by "Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
Published 05/25/2017 at 15:57
by "Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
Published 05/25/2017 at 15:57
No Tags
STARS: 1
So the Odyssey is at almost 35k miles and I ’ ve never had the “ privilege ” of owning a car under factory warranty before. I have documentation from prior owners of my older cars that they would visit the dealership for every little thing, which I ’ ve avoided so far. But with one free trip left, I want to make it my last one so I can switch to more DIY and indy work.
Speaking of DIY, I changed the tranny fluid a couple times (basically it ’ s a 12 - quart tranny and the standard mo is to just drain & fill 3 quarts, repeated a couple times every 30k miles). I sent some engine oil to Blackstone Labs and it came back looking good (shocker: The Honda “ Maintenance Minder ” recommends overly aggressive OCIs!). I tried to do everything I could that might expose a problem or issue, but so far, so good. Apart from the few minor nits below, is there anything else I should add to my list?
Exterior door trim on the B - pillar is coming apart again (already “ fixed ” once under warranty). This is really just a design flaw on Honda ’ s part — they didn ’ t build exterior trim pieces that actually wrap around the metal of the door frame, which almost everyone else does. It ’ s just foamy tape barely holding on.
Weird squeak coming from near the A - pillar. It ’ s structural, but hopefully just a couple panels rubbing. Minivans have the torsional rigidity of a refrigerator box.
Cupholders have rubber “ tongue ” style tabs on them to hold your drink in place. Most of ours are close to ripping completely off. Maybe it ’ s time to stop shoving 32oz Nalgenes in there.
Minor recall on the middle row sliding mechanism. If I could avoid getting it “ fixed ” I would because the fix is just to protect stupid people from themselves by adding complexity.
Possible brake warping, but it
’
s minor
—
slight pedal and wheel vibration under light braking. Odysseys are known (infamous) for this. Maybe I
’
ll score some free rotors. Wait, maybe
“
score
”
is the wrong word here.
"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
05/25/2017 at 16:06, STARS: 0
At about 35,500 I took the Mazda5 into the dealer for a little clunk under the hood. Turns out a motor mount was broken and the other two (well, trans mount) weak. All replaced under warranty, along with a rear wiper arm. Thankfully that was the only repair that’s been necessary in nearly 50,000 miles. Like you, this was my first new car, and the first one with a real warranty.
Having only owned German and American vehicles previously, the concept of ‘reliability’ was foreign to me. Oh, I can have fun and not have the car cost me an arm and a leg every few months? Really? I’m never going back...
"haveacarortwoorthree2" (haveacarortwoorthree2)
05/25/2017 at 16:13, STARS: 1
We went through 3 Odysseys when my kids were younger (I was out of town a lot, so we traded at around 75k miles just because I wanted the piece of mind of wanting the family to always be in a “newish” car). They were reliable as heck, and our Honda dealer even took care of a few minor things (like the door trim) even out of warranty. One of the most amazing things is when one of the kids somehow managed to rip the second row seat while going back to the third row. We didn’t even say anything, but they saw it during an oil change visit and told my wife when she picked the car up that her new seat would be in next week and they were fixing it under warranty.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/25/2017 at 16:16, STARS: 2
I hear you. My DD is a 2001 VW with all the bells and whistles, so the fact that I ’ m not HAVING to wrench on the car once a month is a revelation — it lets me focus on maintenance and modding. I look back at the maintenance records for the VW and it ’ s like the Old Testament.
And the lower control arm recall begat the front suspension TSB. And the technicians looked upon the fuel filler neck and saw that it, too, was bad. And the Daytime Running Lights shone upon the street ahead, ere they burnt out due to some shitty wiring harness that almost started a fire. And lo, the wires were not sold separately, but as a kit.
"MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner" (montegoman562)
05/25/2017 at 16:18, STARS: 0
I believe brakes/rotors would be under wear items, they’re not gonna cover that for you. Always ask though. Maybe you’ll get a rookie at the counter lol
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/25/2017 at 16:35, STARS: 0
Under normal circumstances, yes — but with more than 50% wear remaining on the pads and rotors, most Ody owners have had good luck here. For a little backstory, apparently Honda was one the first companies to start covering “everything” under warranty because it was the only painful feedback mechanism towards making their cars more reliable over the decades.
"MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner" (montegoman562)
05/25/2017 at 16:36, STARS: 0
nice. Get them brakes then!
