I have own 2 Generation 6 Accords, both 4-cyl 5-spds. One of the biggest complaints I've had with them, other than the warping rotors) is a steering wiggle or kickback in the steering around 30 - 45 mph. Anyone ever notice this? It almost feels like I can "fool" the steering system with slight left to right motions. COuld it just be oversensitive or is something up with the rack-in-pinion or a suspension component? Thanks in advance.
I appreciate the suggestions you've given me. I've been using 10W-40 oil for the last three years (which is as long as I've had the car). I'll try using a different weight to see if there's any change. Also, I've heard there's an additive you can put in your oil to help this problem considerably. I think it's called 'Auto RX' or something similar. Have you heard anything about it? Thanks again.
I have heard isellhondas same comments over at the Honda Accord Quality Control Issues forum. You are right, who wants to spend the time in a Honda dealership having warranty work done.
Geeez--never heard a rattle, a squeak or pulling right! I have to say one thing---isellhondas must be one heck of a salesman!
I have read on Bobistheoilguy's site that the AutoRX may not be snake oil as most additives are but I don't recall what it is specifically supposed to correct. If your car is only 3 years old and has been properly maintained I would think that you should be able to fix your problem without exotic additives.
I would not do anything until you try a good 10W-30 SL rated oil. My personal recommendation would be Chevron Supreme or Pennzoil.
By the way you will find much more expertise about engine oil and additives at Bobistheoilguy.com. Visit there and see if you can get more help. I am certainly not qualified to be giving advice.
I think what I said, or meant to say was...I have heard no squeaks or rattles in the new 2003 Accords. I haven't felt one pull either and I've actually been concious of this lately after reading about it here.
As far as warranties go...the best warranty is the one you never or seldom have to use. I fully agree. Hondas do very well in that catagory. Much better than most. I think even you would have to agree with that?
When someone finally builds a perfect car that never has the slighest problem, than warranties will no longer be necessary.
Of course, then we wouldn't have this "problems" board either.
isellhondas, I don't think anyone is expecting a perfect Accord, or any other perfect product, since most sane people know it's not possible.
But let's get realistic, Honda screwed up on some basics with the 1998-02 Accord. I mean come on, rattling sunroofs, transmission problems, dashboard rattles. These are things I don't want to spend time at the service dept. for, especially when other manufacturer's build cars without those most basic problems-except maybe the trans. problems.
No one is allowed to side with isell on this thread! (Just kidding)
Actually, for the record, our '02 V6 does not have one rattle anywhere after over 10,000 KM, which is more than I can say for my CL-S. So, the perfect rattle-free Accord DOES EXIST! And I've got it!
bodydouble: I considered both my 99 and my 01 to be rattle-free. They had the slight moonroof noise when it was cold but it was barely audible and only happend with the roof closed and the shate open. Wasn't a big deal to me.
Ok.. I love my new accord however, can anyone believe that honda made a six cd changer that when you push random play it ONLY randomly plays from one disc? Amazing. Also, the only problem I have had is that my dual climate control is stuck at 72 on the driver's side. Anyone else had that problem There is no service bulletin on this as yet. I also think HOnda needs to get off the built in antenna...I get better reception in my 92 toyota pickup.
if it played from all 6 discs, you would get about 25sec of dead time while it changed disc's after every song... IMHO, it is much more efficient to randomize one disc, then move on to the next after completion.... That's the way my Panasonic stereo w/ 6disc changer works=)
I wonder if resetting the computer for the climate control would fix this problem? Probably a fuse you can pull for it... but before you start pulling fuses, make sure ya got the code for the stereo... just in case. =o)
I agree with the in window antenna thing... the nice thing is that I hardly listen to the radio, so it doesn't bother me much... they probably got rid of it so that they could get the "cheetah look" they were aiming for... (never seen a cheetah with an antennae sticking out of him... hehe)
the in-glas antennas defintely get worse reception. however, the power antennas in the older accords were always broken. I owned a 91 and had about 4 or 5 friends that had the similar generation and all of us, no matter the mileage and trim level, had problems with the antenna, whether motor or mast or anything. so its just one more thing that wont go wrong, in addition to not having to worry about the car-wash factor and decreasing weight/cost/complexity.
