Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure

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Mon 20 Jul 2020 14:04
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - Enreves

Hi All,

First time posting here - please be gentle! I have relatively happily owned my HR-V for 18 months, buying approved used from a dealer on the south coast. Come lockdown it sat on the drive for 3 months, from the end of the extended warranty until I drove it down for its annual service and MOT at the end of June. I advised dealer Air Con wasn't working, although it had been when I drove it before, in Feburary. A bit of investigation later and now I am faced with a £2243.11 bill that has been reduced by 60% to £897.24 as apparently at some point in the 10 miles I drove from the point of expiry of the extended warranty to the dealership, the compressor, clutch, stator and filter sub assembly all wrote themselves off.

This doesn't feel like the sort of thing that just happens, and I would probably point at some sort of manufacturing fault, especially as Honda wanted to use it to do a strip down investigation of the part. Vehicle has 26000 miles on it. The majority of damage appears to have been caused by one of the parts being turned into 'metal filings' which then damaged other parts.

I have spoken to Honda directly and they say there is nothing more they are willing to do, despite one of their representatives admitting that the part could have started to break down months ago. Have I got a leg to stand on here or should I just swallow the 'out of warranty' bill, sell the car I no-longer trust, and move on?

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Mon 20 Jul 2020 17:44
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - elekie&a/c doctor
Come on Honda ! A catastrophic failure of the ac system after 26k miles is not acceptable. There must have been an inherent fault in the system for this to happen . Sounds like the compressor has toasted itself and contaminated the system with debris. If this is the case , then it’s imperative that the system is flushed, otherwise you’ll be doing it again. The fact that the dealer is offering a bargain deal to do the job, suggests that knew there was a problem.
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Mon 20 Jul 2020 19:03
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - focussed

Honda is not legally responsible - the dealer or trader that sold you the car is responsible in law for up to six years from the date of purchase.

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Mon 20 Jul 2020 20:04
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - Zippy123

Honda is not legally responsible - the dealer or trader that sold you the car is responsible in law for up to six years from the date of purchase.

Yes but manufacturers often make a goodwill gesture. As it is the dealer would probably go to the manufacturer for recompense anyway and the goodwill "system" is just a way of getting that recompense level sorted out before the work is done.

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Tue 21 Jul 2020 12:51
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - Enreves

As it goes, the dealer is a Honda Approved dealer, so they are sort of in it together as I understand it. The dealership woudn't act without Honda approval anyway.

Do you think there are any further actions I could take to push the issue? I'm not keen on having an expensive air con unit break on me in another 18 months time, then to be told I'm out of warranty and the bill will be thousands...

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Tue 21 Jul 2020 13:08
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - thunderbird

As it goes, the dealer is a Honda Approved dealer, so they are sort of in it together as I understand it. The dealership woudn't act without Honda approval anyway.

Virtually all dealers are organisations independent of the car manufacturer/importer but they do obviously rely on getting approval before doing the work to avoid not being paid.

If any case were to go to court the organisation to name on the case would be the organisation you bought the product from since it is them you have a contract with. Name the car manufacturer and the case would be thrown out.

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Tue 21 Jul 2020 13:29
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - Metropolis.
Just a general comment on Hondas here, they do seem to have an issue with aircon, speaking to drivers in Thailand and HK confirmed this as well. I wonder if they make their own (like they often do with automatic gearboxes after refusing to use planetary gear sets) or if they use one of the Japanese brands like Denso, weird how some quite reliable brands nevertheless get stuck on certain components!
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Tue 21 Jul 2020 17:33
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - corax
Just a general comment on Hondas here, they do seem to have an issue with aircon, speaking to drivers in Thailand and HK confirmed this as well. I wonder if they make their own (like they often do with automatic gearboxes after refusing to use planetary gear sets) or if they use one of the Japanese brands like Denso, weird how some quite reliable brands nevertheless get stuck on certain components!

They have had compressor failures on successive models of CRV, you'd think they would have been able to rectify the problem by now.

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Wed 22 Jul 2020 16:02
Honda HR-V 2016 - HRV Air Con Failure - concrete

Perhaps a report from an independent expert would give some clue on how to proceed. I don't know what a report would cost, but if it proves your case you could be better off. If the expert agrees with Honda/Dealer then you are stuck. The legal remedy is not for the faint hearted so look at all other means to resolve the problem. I do know that not using the A/C system for some time causes problems with seals and gaskets shrinking and losing gas, but presumably this was the fist thing they looked at. Good luck and let us know what transpires.

Cheers Concrete

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