AC Recall Letter

[zspeed]

Anyone who is still having this issue. DO NOT PAY TO GET IT FIXED. It is a waste of time & money. I initially had this issue mid-last year 2019. Same problems as everyone else, AC started to not blow cold air then just started pumping hot air with a weird hissing/leaking sound from the vents.

I went into a dealership to get it diagnosed and was quoted $1600 to replace it (leaking compressor same as everyone else). Hoping this was a one time thing, I decided to get it repaired.

Update to this year 2020 around not even a full year later, same issue happened with the newly replaced compressor. It does not matter how many times you replace the compressor because the compressor design itself IS THE DEFECT. Worst part is there is NO ALTERNATIVE PART, so you will just be replacing a broken part with a deadman walking broken part which will die within a year just like mine.

Save yourself some money & time and just roll your windows down during the summer for now. Wait for the class action lawsuit to hit Honda for what they deserve. From all the calls and complaints, this is more or less a slam dunk class action lawsuit.

It could possibly be that they installed the outdated parts instead of the updated parts making your AC system fail again.

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[Sean Civic]

The dealership told me to call Honda Corp as they have no access to any resources without their approval. Before calling Honda Corp I was given a $3000 CND quote fyi.

I live just down the road from you in South Surrey. I had my car (same model as yours) in the dealer in May and they replaced the condenser for free because the system was not working. I have not driven much since then because of Covid19. It's now blowing warm air again. The dealer says it's the compressor this time. The dealer will contact Honda for me to try to get coverage for the compressor.
If I have to argue with them, to what extent does a faulty condenser contribute to compressor failure? I would assume that any weak link in the system will damage the rest. Am I wrong?

 

[thenightshift]

Just got off the phone with the service tech from where I got my condenser initially replaced via the TSB. Got Honda corporate involved as well which got me as far. as a 30% discount but on. a $1600 charge that's still 900 something dollars. 3rd party shop can def do it for cheaper than that but more importantly, dealer said the compressors have been on back order for 3 weeks and they still haven't been given any updates on part arrival. Like some folks mentioned, there's also no guarantee that the replacement part is an updated. fixed design versus simply replacing with a "new old design". That class action can't come soon enough. Luckily, that repair was done on July 7th and so far the AC is holding strong as LA is definitely in a heat wave. Knocking on wood and crossing all the fingers and might just flip the car and get into something new.

 

[Boozle]

I had come in for an oil change and to have my AC checked while I was still under warranty, because the AC had never worked properly for over a year. Service advisor said nothing was wrong with the AC back then.

It got real hot in the summer and my AC was still running shitty, along with that hiss sound a user mentioned in an earlier post. I had the same dealership checked again, and this time they said the compressor was faulty and not covered any longer since my warranty had run out. They said if they had seen this back in January, they would've known something was up. Nothing had changed and the AC has always been shitty so I have no idea what they were even looking for(or if they even checked) back in January.

The dealership quoted me $1946 to fix this, so I called up American Honda who said they could drop this down to $1000 but couldn't do anything else. Real shitty of Honda to come up with a faulty system but at least it seems there is hope of a class action lawsuit and a possible recall materializing in the future.

 

[Habanero]

delete

 

[ducktree]

Adding to the chorus of 'I had it fixed and now it's not working again' . I have a 2016 Civic, had issues with my A/C last year (leakage, damaged compressor, the whole deal) and was JUST out of Warranty. I pushed the dealer who went back and forth with Honda America, finally Honda paid for almost all of the replacement costs (obviously they knew it was an issue already). This was June 2019. Later got the recall letter and set it aside since it was all set (I thought). Cut to to this year, haven't driven a lot due to Covid, just drove a bit and the A/C is all hot air again. Not liking the sound of my chances of a second fix at this rate. Man this sucks.

 

[zspeed]

Adding to the chorus of 'I had it fixed and now it's not working again' . I have a 2016 Civic, had issues with my A/C last year (leakage, damaged compressor, the whole deal) and was JUST out of Warranty. I pushed the dealer who went back and forth with Honda America, finally Honda paid for almost all of the replacement costs (obviously they knew it was an issue already). This was June 2019. Later got the recall letter and set it aside since it was all set (I thought). Cut to to this year, haven't driven a lot due to Covid, just drove a bit and the A/C is all hot air again. Not liking the sound of my chances of a second fix at this rate. Man this sucks.