I have a intermittent rattle/buzz from the center of my dash and a very slight rattle from the right front door over bumps. Can a dealer ususlly isolate these and stop them? Othervise I love the car.
...are better than others on this kind of thing, and I usually like to work as hard as I can to isolate the cause of the noise before I ask them to do anything.
Having said that, it has always seemed to me that you HAVE to give the folk who hold the warranty a chance to do their jobs. If they can't solve it in a reasonable time, that's an issue, of course, but on this board and the mainstream Accord forum, there have been many cases of these problems being solved without further ado. And every attempt, successful or not, gets sent to Honda as a warranty claim from the dealer service dept, and that is the only way the factory knows it has problems to solve.
bodydouble, My 00 didn't rattle for the first 20K miles. Now at 35, it's got rattles galore. In contrast, my mother's 94 ES300 with over 100K miles has less rattles.
After attempting rotation our tire shop told us parts need to be ordered because one of wheel lugs couldn't be removed (stripped). (They had installed the new tires 3 months prior). Any insight into the extent of problem I have on hand? I'm disappointed they didn't acknowledge during the install and not sure I even want them to make repair. Also not looking fwd to possible hassle trying to proove fault.
Questions - How is the wheel (lug nut) removed when stripped? Does it need to be drilled off? What part(s) will need replacement? Is this relatively easy and commonplace repair for a tire shop? I'm concerned there may be short cuts taken and I may be better off going to dealer and cutting my losses. Can someone fill me in on extent of repair needed - that'll help decide route to take. Thanks.
Well if they can't remove the wheel lug then they will probably have to cut the lug off and then replace the wheel stud and depending on what year and model depends on the difficulty level. This is something that doesnt just happen, there has to be a point and time where someone crossed threaded the wheel lug but who that was and proving who that was will probably be hard. Good luck
uh from experience-like forgetting to tighten front wheels lug nuts-it is a PITA for accords 97 (maybe later also) or older. Had to take off the knuckle-press out the studs and press in new ones. Now I or the guy pressing out the studs damaged the bearing holder on one wheel and had to do it again in a f K miles to replace the bearing.
Rears on most are simple-however if u have rear disc brakes-that may complicate things.
Actually, this is not my Honda but my Mazda 2000 van (rear wheel but 4 wheel ABS). Its just that the replies on this board are so good I thought I'd post here!! Didn't realize this fix could vary so much by vehicle type.
They had told (wife)that the lug nut was on too tight and they were afraid it would snap, so "come back when parts are on hand". But when I tried at home it seems more the case of stripped - not too tight at all.
Yeah, I may have good records from their original install only 3 months ago - but pretty hard to proove to them that nobody else has touched wheel (if they want to be difficult).
I'll talk to mgr tomorrow but at least I now have a better understanding of repair. Thanks again.
they can prove that you touched it since they did too... If it wasn't like that when it came in, IMHO, they are probably on the hook since they didn't note it before the work was done...
i recently bought the 2003 ex accord 4cyl. and have found the gas mileage to be considerable below the listed mpg. we are getting about 23 mpg mixed highway and local driving. also, the car idles terribly at a traffic light, especially when the fan is on for the heat. is this normal for hondas? if not, any suggestions on what to do. car has about 1500 miles on it.
On my 96 Accord LX, the paint on the arm of the windshiled wiper is coming off. I have heard of this happening before. Should I just get some flat black paint and paint them or go down to my dealer and see what they say. When I'm in a parking lot I make it a habit to look at Hondas to see if they have this problem, and most of them do.
...eventually wears off on all vehicles. It happened on my 91, now happening on my 98 - also happened on my 93 Escort. Get yourself some flat black and respray them as I don't think the dealer will help you out on a 6-7 year old vehicle.
