January 2010
I recently took my car for a 50k mile oil service to a franchised dealer. Admittedly I had missed the one service before this as things were a little busy but thought I should now get it done. I should mention that I have always kept a close eye on the engine oil and always topped it up when needed.
The first time I drove the car after bringing it home from the service I heard a loud and disturbing noise coming from the engine so I chose not to drive it as a precaution. Called the AA and they said it most likely my crank shaft gone wrong down to there being no oil. I immediately rang the dealer and told them about it... then got the AA to transport the car to them so they could check it out.
Honda said the same thing, that the crank shaft had gone and the only real solution was to replace the whole engine at a cost of about £10k. My car is not worth a penny over £8k, hence making the car a write off.
Because I had taken the car to Honda for this precise service, and the fact that the car was in a fully working condition before I gave it to them, I hold the dealer responsible for the damage to the engine. However, they are accepting no responsibility for it and it is not covered under the insurance as it counts as a mechanical failure. How can I give a fully working car to what is supposed to be a reputable dealership and for them to return it to me in an totally unworking condition, then expect me to foot the bill for it? If they knew that there was a possibility of the car being damaged because of the work they were going to carry out then surely they should have let me know beforehand?
I have spoken to Trading Standards and they have informed me that the dealers are in breach of the "Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982" as they have failed to provide due care and attention to my car during the service and I am now entitled to have them fix or replace the vehicle. No prises for guessing what the dealer's response to this was...
Does anyone have any help or advice they can offer me on how to deal with this situation. Has anyone had a similar experience and what was the outcome. All comments and suggestions are grately appreciated.
Breaches of Name and Shame Policy removed. Read more
Does anyone know where you can download a Haynes style manual for Honda Civics up to year 2000?
Its the 1.6 auto Im looking for
Thanks
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I was looking more for a PDF, free download style. If not then Ill just buy one of them, thanks
I was wondering on the best way to avoid having problems with modern diesel D.P.F. They seem to cause no end of expensive problems.
As my next car will probably be a diesel I need some advice.
Looking at 1.6 to 2l diesel- Renault clio, Puegot 207, Ford Focus or similar. I would go for the BMW 318 or 320 D but too expensive for my cash purchase.
I only do about 15k/annum and I think I may be better off with Petrol.
Do they/the car tell you when you NEED to regenerate the DPF, or do you need a regular Italian tune up, which defeats the purpose somewhat.
I was thinking that diesel cars need some sort of exhaust temperature monitoring so you could be sure you were in the "zone" of good? exhaust temperatures. Read more
I've run a new Mondeo 2.0 TDCI with DPF for 21,000 miles over two years. 70% of my driving is short runs in urban limits of 5 miles or so. No problems with the DPF.
The Ford system has no warning lights (unlike VAG or Mazda systems) to tell you a regen is needed -- if the ECU thinks a regen is needed, it will initiate one itself.
The one thing I do ensure is to keep revs around the peak torque band (1,750 to 2,250rpm). This means good response when I need it, the engine is running most efficiently (minimal soot) and the exhaust temp is high.
21K miles and 2 years isn't exactly long-term, but the system has proven robust and effective so far.
Heartening piece on R4 today comparing the environmental friendliness of various modes of transport. It seems that because the number of bus passengers averages only about nine, a car with two occupants is actually a better bet. Of course, the bus will still be running, but it's not the line we usually get from the Greenies. I gather that similar arithmetic applies to trains... Read more
Exactly but oh no the bus has to be the best hated thing since a disgraced pop singer.
Help again. I've read about RHS VIN being bad and having a FAP filter. Do I? 2004 1.6 HDI 110 BHP Read more
Yes, I believe that you do have a FAP (90% sure, would need to resort to documents to be 100% sure). It should be visible at the front of the engine on these.
Listening to one of my new Beatles CDs in the car on the way home started me thinking about motoring lyrics and motoring song titles.
Taxman, by the Fab Four, still rings true today:
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat,
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Any other motoring lyrics/song titles spring to mind?
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Wolf Creek Pass by Curtis McPeake and the Nashville Pickers, which I copied from a 1976 cassette onto CD ..........................
Me an' Earl was haulin' chickens on a flatbed out of Wiggins, and we'd spent all night on the uphill side of thirty-seven miles of hell called Wolf Creek Pass. Which is up on the Great Divide?
We was settin' there suckin' toothpicks, drinkin' Nehi and onion soup mix, and I said, "Earl, let's mail a card to Mother then send them chickens on down the other side. Yeah, let's give 'em a ride."
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
Well, Earl put down his bottle, mashed his foot down on the throttle, and then a couple'a boobs with a thousand cubes in a nineteen-forty-eight Peterbilt screamed to life. We woke up the chickens.
Well, we roared up offa that shoulder sprayin' pine cones, rocks, and boulders, and put four hundred head of them Rhode Island reds and a couple a' burnt-out roosters on the line. Look out below; 'cause here we go!
Well, we commenced to truckin' and them hens commenced to cluckin' and then Earl took out a match and scratched his pants and lit up the unused half of a dollar cigar and took a puff. Says "My, ain't this purdy up here."
I says, "Earl, this hill can spill us. You better slow down or you gonna kill us. Just make one mistake and it's the Pearly Gates for them eight-five crates a' USDA-approved cluckers. You wanna hit second?"
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
Well, Earl grabbed on the shifter and he stabbed her into fifth gear and then the chromium-plated, fully-illuminated genuine accessory shift knob come right off in his hand. I says, "You wanna screw that thing back on, Earl?"
