Did I get ripped of By Honda or the Dealer?

Hi,

I have a 92 Accord. I brought it to the dealership on August 21, 2003
for a 168,000KM service and checkup. One of the things they did during
the checkup is change the distributor cap. They tell me the car is in
excellent condition for a 1992 Accord. I believe this is true. The car
has no rust, and has been treated every year by Krown. Anyway,
September 2nd, my car stalls on the highway. I drift to side shoulder,
stop, put he car in park and start the car again. I figured to myself,
maybe it is vapor lock. The next day going to work September 3rd, my
car again stalls on the highway. I am able to start the car after a
few attempts and I immediately drive to the dealership. The dealership
keeps the car all day. They tell by phone that they have let it run
for several hours and have driven it but cannot reproduce the problem.
I pick up the car after work and drive it home. The following day
September 4th, while driving to work, the car stalls again. I try
starting again. I am able to drive it to the shoulder but then the
car stalls, another time. Rather then risk my life trying to make it
to the dealership, I get a tow. The tow is $75. I call the dealership,
from work and they tell me that, they are not sure what the problem is
but they think it might be the ignitor and the coil. They ask me if I
wish to have them replaced. I tell them to go ahead. Next, I did
some research. I did a Google newsgroup search. "Accord Stalling".

What I found was astonishing. There were several posting directly
relating to the problem. One that, in fact, fit it exactly.
I will quote "

From: Vince Comunale ()
Subject: 91 Accord Stalling & Ignitor Civic RECALL !!!


View this article only
Newsgroups: rec.autos.tech
Date: 1996/05/09


I have a pre-owned Accord with approx. 63000km and recently
experienced
stalling on city driving.

It happens a couple times a day now, the Tach meter showed a sudden
drop in RPM and engine stalled. A quick shift to neutral and restart
sometimes worked, but not always.

At times, I had to pull to the side, wait, restart. After several
restarts,
I could get it started again.

I initially post this on rec.autos.makers.honda, then called an
experienced
Japanese mechanic regarding this question. He acknowledged the problem
and suggested that the Honda Civic '90 '91 etc has recall on the
ignitor;
as it should be the cause for this kind of problems.

However, he pointed out that Honda may not acknowledge that the Accord
uses the same part as the Civic, nor do they offer compensation to
Accord
owners.

If you Accord owners out there have the same problem as mine, please
let
me know as I am willing to spend the time joining forces to get some
form of compensation. After all, Honda Accord is "perceived" as
A-Okay,
if not the reliability benchmark for family sedan; I was under this
illusion, if you will, when I bought this car!!!

Thanks,
Vince
"
After reading this posting, I had several reactions. First, I was
happy that the problem with my vehicle, would likely be fixed, but I
was also angry. Why hadn't the dealership properly diagnosed the
problem? They had returned to me a vehicle that was a hazard to drive.
Don't the Honda dealerships have access to a knowledge database
describing symptoms of problems and solutions? I found the likely
source of the problem in 15 minutes on the Internet. Shouldn't the
dealer be able to diagnose the problems better then me? Isn't that
the reason I go to the dealership in the first place?

And the cost of the replacement of the ignitor and coil is an issue of
fairness. The ignitor is recalled on the Civic but not on the Accord,
yet they are the same part. That doesn't seem very honest. When I
contacted Honda Canada, they denied any knowledge of this problem and
said there was no recall on that component or know issues with it.

Also, did the dealer perhaps break the ignitor when they changed the
distributor cap?

True my car is old, but is not a recall on a component a recall. There
must be tens of thousands of these cars still on the road?

Thanks
susserj

 

This is important. They can't fix what isn't broken.

Only if it is broken when they get it. Did you want them to replace parts
that *might* be the problem?

Intermittent problems are bitch for both the user and the tech.

 

My experience has been that going to the dealer doesn't always mean
that you will get the best service that we are all hoping for. The
reason is simple, the mechanic who works on your car may not have all
the experience that you would hope for or expect. He might not be
aware of all recalls for your model and year of vehicle.

Still the best person for your car is yourself. I found the internet
to be an excellent resource for obtaining info that even my local
Honda dealer doesn't know about.

D.Martin