Well I see that there are others out there that have experienced the same starting problem that I am seeing on my new 2003 EX V6. Turn the key and it takes quite a while to start, longer than what I consider normal. Or it does not start the first time. Usually after the car starts the engine hesitates/misses for just a second or two also. If I drive and then shut the car off and then try to start it again it starts fine. Also I am using 87 OCT unleaded, does premium gas help this problem? The car only has 500 miles on it and I am taking it in along with a printout of some of the other posting about this. Anyone else hear of a solution for this problem?
I'm curious if Honda reviews this list (or other similar) and contacts the several authors of a recurring serious complaint(no start problem, torque steer, rattles,) for the purpose of
verifying the complaint and taking corrective action/ Anybody out there been contacted??
I have the 5MT and with about 70/30 mixed city/highway driving, I have been getting about 25.2-26.9MPG. Then agian I have a pretty heavy foot, and rarely shift at the recommended speeds.
i have an auto transmissio and with the sticker saying 24-33 mpg i assumed i would get 24-25 with local driving. guess they are off the mark. anyone else have a problem with the idling - car really vibrates with the fan on when stopped at traffic lights.
Ok, well not quite. Right headlight went out yesterday, clock light went out today, spent 9 hours at the dealer today. Dealer has to pull the tranny and replace the synchros for 1st gear on 5spd MT. One out of every 10 clutch depressions I am unable to get it into first gear. They are also replacing the 6-disc radio because something inside the radio rattles. They need my car for 3 days after the holidays and they are providing me a rental car paid for by no other ~ Honda. Overall though, I drive my car into the ground and haven't had any problems. By 30k I was already at the Toyota dealer more times for my 1998 4runner so no complaints. I was a little irritated though because they came back to me and said they were unable to replicate the rattle or tranny problem. We took a little test drive and parts are now ordered.
For people that haven't gotten a letter yet from Honda about the extended transmission warranty like me, you can log into the Honda Owner's section(I think you have to register if you haven't already). Once you log in with your user name and password, it will tell you on the first screen whether or not your Accord is getting the extended transmission warranty.
I had my dealer look at my car and they were unable to reproduce the problems I had been experiencing. (The hard starting or no start, and rough running sometimes after starting.) They were very helpful and considerate though, they didn't make me feel as if I was lying or crazy for telling them what was wrong. The service manager wanted to replace the fuel pump and a control pressure unit, he thinks this may help as they have heard other dealers with similar issues. But before they do this, do you guys think I should just live with the problem and maybe it will go away? I mean it only happens maybe once a week or so. The only concern I am having is that I dont want them to pull my whole car apart to replace the fuel pump and pressure regulators if this isnt the problem. We all know how sometimes things dont go back together the same way that they come apart and I just dont want to open a basket of problems in the future since my car will be the first they have done this on.
On the front windows there is a little plastic thing along the edge its a rectangular shape. What does this thing do? On the passenger side of my 96 Accord, this thing is sticking out. The driver's side is not. What should I do?
If I were you, I'd wait a little longer before having the dealer tear into the car on a treasure hunt. I agree with you, that things often dont go back together right, and wind up causing other (worse) problems. Plus, I have a 2002 Odyssey and a 2003 Accord EX V-6 and both exhibited this same starting problem in the first month or so. And the "problem" mysteriously disappeared. Might have something to do with the car "learning" the security code in the key--at least that was my dealer's theory.....
Acutally I posted this problem a long time ago, the problem is that anytime anything that requires extra electricity is on, the car vibrates, vibration can be felt from steering wheel, seats, just about everywhere. Auburn suggested that the engine mounts may be bad, but because of busy school work, I didn't have time to take the car in for inspection until recently. Outcome: they checked the mounts and they are fine, therefore they re-adjusted the idling speed but vibration still presents. From my observation, I came up with an answer that it might be a bad alternator that's causing this problem. Because everytime i turn on the A/C, the idle drops to about 400 RPM then goes up to 900 RPM, and when idle dropped, that's when the vibration began. At the same time when the idle dropped, the gauge light and stereo light would dim a bit. Same reaction when turning on the rear window defroster. And just recently when driving at night the headlights and all the illumination lights in the interior would suddently dim a bit and go back to normal immediately, therefore my assumption is that the problem may be a bad alternator? Because I'm thinking about taking to an indenpendent Honda repair shop and just get a new alternator, since they dealer never wants to do anything. Please advice if I should take this step, I want to fix this problem yet don't want to waste any money.
