[gaurav_chopra04]

Originally Posted by jatinpatel

The rack leak has come as a shock and utter frustration and anger to me
the thing are the hondas made soo delicately that they cant even handle indian roads properly ?
Mount failuers and also rack failure is a big problem is civic.

I completely understand what you are saying and even I am not very convinced with the quality of parts Honda is using. The AC cooling coil of the civic at home, with 60k kms on the clock has developed a leak and Honda has quoted us 19k for the coil and 4k for gas and labour. This is not a wear and tear part and should not have needed replacement this early.

However, with the rack, until there is a quality constraint we cannot say that there is an issue with the rack. The boots are wear and tear parts and should be checked every 5k kms for damage. If you catch a kaput boot early, you can save a lot of money. This not only goes for the steering assembly but also for the axles. As I said earlier, the problem here is that Honda should get the boot off to inspect the damage and only replace the boot if the inner tie rod and shaft are fine.

The left axle boots of my cedia developed leaks and change of boots has worked for me till now (about 6k kms, fingers crossed). The new axle costs 45k from Mitsubishi. However, they do provide boot replacement if the CV joints of the axle are fine. The 2 boots for each axle costs 6k. I though got it done from outside for 1k (2 boots) plus labour.

My old lancer which had done 1.9lac kms before i sold it never developed a single rack problem and nor has my current lancer done 95k kms.

Please dont talk about the lancer, atleast the 1999-2003 models; even my cedia isnt as reliable as those.. They can take all the abuse in the world and still go on and on..

And to add to the pain the rack of civics uptill first half of 07 is priced for 18k while the rack of civics after that period is 49k

If they are same racks, why dont you buy the 18k one over the counter (if possible) and get it replaced outside..I am sure your contact can help you with this..

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by jatinpatel

now in service it was found that Steering rack boot is toren and steering rack is also leaking oil thus showing an OIL seal failure now i have two option either to get the rack repaired at Honda for 18.5k or get it repaired from outside but the same source from where Honda gets it rack repaired from for 12k
Both options are giving 6months warranty.

I Dont Want To Replace the Rack as its insanely costly
Cost is Rs.48,795

help

Jatin, spending 49K will give the creeps to any one.But by any chance was the car driven on bad roads or anything like that which caused the racks to develop a leak or something.Also how many kms has your car covered till now.Did you notice oil leakage on the parking arear prior to the boot tear ?

Seems like maintaining a civic may not be as a inexpensive affair as i thought it would be .I hope this is not a common issue with civics like the notorious engine mounts.

[sgiitk]

Sent this off to Honda yesterday with a copy to the dealer. So far no reply (Italics added):


I have a Honda Civic AT (UP78******) bought from your local concessionaires M/S Pushp Honda (on 1.6.2010).

The car had an air-conditioning failure which was identified as perforated condenser last Monday (19/12/12). I was assured that the replacement condenser was in stock. I went to the workshop the following day and then they discovered that the condenser was not the correct part. They claim to have been trying to get a condenser for the past week. I have made multiple calls to both Mr Sharad (SA) and Mr Tapan Kr Dev (Manager, Customer Relations). They have been long on promise, but despite repeated assurances about calling me up, I am still to learn about the status regarding the condenser. I have been making daily calls to either or both of these gentlemen with no results.

Honda Service is neither able to locate a condenser, nor are in a position to advise me as to when can I expect the car to be fixed. I am sure that Honda Service can do better than this.

Looking forward to a line in reply.

[dot]

Originally Posted by sumeethaldankar

J
Seems like maintaining a civic may not be as a inexpensive affair as i thought it would be

Actually I am discovering the same. While the car interiors does not rattle and service and many regular wear-tear parts costs are low, a major issue could turn out to be expensive.

I have not updated here about my recent email and direct conversation with Honda. I had written to them about the noise issue, telling how the noise had came down thanks to my own solutions and how they could not do anything about it.

They called me to come for another check up. I asked them a simple question, what additional checks they are going to do as they had already seen the car. I asked them to talk to their technical and R&D people why some Civics makes rattling noise at low rpm under light load, that too at warm conditions only.

Finally through another contact, a different service station had send a SA to my house to check out the car. That guy did a TD, acknowledged that there is a little noise and some Civics do make this noise. Then one day when we were near a particular service center, I had hopped in to have a chat. They recognized the car immediately as the local Service Centers had been internally talking about my car.

