Honda CR-V blown AC compressor - FIXED!

Discussion in 'CR-V' started by Linuxiac, Apr 5, 2007.

  1. Linuxiac

    Linuxiac Guest

    Bought a USED 2003 Honda CR-V LX AWD 5 Speed (build date 09/2002) in
    December 2005. Paid for a 1 year full warranty on this Honda Certified
    vehicle. Well, that is expired.

    Going down the road at 40 Mph, March 25th, Sunday, the AC suddenly quit
    with a loud BANG and saw the AC clutch fly out the rear under the vehicle.

    Dropped it off at Courtesy Honda, Service on April 3, 2007.
    they looked it over and saw that it would require replacement of
    everything in the AC system due to contamination.

    In Florida, one really needs AC. Courtesy Honda of Sanford called the
    Honda Motor Company, who authorized full 100% payment!
    Picked up a rental car, also! WOW!

    The total of the work order was $1,892.50. Honda funded ONE THOUSAND
    EIGHT HUNDRED NINETY TWO DOLLARS and FIFTY CENTS in Air Conditioner
    Repairs and the rental vehicle!

    Look, we have owned dozens of Honda cars and motorcycles, both of us
    having retired from the US Air Force, and having served in Asia, Europe,
    Japan, and, on Oahu, Hawaii.

    I have owned car dealerships, and garages, over two decades. The
    service we have received is exemplary!

    We have owned over 100 cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Honda is the
    first manufacturer of motor vehicles who actually cares about the
    customer, in our experience of vehicle ownership, since 1964.

    Over the past 14 months, four of our friends and relatives have bought
    Hondas, on our recommendations.

    We picked up our CR-V on April 4, and found that everything was great,
    PLUS, Courtesy Honda of Sanford washed and detailed our CR-V!

    WOW, again!
     
    Linuxiac, Apr 5, 2007
    #1
  2. That's great news, all right! Congratulations, and thanks for following up
    with us.

    Mike
     
    Michael Pardee, Apr 5, 2007
    #2
  3. Yeah... Try and get that consideration for GM, etc. I still think that
    someone overcharged the system though...

    JT
     
    Grumpy AuContraire, Apr 5, 2007
    #3
  4. Linuxiac

    JXStern Guest

    Had a similar story about my Dad's Accord, oh, about twenty years ago.
    Did have to appeal to the factory rep before Honda picked up the tab,
    on a failed steering mechanism just out of warranty, but yes, they did
    stand behind it.

    I would guess it's especially in the manufacturer's interest to show
    this extra care for problems that involve explosions, parts flying
    around, or cars veering out of control ... but even so, even so.

    J.
     
    JXStern, Apr 5, 2007
    #4
  5. Glad to hear it. Do you think the fact that it was a "Certified" car
    made a difference in the consideration you received? Or are they
    covering this as a known problem on all low mileage cars?

    Thanks for providing the build date also.
     
    Gordon McGrew, Apr 5, 2007
    #5
  6. Linuxiac

    Linuxiac Guest

    OK. There are two of you who have doubts or questions.

    JXStern has a valid question, that it might have been overcharged. We
    have absolutely no info on that, because I never put my guages on the
    system, and we had good, cool air from our first view of the car,
    pre-sale, in December 2005, until it blew suddenly, March 25th, 2007.


    Then, Gordon, you wonder if it having been a HONDA Certified vehicle had
    anything to do with anything. I have to say no, because there wasn't
    any mention by the service advisor, about anything except that he stated
    to the factory rep. that we were diehard Honda owners, which perhaps he
    could see, in our sales files, as we have received rewards ($100) each
    time we recommended someone buy a Honda, and they did.

    There was no mention of anything except that the Honda Motor Co. would
    pay the shot, including the rental of an Enterprise car, because we
    are Honda 'promoters'!

    In all honesty, I expected to have to pay the shot, and it would have
    been a surprise to our budget, but, that was honestly how we do our
    business.

    I do know that word of mouth can make a corporation successful, or
    bankrupt. And, as you know, now, I have a belief in sharing my
    experiences.

    I have seen a lot of business dealings with cars, houses, and computers,
    and watched some of the businesses in those endeavors totally fail due
    to poor public relations and word of mouth.

    My honest opinion is that Honda is one of the foremost business
    operations, with a stable record over several decades, of customer
    service.

    Others auto makers did have good fandom but blew it with crappy QC, or
    shortcuts to save a nickel here or a dime there. I did at one time love
    Mopar products, but their crappy fit, finish, and assembly cost me too
    much frustration when I ordered their new trucks in the Air Force for my
    own private vehicle, and I had to do the brakes, New Process Gear
    transfer case (bent low range gear before assembly!), mis-configured
    engine harness connector, and lived with broken parts, miserable paint,
    all as delivered from the factory.