I had a similar vibration problem with my 1992 Honda LX Accord Sedan. It would vibrate a lot when I was stopped at a red signal. The steering wheel would shake and each year it got worse. I took it to a master Honda mechanic and he replaced the engine mount and some other wear and tear items on my Accord. It helped a bit but did not stop the vibration problem and was told by the mechanic that all Accords have this problem and it was "normal". After having the Accord for over 10 years and with 135,000 miles on it, I decided it was time to sell it and replaced it with a Toyota Sequoia. I was going to buy another Honda Accord because the car was a good car overall but after reading other posts from people with 2002 and 2003 Accords having vibration problems I decided to pass on Honda and give Toyota a try. You would think that Honda would have corrected this vibration problem long time ago. I do not agree that steering wheel vibration is normal. My 1989 Nissan Maxima with over 150,000 miles does not have steering wheel vibration.
By the way, I thought it was the alternator too and the mechanic checked it and said it was in working order.
Thanks for the input, it's good information but it's also sad for me to hear that because that pretty much means there's nothing I can do to fix this problem. =(
Your Maxima was a 6-cylinder. I wouldn't expect any significant vibration. My 1995 Maxima with 132K is super smooth. Most 4 cylinders have some vibration at idle. The bigger the engine the worse the vibes. My '03 Accord does vibe a bit at idle but it's not bothersome and the car is glassy smooth once rolling.
I love the car, but it has two issues, both rattle related. First, when I have the radio on AM there is an intermittent buzz from the dash and rear speakers. And there is a rattle from the front passenger's door over bumps. Can a dealer track and fix these or am I going to have to live with it? This is my first Honda.
cokane.. It could be your alternator, but when your lights dim slightly, they should come right back w/in a sec or so. Of course.. it being winter, do you have the front defroster on when this happens? If so, it may be a problem with the fast idle solenoid(not sure the technical name) or possibly even the compressor clutch not working properly, thereby putting a high load on the engine all of a sudden...
I have the I4 and my lights dim, but that is pretty normal as it is usually when the fans turn on. They come right back within a sec though. My idle doesn't drop to 400 when I turn on the A/C, though...
1997monte... what I am going to try on mine is some lube for the rubber seals. Gonna ask around a bit to figure out what to use, as I have heard a few different suggestions. I believe mine is coming from "body flex" where the body will flex slightly, but the door won't so the rubber seal will "slip" a little... I will let ya know how I do... BTW.. when I had my TrailBlazer, this was told to me by my mechanic, something about tighter doors/seals now to reduce wind noise, etc. This lubing is recommended every 6mos by my mechanic, only a very light coat, though...
Comments
Geeez--never heard a rattle, a squeak or pulling right! I have to say one thing---isellhondas must be one heck of a salesman!
I would not do anything until you try a good 10W-30 SL rated oil. My personal recommendation would be Chevron Supreme or Pennzoil.
By the way you will find much more expertise about engine oil and additives at Bobistheoilguy.com. Visit there and see if you can get more help. I am certainly not qualified to be giving advice.
As far as warranties go...the best warranty is the one you never or seldom have to use. I fully agree. Hondas do very well in that catagory. Much better than most. I think even you would have to agree with that?
When someone finally builds a perfect car that never has the slighest problem, than warranties will no longer be necessary.
Of course, then we wouldn't have this "problems" board either.
But let's get realistic, Honda screwed up on some basics with the 1998-02 Accord. I mean come on, rattling sunroofs, transmission problems, dashboard rattles. These are things I don't want to spend time at the service dept. for, especially when other manufacturer's build cars without those most basic problems-except maybe the trans. problems.
It's not a perfect world.
