[bkbkr1212]

This is a very good move by Honda. First it was Tata and we all must remember that Tata were recalling cars which might be giving them the lowest possible margin of profit.

Whatever it be, a car is precious to it's owner whether it be a Nano or a Ferrrari, as simple as that.

I am not able to understand one thing though. Is this recall based on customer feedback or Honda/Toyota/Tata themselves found out?

In 2009-10, there were massive recalls of various Toyota variants (mostly in US.)

Hope other car manufacturers like Maruti, Hyundai etc do the same if they find out their cars have similar problems and a recall+fixing is required

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by bkbkr1212

This is a very good move by Honda. First it was Tata and we all must remember that Tata were recalling cars which might be giving them the lowest possible margin of profit.

It was inevitable for Tata do that to protect and nurture a brand (Nano) that they were (and still are) trying to build.

...
I am not able to understand one thing though. Is this recall based on customer feedback or Honda/Toyota/Tata themselves found out?
...

Honda engines are supposed to super reliable, smooth, fuel effiecient, in short, a notch or two better than other brand engines. If this issue was not fixed and had it caused engine problems down the line (say one or two years down the line), it would have caused great damage to the engine reputation of Honda. So they were forced to do this. Had they not done it, imagine many headlines and threads for Honda engine failure and the effect they would have had.

Many other manufacturers have also been fixing issues without publicising. This extends even to 2-wheelers. When I bought the first generation Bajaj Pulsar 180, it had clutch problems. They replaced the clutch and rectified the issue during one of the first services. They did it for all the bikes that were sold then with the problematic clutch.

The first scooter I bought, LML Sensation, had under-rated spark plug. This led to a lot of starting problems. Eventually they upgraded the spark plugs for the vehicle.

Maruti replaced the power window motor/mechanism in many Swifts to eliminate rattles. (Mentioned in one of the older threads)

Tata had to do it publicly to contain the damage that was being caused by the nanos setting themselves on fire.

And Honda is doing it to pre-empt future bad publicity. IMO, they are doing themselves a favour and not us. These issues should not have been there in the first place.

[bkbkr1212]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

It was inevitable for Tata do that to protect and nurture a brand (Nano) that they were (and still are) trying to build.



Honda engines are supposed to super reliable, smooth, fuel effiecient, in short, a notch or two better than other brand engines. If this issue was not fixed and had it caused engine problems down the line (say one or two years down the line), it would have caused great damage to the engine reputation of Honda.

And Honda is doing it to pre-empt future bad publicity.

My question is still unanswered. How do manufacturers find that all the vehicles manufactured between certain dates (in case of Honda recalled vehicles) mostly belong to 2009? Is it based on customer feedback or some other way?

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by bkbkr1212

My question is still unanswered. How do manufacturers find that all the vehicles manufactured between certain dates (in case of Honda recalled vehicles) mostly belong to 2009? Is it based on customer feedback or some other way?

The input could have come from their inhouse QC/Product Development or from customer feedback or both. So if they find a defective design (which seems to be the case here), they simply need to find out the date from which they started fitting the defective component in the vehicles. Today almost all of them track the movement of the components through SAP or other systems. So it is quite easy for them to do this.

it becomes harder to spot defects that are internal (e.g. change in the composition of the material of a component) or defects that are not the result of a bad design. Most of the manufacturers do sampling quality check for critical components. For non-critical components the QC check may not be done frequently once they ensure manufacturing parameters are within the presribed tolerances. In such cases identifying which vehicles have the defective components is difficult.

[bkbkr1212]

@pjbiju.
Thanks for the explanation.
You Post Number is interesting

[Yashodeep]

Hello everyone,

I just happened to check on Honda website whether my NHC mfgd in 2009 is part of the 'product up-gradation' drive. After keying my vehicle chassis number on the honda website search bar, it gave result saying product upgradation is not applicable for my vehicle.

BUT...

I personally checked with the workshop manager at the dealer from where I purchased my vehicle and he confirmed to me that my vehicle is part of the replacement list.

Now, this gives me reason to suspect whether the dealer may take undue advantage of the situation to swap original parts with fake ones. Since most dealers are known to do such malpractices time and again.

Any comments? And how can we safeguard our interest

[bluevolt]

Originally Posted by Yashodeep

BUT...

I personally checked with the workshop manager at the dealer from where I purchased my vehicle and he confirmed to me that my vehicle is part of the replacement list.

