Here at Bill Gatton Honda

12civic5speed

12civic5speed

Well-Known Member
371
65
Johnson City Tennessee
Vehicle Model
2012 Civic EX
Body Style
Coupe
I am here at Bill Gatton Honda having my ex civic looked at. I am having them check out my blower motor my seat back and a valve tick. Wonder why service wriiter always assume that when we bring in our cars to have them looked at they think that we are tellin them a big fat fib. Oh well we will see what happens. Fingers crossed hoping for the best
 
Wonder why service writer always assume that when we bring in our cars to have them looked at they think that we are tellin them a big fat fib.
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they think you're lying about it making noise?
 
12civic5speed said:
I am here at Bill Gatton Honda having my ex civic looked at. I am having them check out my blower motor my seat back and a valve tick. Wonder why service writer always assume that when we bring in our cars to have them looked at they think that we are telling them a big fat fib. Oh well we will see what happens. Fingers crossed hoping for the best
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That's his job, to keep warranty work to a minimum.
 
Monk said:
That's his job, to keep warranty work to a minimum.
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I disagree. His job is to keep the customers happy (within reason). If service managers dismiss claims off hand or simply state it is not noted as a problem in the system, they are potentially under-reporting issues that may actually require warranty work for a large segment of cars.

Take the blower motor for example (it really is ridiculously loud). How often is this being dismissed instead of noted and sent along as a potential issue to Honda?

Yes, warranty work could be expensive for Honda, but properly logged issues can lead to better designs, corrections for the next model year, and happier customers. Not to mention, it is already priced into the cost of the car as it is.

Also, dealerships are reimbursed for warranty work by Honda and therefore brings in more revenue for the dealership.
 
squiggy said:
I disagree. His job is to keep the customers happy (within reason). If service managers dismiss claims off hand or simply state it is not noted as a problem in the system, they are potentially under-reporting issues that may actually require warranty work for a large segment of cars.

Take the blower motor for example (it really is ridiculously loud). How often is this being dismissed instead of noted and sent along as a potential issue to Honda?

Yes, warranty work could be expensive for Honda, but properly logged issues can lead to better designs, corrections for the next model year, and happier customers. Not to mention, it is already priced into the cost of the car as it is.

Also, dealerships are reimbursed for warranty work by Honda and therefore brings in more revenue for the dealership.
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So are you agreeing with me, or disagreeing? :D
 
Monk said:
So are you agreeing with me, or disagreeing? :D
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Yeah, I realized I kind of went in circles, but I had to run out to lunch.

It is a double-edged sword. The dealership wants the income, while Honda wants to pay out as little as possible to maintain profits. And the dealerships really need to play nice with Honda.

Unfortunately, inefficient management trends think that trying to avoid as much warranty work as possible results in higher profits. Which it does, but only in the short term. I could go on and on about this stuff, but I will spare everyone.
 
Common practice for many dealerships. When offer to demo it for them they refuse for all sort of reasons or plain say they do not hear it.

One one of my past cars I had a air sound from the windshield only sometimes, depending on the outside temperature at 120 Km/h, they said they cannot reproduce it since driving at that speed is illegal :) Sold the car..., long term they lost my money.
 
were you ever with a tech to demonstrate the noise to them?
 
Not me, they refused to drive it or be with me in the car while driving at 120 :)

In this case of the fan not sure what to do, I think some persistence and going up the ladder may solve it but it is a lot of time to be invested. In my case I lived with it until I sold it. But it was not an Si which I would maybe get a 3rd party fan or explore other options. Painful as a process though.
 
I have complained about the fan on numerous occasions and the dealership tells me it's absolutely normal. It is unbearably loud now that it is cold out and I am very annoyed by this because even my car-dumb friends notice how loud it is. I don't know what else to do. I know if I call American Honda to complain, they'll tell me "Has the dealer replicated it?". When I say "no", they'll say "then theres nothing we can do to help you."

This was the same nightmare I went through with 3rd gear in my 2006 Si.