Actually, for the record, our '02 V6 does not have one rattle anywhere after over 10,000 KM, which is more than I can say for my CL-S. So, the perfect rattle-free Accord DOES EXIST! And I've got it!
I wonder if resetting the computer for the climate control would fix this problem? Probably a fuse you can pull for it... but before you start pulling fuses, make sure ya got the code for the stereo... just in case. =o)
I agree with the in window antenna thing... the nice thing is that I hardly listen to the radio, so it doesn't bother me much... they probably got rid of it so that they could get the "cheetah look" they were aiming for... (never seen a cheetah with an antennae sticking out of him... hehe)
Having said that, it has always seemed to me that you HAVE to give the folk who hold the warranty a chance to do their jobs. If they can't solve it in a reasonable time, that's an issue, of course, but on this board and the mainstream Accord forum, there have been many cases of these problems being solved without further ado. And every attempt, successful or not, gets sent to Honda as a warranty claim from the dealer service dept, and that is the only way the factory knows it has problems to solve.
But, yeah...it would take forever to switch from disc to disc.
Another "problem" I've never heard of before.
Interesting...
Turns out it was the ignitor (ignition module?). Problem was fixed at dealer and car runs well.
Thanks again
Any insight into the extent of problem I have on hand? I'm disappointed they didn't acknowledge during the install and not sure I even want them to make repair. Also not looking fwd to possible hassle trying to proove fault.
Questions - How is the wheel (lug nut) removed when stripped? Does it need to be drilled off? What part(s) will need replacement? Is this relatively easy and commonplace repair for a tire shop? I'm concerned there may be short cuts taken and I may be better off going to dealer and cutting my losses. Can someone fill me in on extent of repair needed - that'll help decide route to take. Thanks.
Rears on most are simple-however if u have rear disc brakes-that may complicate things.
They had told (wife)that the lug nut was on too tight and they were afraid it would snap, so "come back when parts are on hand". But when I tried at home it seems more the case of stripped - not too tight at all.
Yeah, I may have good records from their original install only 3 months ago - but pretty hard to proove to them that nobody else has touched wheel (if they want to be difficult).
I'll talk to mgr tomorrow but at least I now have a better understanding of repair. Thanks again.
Good Luck.
verifying the complaint and taking corrective
action/ Anybody out there been contacted??
I have the 5MT and with about 70/30 mixed city/highway driving, I have been getting about 25.2-26.9MPG. Then agian I have a pretty heavy foot, and rarely shift at the recommended speeds.
I think you should let them figure it out. After all, you don't want your car to not start one day in the middle of nowhere.
From my observation, I came up with an answer that it might be a bad alternator that's causing this problem. Because everytime i turn on the A/C, the idle drops to about 400 RPM then goes up to 900 RPM, and when idle dropped, that's when the vibration began. At the same time when the idle dropped, the gauge light and stereo light would dim a bit. Same reaction when turning on the rear window defroster. And just recently when driving at night the headlights and all the illumination lights in the interior would suddently dim a bit and go back to normal immediately, therefore my assumption is that the problem may be a bad alternator? Because I'm thinking about taking to an indenpendent Honda repair shop and just get a new alternator, since they dealer never wants to do anything.
Please advice if I should take this step, I want to fix this problem yet don't want to waste any money.
By the way, I thought it was the alternator too and the mechanic checked it and said it was in working order.
I have the I4 and my lights dim, but that is pretty normal as it is usually when the fans turn on. They come right back within a sec though. My idle doesn't drop to 400 when I turn on the A/C, though...
1997monte... what I am going to try on mine is some lube for the rubber seals. Gonna ask around a bit to figure out what to use, as I have heard a few different suggestions. I believe mine is coming from "body flex" where the body will flex slightly, but the door won't so the rubber seal will "slip" a little... I will let ya know how I do... BTW.. when I had my TrailBlazer, this was told to me by my mechanic, something about tighter doors/seals now to reduce wind noise, etc. This lubing is recommended every 6mos by my mechanic, only a very light coat, though...