Final remedy, take the car in and look at each and every component around the serpentine belt loop and the gear box. They are convinced that engine is fine, it is not a crankshaft or piston noise. This particular service center is slightly better than the one I had gone in summer as they rebuild Honda engines at least twice a month and regularly undertake clutch jobs. I am making a list of things for them to check before opening the gear box. Most likely car will be away for a while at their place in Jan/Feb timeframe.

In the meantime I have driven about 2k kms in the last two months. General ride is super. Latest FE is 11.3 in city.

[jatinpatel]

Okay So sent the car to the an independent and very trusted garage closeby to my place i will be getting my car day after tomorrow.Total cost as of now is 12k.
And buying the 18k rack is not possible cause although the internals of the rack are same there are some minor difference in the mounting points and hence cant be used.

And I swear by my words that if rack repair fails and in the end if I have to replace the rack then am not replacing it but just SELLING my civic, Simply not worth it.

Have to deal with pathetic fuel mileage stupidly insane parts pricing and parts which dont last.

This is the same issue with Accords as well as CRV.

@sumeet
car has done 48k as of now, and Its been driven utter carefully and like a saint by my mom. Her motto "I dont mind reaching destination 15mins late but i don't wanna risk my civic with respect to pathetic roads and traffic"

And I redline car only on good roads for eg Sealink and on bad roads its a crawl.

This rack issue has created an utter hatred for civic.

I wished I could find a decent Lancer Invex so that i can get reliablity of lancer and AT too.

I am just praying that this rack repair works.

And Yes Cooling Coil and condenser failure along with Engine mounts are some of the other plagued problems of civic

[dot]

Originally Posted by jatinpatel

And I swear by my words that if rack repair fails and in the end if I have to replace the rack then am not replacing it but just SELLING my civic, Simply not worth it.

The same thought has cross my mind also. It is an easy way out.

But if the car is sold, I stand to lose a couple of lakhs. And buying a new car means add another additional few lakhs to that. Maybe a repair will be better from a financial point of view.

[sandeep108]

You guys have not experienced Skoda major issues so complain about Honda. 2 or 3 of my friends had problems with their octavias / superbs within 2/3 years and bills were upwards of 6 figures. Now Skoda seems to be fixing things with better / extended warranties, etc.

[Tempelhof]

Last evening, out of the blue, the driver side window went up in a crossed fashion and got stuck. I managed to push it to the right side and closed the window.

This morning I took the car to Whitefield Honda (Bangalore).

The service engineer just called me and told me that the motor that operates the window has gone bad and that it will cost Rs. 13,000 to get a new one !

I have never driven the car with windows open, the car has run about 36,000 kms, but I normally use the driver side window often (to swipe my card).

The vehicle just completed its 35K servicing last month.

Any thoughts? Did anyone else face this type of problem before?

Thanks.

[dot]

Originally Posted by sandeep108

You guys have not experienced Skoda major issues so complain about Honda. 2 or 3 of my friends had problems with their octavias / superbs within 2/3 years and bills were upwards of 6 figures. Now Skoda seems to be fixing things with better / extended warranties, etc.

Totally agreed that Skoda takes the cake when it comes to issues. But Honda is no saint either. That Honda cars are problem free is a myth.

[Ace F355]

My take on the recent flow of problems being reported:

- Most of you who bought pre-owned Civic were aware of the fact that the car costs upwards of 14 lacs brand new, weren't you? Although I do agree with many of you that Honda's spare part price policy is bizzare, however itsn't it because given the fact many of their spare parts are imported! Correct me if I wrong.

- It is situations like this precisely where that infamous after-market support for Hondas come into play. If you do not like the pricing at the service centers, source the part from outside. There are plenty of online spare-part sources available.

- @ Jatin: There is no way I can imagine, your car was being driven on worse roads than on which my car has clocked so many miles! You say it is one common problem in Civics, this is the first time I am hearing about it. Did anyone have had this problem before? Boy, 49k is indeed a lot of money to spend!

- @ dot and sgiitk: Honda service centers were never famous for their excellent service!

- No comparision of Honda Vs Skoda please, at least I haven't heard of horror-stories of vital part replacement with fake ones at Honda!

I understand the rage of people here having problems with their cars, but I personally felt we are flowing with the sentiments about Hondas being problematic. At least you can trust the words of a man moving from one Japanese brand to another (Mazda to Honda) that upkeep costs for past 24,000 kms on my Civic have been less than 1/10th of what I spent maintaining my Millenia-S for her 40,000 kms with me!

