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.
|
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.
|
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.
|
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
|
|
|
|
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!
|
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.
|
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.
------
And I dream Im on vacation - cos I like the way that sounds -
|
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
|
|
|
AE, that's a good point, well made :-)
Anyway, it might be useful to be on friendly terms with the local AA man.
|
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
|
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.
|
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.
|
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?
|
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.
|
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?
|
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.
|
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
|
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.
|
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!
|
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 . . . .
|
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
|
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.
|
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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