Now, this gives me reason to suspect whether the dealer may take undue advantage of the situation to swap original parts with fake ones. Since most dealers are known to do such malpractices time and again.

Any comments? And how can we safeguard our interest

Don't believe them blindly, Honda site is the source of correct information and not the dealer. If the site states that product update in your vehicle is not applicable, then how the dealer claims to be so?

[funkykar]

I have a question thats been haunting me. Why does this apply to a limited number of cars during a limited time frame? How come the problem was corrected on cars post Dec 09? Did Honda know about it then but decided not to make the issue public? I feel its a gimmic not screw up their sales charts. If In end of December 09, if they had made this information public, chances are their sales would have tumbled for couple of months fearing a bad engine. So, did Honda correct the problem, wait for a considerable amount of time (let the customers in bad light and prone to engine issues), to hush it up a bit.

At this point, their sales would not affect too much since there is one bright part of it, that is the cars that are presently manufactured are not having these issues. It wouldnt have been the same feeling to the customers if they announced end of December 09.

Public memory is short, for some time Honda reputation may go bad, they will bounce back.

[pjbiju]

Originally Posted by Yashodeep

...
I personally checked with the workshop manager at the dealer from where I purchased my vehicle and he confirmed to me that my vehicle is part of the replacement list.
...

Please ask the dealer how he checked to find if your car is part of the recall or not. Ask him to do it before you, since you have a different result for the same query, from the manufacturer's website.

[saurabhkanchan]

Originally Posted by Yashodeep

Hello everyone,
Now, this gives me reason to suspect whether the dealer may take undue advantage of the situation to swap original parts with fake ones. Since most dealers are known to do such malpractices time and again.
Any comments? And how can we safeguard our interest

first and foremost, try to get in touch with Honda directly to verify if your vehicle fall under the category for replacement.

Insist on carrying out the replacement infront of you. Note the part number of the part being replaced and removed, and insist on it being mentioned on the invoice being generated at the end of the day

Take pictures of the part being installed and the part removed, if possible picture the part number also.

[crazyro]

Great Job Honda. Even though my ANHC is in the list I am happy for this pro-activeness shown by Honda. Mine has done 23000 kms without any issues so far. Honda is only trying to avoid future issues. I am not sure why some people are not happy with such an initiative. They have agreed to a potential problem in their product which has only affected 0.01% of the cars so far. I think we should support such a gesture which will encourage other companies to follow suit.

[Skyline GT-R]

Tata had upgraded the front suspension parts of Gen1 Indica for free, If I'm not mistaken.

M800 rules! - 26 years - No recalls - No problems?

[INDIAN_VAGABOND]

Originally Posted by INDIAN_VAGABOND

Guys.,

It seems the very correct thing for a ANHC owner to do now is to take the moral high ground regarding this faulty engine part recall and say "Kudos to Honda for makng the recall" .
This is because we are ashamed of publicly accepting the fact that we have been shortchanged by a manufacturer who charges a premium ( and quite lots of it) in the name of reliabilty.

What Honda deserves now is Brickbats and not Kudos - and let ANHC owners like us come out of the closet and be frank about it ...
I dint shell out a premium of 2 lakhs on my sedan to have quality and reliability related issues so soon.

Am heading to the showroom for replacement .. and the grapevine is that the replacement may not just be a permanent solution to the problem, which may have larger engine-reliability linked issues.

I seriously hope this is not a feel good exercise from Honda to cover up some larger issues with the engine ..

Best of luck to the 58000 owners of which am one ...

IVB

I had called up my dealer yesterday since the website indicates my car is due for replacement .

But he tells me the schedule will be promulgated by HONDA themselves and then he will let me know .

Can someone clarify ?

[Yashodeep]

my dealer told me that my car is in the list but they will only call me once they receive the part from honda for my car.

[wolf_lone]

"Lost motion springs, which are compressed by rocker arms in normal engine use, may bend or break over time, resulting in abnormal engine noise and potentially causing engine stalling and problems in re-starting, the company said.

Off late I was experiencing sudden shut down of engine at lower RPM's & also ever since I bought the car I felt like its a little noisy. It was making noise as much like any Diesel CRDI engine. The noise was not smooth as a petrol engine noise is suppose to be. My Honda City is on the list & needs the replacement of spring. Lets see if my problems were 'coz of this manufacturing fault & I hope it has not done any more damage to other components...