I had this issue (much less intensely) on my 2010 EX-L. One dealer said it was normal, the other heard it and replaced the blower motor and it was fine for awhile, but it came back. They won't touch it on my 2012 Si despite my complaints. I did see my service writer put down "blower motor bulletin" on a piece of paper. Unfortunately, I lost access to the Honda Service News Bulletins to see if this has been addressed on there, so I'm feeling very hopeless here. (and yes, for those 8thCivic members who saw the Service Bulletin Archive (take a look), that was me that did it. Let's see how many of you remember me ;)).

I also have the seat back popping issue. On my first 2012, they caught it - said they'd try to insulate "it" so it wouldn't do it anymore, otherwise they'd have to replace the frame. Car was totaled (not my fault) before they would replace the seat frame. My replacement Si is starting to do it too, but I'm just going to wait for it to sound like a roll of bubble wrap before wasting my time.

I think I'm just going to make a T-Shirt with "We were unable to replicate your concern" on the front of it and wear it every time I go to the dealership.

Keep us posted about the issues OP. If necessary, I am willing to start a thread devoted to sharing case file numbers from American Honda Customer Service about the noisy fan - who you spoke to, what was said, etc. I did this on 8thCivic for third gear before the TSB came out and it was pretty helpful. When Honda told us "We've never heard that before.", we were able to say "actually, I have 30 case file numbers right here that are complaining about the same exact thing. Would you like to check any of them or are you going to tell me you've never heard of it again?" When I had her check one of them "That case file doesn't exist." See HERE for Example.

I bet it doesn't Honda, I bet it doesn't.

Thoughts? It might be helpful. We can all call in and complain about the noisy fan (and I KNOW we're not the only users on here that have it), and report our results and information using a predetermined layout I can put together (similar to what I did on the case file numbers).
 
I don't know how this might work, but we might try getting a letter stating that if the fan and seat have these problems that they will be corrected, and get this letter at the time of purchase of any new cars that have this issue, before signing for the purchase.
 
Sadly, that doesn't really help those of us who have already purchased the car though :(. I also wonder if the dealership would be willing to sign a document like that, too though. Mine sure wouldn't I'd wager - that would require accepting responsibility lol.
 
I would try two things, some dealers are way nicer than others so not sure where the info on nicer dealers can be found but if living in a bigger city I would go to each dealer as time permits. If no luck at all I would call Honda again and at the question have they reproduced would reply that they did not since they do not want to see the problem. You can politely insist a problem exist and you're willing to go wherever they want to inspect it. I personally would offer to partially cover the cost of the required work and I bet they will play nicer, not 50% but some.
 
no 86 said:
Sadly, that doesn't really help those of us who have already purchased the car though :(. I also wonder if the dealership would be willing to sign a document like that, too though. Mine sure wouldn't I'd wager - that would require accepting responsibility lol.
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I agree, that it won't help owner now and that we might not get them to do it upon a new purchase, but that's the only power we have to get common practices changed. Like anything, don't like how a company doing/handling things, don't buy it.

As far as the fan and seat, not having seen if it's possible, think something could be done like lubing the fan bearing , zip-tying the moving seat part. I have a tendency to try alternate fixes as opposed to swapping things out for a new part that has a reputation of doing it all over again.
 
Well last night when I got home I mashed on my drivers seat in the location of the popping noise and you can feel the problem just by mashing it but my pass side seat does not do it I am going to go to another Honda dealer and see what happens there and if no avail all heck will be raised I can live with the squeaky blower right now but a uncomfortable drivers seat heck no I bought my Honda for build quality not build crap
 
God, I'm still cringing from that video. Brings back such awful memories of practically living in the dealership, fighting with them every single day, them thinking I was crazier and crazier every time.
 
12civic5speed said:
Well last night when I got home I mashed on my drivers seat in the location of the popping noise and you can feel the problem just by mashing it but my pass side seat does not do it I am going to go to another Honda dealer and see what happens there and if no avail all heck will be raised I can live with the squeaky blower right now but a uncomfortable drivers seat heck no I bought my Honda for build quality not build crap
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You ever follow through?
 
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