    I had previously 'sold' 25 Dodge and Chrysler, Plymouth cars and trucks,
    just through my like of them. Since 1980, I have dissuaded at least 200
    sales of Mopar products, because they pissed me off. I spent over $2500
    of my own money to fix major drivetrain problems, and that was for
    parts, that I changed!

    Gee, I sure miss my 1950 Hudson Hornet, my 1953 and 1954 Chevy Bel Air!
    And, my 1954 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe, with the 268CID hemi engine!
    Those cars were built when American assembly lines had Quality!

    It died about 1960, with the rise of the 'corporate cars' like when GM
    dictated design of Chevy cars, etc. and only VW, Honda, Toyota, and
    other 'foreigner Marques' building factories here in America actually
    brought it back!
     
    Linuxiac, Apr 6, 2007
    #6
  7. Linuxiac

    JXStern Guest

    Pardon, I believe that was Grumpy.

    OMG, not. Before my time, really, but the design and reliability of
    all and any cars back in those days was horrible, compared to today.
    Points and carbs and bias-ply tires and loose-tolerance builds and
    dealer-prep final QA and pre-finite-element-analysis engineering and
    solid rear axles and solid steering columns and horrible exhaust and
    steel wheels and tube radios and no tapes or CDs much less video! And
    drum brakes and external windshield visors and pushrod engines, and
    you had to double the purchase price of the car on service, including
    valve and cylinder jobs, to have a chance to see 100k miles.

    OK, you got free service and maps at the gas stations, but that hardly
    reflects on the quality of the cars!

    J.
     
    JXStern, Apr 6, 2007
    #7

  8. I have a 1964 Studebaker T-Cab long bed with over 300K on it and it has
    had one engine refresh (about 100K ago) which has never left me
    stranded. Follow the recommended maintenance regimen and many miles of
    trouble free driving would occur. The simplicity of build permitted a
    "fix" on the road in case of failure which is not the case with today's
    modern tin, er, plastic.

    Change points every three years and plugs at 50K. Coils were good for
    the life of the car. Oh, radiators back then were real as opposed to
    the short life/immediate failure properties of today's plastic crap.

    Not a thing wrong with steel wheels. Much less of a hassle than alloy
    any day. Well maintained drum brakes are fine. Dual cylinder conversion
    kits are available for most vintage cars.

    Those "push rod" engines with solid lifters went a 100K between
    adjustments. Alternator/generator change out; around ten to fifteen
    minutes. Water pump change out (on a Studebaker V8); fifteen to thirty
    minutes.

    Now, I will admit that Japanese bodies are far superior, seats have come
    a long way (for all manufacturers). The exhaust system on my '82/83
    Civics is superbly designed. In fact, the engineering on the whole car
    is excellent for ease of maintenance/repair.

    My "fancy" car is a 1955 Studebaker President sedan with a 259 V8,
    Studebaker Automatic Drive (later used by Mercedes and Jaguar), with
    Lincoln Versailles seats (almost a perfect fit). This car gets 26+ mpg
    on the highway and waits for no one.

    I long for the simplicity of yesteryear coupled with today's comfort and
    convenience but thanks to the guv'ment, never shall this occur...

    JT

    (Who believes computers belong on desktops and laps, not in cars!)
     
    Grumpy AuContraire, Apr 6, 2007
    #8
  9. Linuxiac

    JXStern Guest

    Amid just how much blue smoke?
    I drove my folks 1964 Buick, 1966 Mustang, friends had various cars of
    1950s and 1960s vintage, but my first car was a 1971 Fiat Sport Coupe,
    1600cc with nothing more complicated than an EGR valve. With
    indifferent service from me and various garages, the Fiat gave 90k of
    good service, even after I bought it used with a sticky valve, and a
    chronic slow gas leak from the fuel pump membrane.

    It was fun to zip around in, but engineering-wise it was like a
    skateboard compared to a modern Honda, especially in terms of comfort
    and handling.

    And I (temporarily) fixed a broken accelerator linkage in a later Alfa
    by using a shoelace. With immense amounts of scheduled service, not
    to mention a quart of oil poured in the tank with every gas fillup,
    the Alfa was fun, too, but I gasp at the technology's ugliness, in
    retrospect.

    Tell ya one thing, tho, the Fiat weighed barely 2000 pounds, compared
    to even a Civic's 3800. Yes the Fiat was smaller, but hey it had wind
    wings!
    My Honda has a plastic radiator?
    Unsprung weight.
    But didn't like to be spun much over 4k. Modern Accords are genius at
    running a small engine at low revs, but they can still run to 6k
    redlines no problem.
    How many?
    Handling and ride are much, much better.
    No one wants to ride in your trail of smoke.
    Grumpy, you have driven cars of recent vintage, I hope?
    Computer-controlled ignition is nothing short of a quantum jump from
    the elder days ... even if it keeps you from opening the throttle,
    really winding it out, and polluting a few daisies. But that's Honda,
    Beemers have a lot less of that kind of problem!

    J.
     
    JXStern, Apr 6, 2007
    #9
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