Should Honda pay to fix the air con in my 10 year old car?

My 2004 Honda CR-V has been very reliable and I have covered 106,000 miles. However, recently, the air con pump has started getting noisy and I have been forced to switch it off. My internet searches have woken me up to this being a common problem and two local Honda dealers have quoted £1636 and £1680, which seems ridiculous.

A local aircon specialist has quoted £480. Two questions: 1) why is the dealer/specialist price so hugely different? 2) Why isn't Honda prepared to offer some goodwill for this common failure?

Asked on 13 May 2014 by Neil Franklin

Answered by Honest John

2) Because the car is 10 years old, three years older than its design life. 1) Because the dealers are quoting to replace the pump and other components, and I'd guess that the specialist has isolated the problem as the electromagnetic clutch to the pump so is only replacing that. we had one of these fail in Thailand and it was repaired with a component from stock at a roadside specialists for about £50.

Tags: air con technical issues

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