Honda CR-V blown AC compressor - FIXED!

That's great news, all right! Congratulations, and thanks for following up with us.

Mike

Yeah... Try and get that consideration for GM, etc. I still think that someone overcharged the system though...

JT

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!)

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.