Clutch pedal to the floor and warranty

DanielH12

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Hello there. New to this forum.

I have a 2018 Civic Si and this morning my clutch pedal just sink to the floor and didn’t come back up. I didn’t want to risk driving it, so I had it tow to my the local Honda dealer, less than a mile away. Dealer said that they need to replace the clutch cylinder under warranty. They also recommend me to change my brake fluid, transmission fluid, and air filters (even I change it less than 8 months ago). I tell them to just do the warranty work. Then the dealer said that I need to pay the $150 brake fluid change for them to do the cylinder replacement because the fluid was dirty and they need to bleed the brakes and clutch.

My brother was going to help replace the brake fluid in a couple of weeks when we switch out the winter tires. He did look at the fluid reservoir before I had it tow to check for leak. There was no leak and the fluid look fine. Didn't want to pay for fluid change since we can DIY for cheaper. My question is if they must change the fluid to do the warranty work anyway why do I have to pay for it? Is this normal or is the dealer trying to make a sale?

My Civic is 3 years old in August and has almost 27k miles. Everything is stock and I don’t drive hard. Just wanted a SI for my first manual car. Kind of having a lot of problem with this car.
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Old F@rt

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The brakes & clutch are all fed via a single reservoir in these cars. They can replace the clutch cylinder & just bleed the clutch line. The reason they are looking to charge you the $150 for the brakes is because that is part of routine maintenance (every 3 years) & should be done no matter if the fluid appears to look fine or not. Really your choice if you pay them & have the entire system bled, or just DIY.
 
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DanielH12

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The brakes & clutch are all fed via a single reservoir in these cars. They can replace the clutch cylinder & just bleed the clutch line. The reason they are looking to charge you the $150 for the brakes is because that is part of routine maintenance (every 3 years) & should be done no matter if the fluid appears to look fine or not. Really your choice if you pay them & have the entire system bled, or just DIY.
I understand what you are saying. But before this problem, I was planning to change the change the fluid before the 3 years date. Also, I understand about the cross contamination with the fluid especially with the new part.

But the dealer said I had to get service done and pay for it if I wanted the warranty work done. He is the one that said it is because the fluid was "dirty". My argument is if the work need to be done ( fluid change) , it should be part of the warranty work.
 

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Typically consumables are replaced as part of warranty work.

This is like them asking you to pay for oil after they replace the engine under warranty.
 
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DanielH12

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Yes that is my thinking as well. I feel a little cheated. Also, I know that stuff happens but the cylinder broke so soon.
 


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I understand what you are saying. But before this problem, I was planning to change the change the fluid before the 3 years date. Also, I understand about the cross contamination with the fluid especially with the new part.

But the dealer said I had to get service done and pay for it if I wanted the warranty work done. He is the one that said it is because the fluid was "dirty". My argument is if the work need to be done ( fluid change) , it should be part of the warranty work.

That just does not seem right & I can understand why you are feeling cheated by the dealership. Might be worth giving Honda customer service a call. Good luck.
 
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DanielH12

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Thanks. I did contact Honda yesterday and they told me they will assign a case manager to look at my case.
My car was suppose to be ready today but something else is wrong. After the replacement, they said the clutch feels better but still not right. So at least another day without my car.
 
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DanielH12

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My case is still ongoing. I know no one ask for an update but maybe my story will helps someone in the future to know what to look out for.

TLDR: This Honda dealer is trying to rip me off. They wanted me to pay close to $3400 for a clutch and flywheel replacement.

On Tuesday, after dealer said the slave cylinder replacement didn’t completely fix the problem, the service tech said they have to look at the spring and bearing. Then on Wednesday he called back and said he took out the transmission to check things out. The tech said I need to replace the clutch and it was not cover under warranty. The dealer will only charge me for part, about $560. I ask why do I need to replace the clutch and he said that it was worn out. I reluctantly agreed. Even though I believed I didn’t mess up the clutch, it was a small possibility. The SI is not the first manual car I drove, but it is my first personal manual car. The dealer gave me a loaner car and said my car will be ready on Saturday or Monday.

On Saturday, the dealer tells me that I need to replace the flywheel also because it was burnt out. They will replace the clutch and flywheel for a less than $3400 and not charge me $150 for the brake fluid change. He told me he was doing me a favor because most of the price was for parts and it really cost over $6000. He also said he submitted the work to corporate and it was denied under warranty because it was my fault. If I didn’t do the clutch/flywheel replacement, I need to pay $150 for the fluid change and have my car tow out the dealership. He told me I need to decide soon because my car was on the lift and the parts was out. There were a lot of red flags.

I told him I need to contact him back on Monday because I was busy that day and I need time to process this. So I find out the tech never submitted anything to Honda Corporate. Then he tried to argue that his coworker used to work at corporate and know that the claim will be denied. So the tech lied about that and probably lying about alot more

Right now I don’t feel confident. I feel that the dealer might purposely mess up my car or put bad part in. I also have a hard time getting in contact with my case manager at corporate.
 

Crowe

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Yeah their story doesn't seem legit at all.
 

dktyson

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Get your car back and don't let them work on it. Get it towed to a different dealer who will actually do what the customer wants. Thankfully I have 2 in my area, one is a slimey scumbag dealer, and one is good. Just take it to a better dealer bc they're definitely trying to scam you.
 


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Please tell me this isn't the dealer you bought it from
 
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DanielH12

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No, different dealer. I bought the SI at a dealer by my work. I also let them to do oil changes

I heard bad thing about the dealer service department by my home so that why I tried to avoid them. But I thought this was warranty work (I ask them before) and only had to tow the car less than a mile away. My stupid fault.
 
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DanielH12

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I know I should have taken my car elsewhere first thing Monday, but I wanted to see what corporate could do since I already have a case open. Also, most of the local mechanics I talked to about a clutch/flywheel replacement advise me to contact Honda corporate first.

My case manager (CM) at corporate didn’t even try to help me. I called corporate on the first day and two days later I missed a call from my CM. I left a few voice messages throughout the week but CM never returned my calls. Finally, I called Honda main line to connect me to my CM. She was not helpful at all.

I told her my situation. My main points were: (1) why didn’t they tell me about the flywheel damage when they said my clutch was worn since the clutch and flywheel are right next to each other (2) they lied about contacting corporate to submit warranty work (3) tried charging me for warranty work by wrapping it with a mandatory fluid change. Basically, she said Honda couldn’t do anything for me, it was up to the dealership, and they trust their dealerships. She kept saying “what do you want me to do about it?”.

I knew contacting corporate might not change anything but didn’t expect this kind of response.
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