[gaurav_diavolo]

Honda comes back to haunt me!!!! The car whenever washed sees the boot getting filled with water....WHY!!! And the steering wheel now makes a clik-clak noise while driving, which Honda says is a common rattle. I dont care if its a common rattle or not, its an uncommon rattle to my ears for god's sake.

Got spare wheel etc. out from the boot and will take the car to Honda today. Fourth visit in three months. Damn.

[dot]

Originally Posted by Ace F355

- Most of you who bought pre-owned Civic were aware of the fact that the car costs upwards of 14 lacs brand new, weren't you?

Ace, this is one of the two things that keeps me going. The other (second) thing being the car itself.

And that is why I am going to repair her, no matter what the cost is going to be. I know it may not be a major thing and I am being a bit paranoid and certainly not being financially prudent. Most owners will ignore it and live with it, but I cannot do that as it will be always on my mind that there is something amiss and it is not being rectified.

[jatinpatel]

@ACE

I knew what i was signing up for when i bought a 15L Civic, but dont you think a car of this price should also offer durablity of the similar cost?

Okay fine parts fail but then what the hell was honda thinking when it decided upon the parts pricing ?
If your charging soo exorbitantly for parts give parts which are durable too na?
Dont you think ?

@dot
I completely agree with you, for petrolheads like us even small negligible issues in our cars irritate us.


The Irritating bit of the whole deal is not that the rack failed its an machine after all it can fail,
Irritating bit is that it has failed soo early in its life and the repair/replacement cost for the OEM part soo HIGH

if rack would had failed at an odo reading of say eve 70-80k i wouldn have even bothered about it, would had got it repaired or even replaced, But its just this premature failure that irritating.

And i suppose all Civic owners would agree with thing is that
You just cant be careless or carefree with the civic as you can be with say a Lancer or OHC or even an Ikon right ?



And lets leave skoda aside only I dont know what do they do in their QC and R&D department specially in case of Superbs and Lauras, Octi is still relatively less problem free from skoda family.

[mjumrani]

Originally Posted by dot

Yes, you are right. 9005 for high beam and 9006 for low beam.

Plan to upgrade the lights has been dropped since there are no feasible options available.

Another niggling issue has cropped up. The rear speaker tray is rattling like a mad person on the stock speakers on songs with high bass. My ear are sensitive to these things (I even heard a engine rattle, it was so light that no one else could hear it but I could, and I had to use an extra sensitive mic to record that noise and make the service manager hear it so he could understand what I was talking about.) and I can't stand the jarring.

Any solution to this, preferrably DIY or will I have to go to a service centre?


On an off note, I have been going to Honda Service Centre (Ring Road Honda) in Peeraghari. The experience has been good when it comes to service.
They looked at my car without any drama and delivered as promised at the right time with the issues resolved. It was mostly small things for which one wouldn't take seriously but they did.

The accessories department executives are not very intelligent though.
I had a problem with the temperature knob after the CASKA unit installation, it had become very stiff. The engineers (or so they think) kept on saying this is how its supposed to be. I was so mad after trying to tell them its not this stiff, ever, I just left since I did not want to start a scene.
The same was resolved next time when I showed it to my service manager (He was on leave the lasttime I had gone) and even he said that those people are idiots.


One suggestion to all future current generation civic buyers, don't get the CASKA unit. Its useless for the most part. The GPS is the only good thing about it. Its a resistive screen, the functionalities don't make any sense, its slow as a turtle and the mic is pathetic. I will post an ownership review of my car soon, will explain everything in as much detail as I can.

[sumeethaldankar]

Originally Posted by Tempelhof

The service engineer just called me and told me that the motor that operates the window has gone bad and that it will cost Rs. 13,000 to get a new one !

Suggest taking the car to a good independent workshop , since the window motor can be considered as non-critical component it would make more sense to try out a independent garage.

Originally Posted by dot

The same thought has cross my mind also. It is an easy way out.

But if the car is sold, I stand to lose a couple of lakhs. And buying a new car means add another additional few lakhs to that. Maybe a repair will be better from a financial point of view.

Stole the words from my mouth.A petrol running Honda will have poor resale value these days.

@Jatin buddy hope the repair works out.Good luck.