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/25/2017 at 16:42, STARS: 1
Here is the problem with taking stuff to the dealer to fix little things: if they don’t know exactly what to do, they can make it worse. Here is an example. If you have a wind noise in a window seal because the rubber is ripped, no problem, they know what part to order and they put it in according to their manual, and problem (probably) solved. But, if you say, “I have a wind leak coming from here (points to unbroken area of rubber), and I want you to take a look,” they will poke around and remove and reposition it so they can say they did something. Only they may have made something worse by messing with it when they didn’t have clear mission parameters. This is why new car owners would be better off thinking ahead about what they hope to accomplish before they ask for warranty service to fix every little imperfection*.
That said, absolutely do make this last trip count, and have them fix any little thing that you think they won’t make worse. This is your last chance before you just have to “live with it” on the little annoying stuff.
*Source: I always buy new, and I used to do this, sometimes to my detriment.
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
05/25/2017 at 17:01, STARS: 1
Not sure if they do it anymore, but BMW used to give you the remainder of the original owners maintenance warranty when you bought a CPO BMW (I think it was 5 yr/50k miles). At 49k miles I told my wife to start being generous with her brake application. At 49500 I got new pads and rotors on all four corners for free. The rotors weren’t even warped but they were worn enough to warrant replacement under BMW’s specs.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/25/2017 at 17:05, STARS: 1
Yep, many times I’ve had to weigh my options with PAID services (forget warranties) — like if my heater core is partially clogged, do I just suck it up and live with minimal heat, or pay $1,000+ for a shop to tear my dashboard out and inevitably put it all back together wrong?
Accidents are the worst, though. We’ve got 4 dents that are major enough to warrant body work, but I’m not willing to take the hit on getting the car resprayed, in addition to having them remove a bunch of panels, etc. In terms of the value of the car, it’s basically a wash to just live with the dents.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/25/2017 at 17:07, STARS: 1
Body damage sucks. But stuff I had to learn to just get over and live with before can maybe now be done affordably with PDR.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/25/2017 at 17:12, STARS: 1
I need to find a good PDR around here, hopefully someone who doesn
’
t use adult toys to do their work. I bet most of mine could be 90% fixed that way. Some are fully creased, which is nearly impossible to fix. But I
’
m sure it can be improved. Funfact: Owning a big wide minivan means most of your body damage happens when other people hit you while parked. We have no
“
moving collisions
”
under our belt on this car.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/25/2017 at 19:11, STARS: 1
We got a couple little dings a few weeks after we got our new minivan. Less than a month! From a parking lot, I’m sure. She did have a big accident in it when a young girl ran a stop sign and crunched the front end. I asked about getting PDR while it was at the body shop. When they quoted me $150, I decided, “Eh, it’ll just be replaced by new dents within a month.”
Futility, they name is minivan.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/26/2017 at 09:38, STARS: 1
Yep. Thankfully my wife is more practical than image-conscious (I mean, we have a minivan, after all). I vowed to keep the car in solid mechanical shape if she promised not to worry about all the cosmetic damage. The interior, OTOH...I can clean it spotless and it’s filthy again in 2 days. Kids, amiright? Don’t even get me started on the headliner. I’m not even sure how all that crap gets up there.
"MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner" (montegoman562)
05/26/2017 at 10:34, STARS: 0
Nice, I can’t believe anyone is replacing wear items, but then again I’m too cheap to buy new cars.
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
05/26/2017 at 10:55, STARS: 0
I’m sure the original owner had to pay for the maintenance warranty somewhere, it was just cool that the second owner was able to keep using it. I got the car at a grand below Bluebook so it wasn’t like I paid any more for the CPO warranty. They did free oil changes too, which isn’t a big deal, but they gave me a brand new loaner every time I brought the car in.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/26/2017 at 10:58, STARS: 1
My wife doesn’t care too much about exterior stuff, but she does like to keep things clean. So we at least don’t have much for biology experiments growing between the seats. Try as I might though, I can’t seem to keep footprints off the dash. Grrrr.
"MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner" (montegoman562)
05/26/2017 at 12:07, STARS: 0
Sounds like a great deal, take it if they offer it. We bought our Commander on CPO and it was a pretty basic warranty until the end of the time of the original warranty.
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
05/26/2017 at 12:30, STARS: 0
Yeah, my Wrangler was a CPO and they wouldn’t even replace my weeping valve covers and PS pump because the fluid wasn’t actually dripping.
"MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner" (montegoman562)
05/26/2017 at 13:04, STARS: 1
yikes, we never actually had a claim under the CPO status. The oil pan promptly rusted straight through (was literally dripping oil) about 6 months after the warranty expired. Only about 68-71k miles on it.
Normally an easy not a big deal thing to swap. Except on a 3.7 you have to hook up the motor and lift it about 2-3 inches to get the oil pan out.