I’ve learned my lesson with the a/c system to at least run it cold once a week even during winter time to prevent the seals from drying up. Hopefully mine will last a longer period of time after the compressor and condenser was replaced.

 

[Caestus]

I live just down the road from you in South Surrey. I had my car (same model as yours) in the dealer in May and they replaced the condenser for free because the system was not working. I have not driven much since then because of Covid19. It's now blowing warm air again. The dealer says it's the compressor this time. The dealer will contact Honda for me to try to get coverage for the compressor.
If I have to argue with them, to what extent does a faulty condenser contribute to compressor failure? I would assume that any weak link in the system will damage the rest. Am I wrong?

a faulty condenser can cause a compressor to over heat and have parts prematurely wear out and fail. This is common knowledge in the AC world......

 

[thenightshift]

a faulty condenser can cause a compressor to over heat and have parts prematurely wear out and fail. This is common knowledge in the AC world......

I'm not well versed in any of the technical aspects but I figured logically that this had to be a possibility and am shocked that Honda has managed to dodge that argument and get away with just a TSB versus full recall.

 

[bluehatch17]

Not a safety issue per say. I don’t use a/c all 12 months. It’s a wear and tear item. Companies always do cost benefit analysis and it obviously didn’t meet that threshold.

 

[Toad in Nj]

Some good info in this thread so thank you to those that have posted about what you have dealt with.
I don't think I have posted on this forum yet, but this is what happened to me.
2017 Civic Si
The compressor died in March of 2019 with 44k miles on the car. My dealership put in for a good will repair and they covered 80% of the cost. My out of pocket was $183.
Months later I received a letter and a phone call from Honda saying they were reimbursing me my out of pocket $183 and had done the warranty extension on the condenser leak issue.

About a month ago (car now has 72k on it) the warm air when ac was turned on crap started again. I wasn't able to get it back to have it looked at until Friday of last week.
They changed the condenser again and as they were finishing they told me "um, it's not the condenser, it's the compressor. I need to give you a loaner car and speak to the Service Manager tomorrow and see what we can do"

I spoke to them this past Monday and they covered 80% of it. Out of pocket with tax was $275.

I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing that happened with the condenser happens with this, and when enough people have this happen that they reimburse the out of pocket people had to pay and extend the warranty.

This is my 7th Honda/Acura and this is the first real issue that I have had with any of the cars. The axle boots used to crap the bed somewhat early on my older Civic but other than that I have never had any issues.

I am lucky that the dealership that I bought the car from, and have used for 99% of my service other than a few oil changes, has been great.

The Service Manager and the Service guy that I have dealt with since day 1 on this have been excellent. I am lucky, and I would be completely losing it if the dealer I was going to wasn't handling it the way they have.

They need to fix this, for everyone. They were close to pissing away 30 years of brand good will with this.

 

[Bblue2005]

I have a 2018 Civic EX. While driving in 90-100 degree weather this week for 1,000 miles the A/C wasn’t cold for much of the driving on the highest setting. I wouldn’t say it was warm either, just not cooling. Is this because of the outside temperature making it hard to get cold or a defect?
I was afraid to take it to Honda and pay an inspection fee if this is normal.
Thanks for the help.

 

[bluehatch17]

1000 miles isn’t a small amount. Odds are that if it doesn’t work for that long, then something is going bad or already have gone bad.

No two ways around it. Go get it looked it if you want it to work. Hope you are under warranty.

 

[NotSerious]

It's probably a leaky condensor. They last about 3 years before they leak. There is a TSB for this and the condensor is warranteed for 10 years. Take it to a reputable dealer (Some sleazy dealers will try to get out of fixing it by claiming "road damage"). Don't wait because the longer it is malfunctioning, the more damage you will get because the refrigerant has lubrication in it.

 

[Bblue2005]

I brought the car to them today. But they said my VIN was not considered affected by the TSB. I’ll update once I hear from them.

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