 60k kms done, retrofitted with a sequential Lovato Kit. It has clocked 21k on CNG. From last one month I am facing couple of problems:

1. Car Stalls in the 1st cold start of the day especially when swithover to gas happens.
2. Jerks intermittently when you shift gears. Relatively lesser jerks at higher speeds and aggressive at lower rpms.
3. With AC on, RPM dips too low that car shivers when the AC cuts off. Throttle body cleaning doesn’t help. No improvements

To summarize, If I drop power and demand again [Let’s say I am on 2nd and at 2000 rpm, I brake slightly coming down to 1000 rpm and accelerate then car starts coughing badly vert badly, as if it’s choking and about to stall but recovers if I press the clutch and pick up. Second scenario at higher speeds, say 80kmph, I take my leg off pedal and press accelerator again then it slightly hiccups but not that aggressively.

It has become bad lately and I can’t live with that any longer. Mechanic says it can be because of either the Plugs or the Ignition Coils. Is there a definitive way to check if the coils are in good shape or not. To add to misery, this model has 8 plugs and coils. How can you determine if at all any has gone kaput or is something else out of place.

Someone suggested fuel pump or flywheel as the culprit but I doubt that causing such issue. I don’t want to play in blind and have no solution and ending up paying for things that were good

Appreciate your help at the earliest

Rgds,
J