He was tryin' to thread it on there when the fire fell off a' his cigar and dropped on down, sorta rolled around, and then lit in the cuff of Earl's pants and burned a hole in his sock. Yeah, sorta set him right on fire.
I looked on outta the window and I started countin' phone poles, goin' by at the rate of four to the seventh power. Well I put two and two together, and added twelve and carried five; come up with twenty-two thousand telephone poles an hour.
I looked at Earl and his eyes was wide, his lip was curled, and his leg was fried. And his hand was froze to the wheel like a tongue to a sled in the middle of a blizzard. I says, "Earl, I'm not the type to complain; but the time has come for me to explain that if you don't apply some brake real soon, they're gonna have to pick us up with a stick and a spoon."
Well, Earl rared back, and cocked his leg, stepped as down as hard as he could on the brake, and the pedal went clear to the floor and stayed there, right there on the floor. He said it was sorta like steppin' on a plum.
Well, from there on down it just wasn't real purdy: it was hairpin county and switchback city. One of 'em looked like a can full'a worms; another one looked like malaria germs. Right in the middle of the whole damn show was a real nice tunnel, now wouldn't you know?
Sign says clearance to the twelve-foot line, but the chickens was stacked to thirteen-nine. Well we shot that tunnel at a hundred-and-ten, like gas through a funnel and eggs through a hen, and we took that top row of chickens off slicker than scum off a Lousiana swamp. Went down and around and around and down 'til we run outta ground at the edge of town. Bashed into the side of the feed store... in downtown Pagosa Springs.
[Chorus]
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
Wolf Creek Pass, way up on the Great Divide
Truckin' on down the other side
There's a one-way street about 400 yards long in Kensal Rise which I often use as an alternative to doing an awkward U turn when I have visited my daughter's house. The street has cars parked closely along both sides, with room for a single line of traffic between them and a couple of not very serious speed bumps.
Last night drove 300 yards up it but stopped behind a dirty marked police Vauxhall with the reds flashing on its roof. Nest to it in a parking bay was an ambulance. On the other side of it was another police car, facing the wrong way. Police officers and residents were moving about restlessly behind the ambulance and going in and out of two or three houses. They took no notice of us. Almost immediately two other cars stopped behind us.
After five minutes the rearmost car reversed back down the road, 300 yards, but the car behind us stayed where it was. The driver, an educated African guy in a suit, said he lived in that street and 'knew the people' in those three houses. That made me wish I hadn't just said: 'I hope it's a murder at least, to justify this endless delay', but he didn't take it amiss. Eventually he did the slightly fraught 300-yard reverse and so did we.
I hope it was a murder at least. Read more
dd said they 'can be' bolshy/inconsiderate 'by times' (nice to see some genuine local dialect). All three of those who have suggested the BiB can be less than perfect in this way (including me) have stressed that it is an occasional thing.
Perhaps the thread title was too provocative. Remember though that I was once a hack (although not tabloid). Need a hook to make people read the lies and propaganda!
A common fault by my reckoning, is a leaky matrix on this model. It's easy to replace though. You don't need to remove the whole dash. Go under the sterring wheel, remove the panel (3 or 4 screws), you'll see 2 silver pipes behind the radio. Simply undo the screws or bolts holding the pipes to the matrix, pull them off and slide it out. Reverse to get it back in.
Fiddly, but a damn sight quicker and easier than removing the radio assembly and central dash unit. Read more
I may be the cold, but in the last 3 days I've had:
EBS and ESP stop working. OK when ignition starts, as soon as brakes applied, they switch off and warning lights come on.
Heater/A/C has stopped working - fuses all look fine.
Nearside side and rear light stopped working. Off side are fine as is the nearside fog lamp, on the same light housing.
Brake lights all apear to have stopped working.
I've a busy weekend ahead of me. Some help would be greatly appreciated. Read more
Going to try looking at the earth harness under the battery. Spray some WD40, see if it workd. Bit warmer today, but moisture may have worked its way in where it don't belong. Will let you know. Otherwise, it's back to the dealer.
Car was taken in for tyre rotation last November - the tread was down to 4mm then - two months later and 2000 miles later they were down to the wear bar indicators, so a change was deemed. Handbook say that the standard 225/65x17s are "winter" tyres and they do have an M&S mark on them. Despite being close to the bone, they performed very well in the recent bad weather, never losing traction (apart from one slide down an iced up hill when I "forgot" to come off the brakes ! - it sorted itself out once I took my foot off the brake !) - never losing traction or giving any "moments" - the upshot of this was that with real world experience of the Conti Contacts that came on the car as OE had performed well enough in all areas to be replaced with the same. Web prices seemed to be around 142 pounds each ! However Kwik Fit had an online offer of 99 pounds each (fitted) - my local branch of National happily under cut this by a fiver - so they got the deal. Bolts were powered off and re-applied by hand and torqued to the factory setting so got myself a good deal (I hope) - COSTCO membership can go and whistle now ! Read more
Too late now - one good thing the back seats on mine have carried tons of "stuff" over the last few months, the cloth seats come up as good as new when I can be bothered to clean them. Doubt whether leather would have benefited from that sort of punishment.
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I agree.
Depends on bit on type of use, I suppose, but many "prestige" diesel's allow themselves to go 20K between services as a matter of routine. I don't imagine a Honda engine is any less robust.
Interesting on the age and mileage of this car (5yrs/50K) - there was a thread a while ago from someone with a CRV of very similar age which threw a rod. Honda picked up the bill even though the car's last service had been at an indie.
The problem is that if Honda did accept liability then basically they'd be saying that service intervals don't matter and you don't need to get your car serviced.