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81 Posts
Here we go. My first experience bringing the Green one into a Honda dealership.
Background: 4 times in the last week the car has not started, then after a while, did start but with zero bars of IMA displayed. After driving for a while while it force-charged itself, it suddenly zoomed up to max charge displayed. I have been unable to think of any consistent "thing" that I did to instigate this. The lights work, power windows, everything, it just won't start and then does its recalibration.
I bring it in for its 30k inspection and tell them to please determine what is causing this new problem. Note-When I dropped off the car it had near full charge.
So, I tell the dealer all of this, and, shockingly...they have no clue. They hook it up to the computer and get no error messages, so I must be a loon. The service guy tells me that the car had only 2 or 3 bars of charge when he got in it (an HOUR AFTER I had dropped it off with a full charge), but that it charged right up to near full after he took it for a quick spin, so, he claimed, he could find nothing wrong in that! He actually said, "Hey, this was a first year model, they do strange things" In retrospect, maybe he's right.
The next day my car is 'ready'. I go in and they tell me they found nothing wrong. I asked them if they consider this new NO START/DRAIN/CHARGE thing as there being 'nothing wrong'. They said, no, but since nothing showed up as being wrong, there must not be anything wrong. Did I say how much I love dealers? Actually they were quite nice people, but if I want nice people I'll go to a park, I want my car fixed!
So....30 minutes after picking up my car with 'nothing wrong', it won't start again.
I suppose I should go right back in tomorrow, but why? What can they do if the computer doesn't say anything's wrong? It seems to be the only entity that knows about this car according to Honda. AND, to make matters worse, since they found nothing wrong, I was stuck with the 1 day car rental since Honda Care won't cover it unless the dealer has a code for a problem.
Thanks to many of you, I asked them if it could be the 12V battery. The service guy said, "Well, maybe, but why would everything else be working, and why would it only do it intermittantly" My answer: "My mechanic days stopped when I attempted to rebuild a carb on my old '66 Mustang...how do I know?" I'm checking the paperwork to see if they even tested the 12V...I thought he said he had, but wouldn't that have indicated a prob?
I have found an Optima battery (D51R?) for $139. Should I put that one in there and see if it solves this prob?
Comments/scoldings/shoulders to cry on..all appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
Kyle
Background: 4 times in the last week the car has not started, then after a while, did start but with zero bars of IMA displayed. After driving for a while while it force-charged itself, it suddenly zoomed up to max charge displayed. I have been unable to think of any consistent "thing" that I did to instigate this. The lights work, power windows, everything, it just won't start and then does its recalibration.
I bring it in for its 30k inspection and tell them to please determine what is causing this new problem. Note-When I dropped off the car it had near full charge.
So, I tell the dealer all of this, and, shockingly...they have no clue. They hook it up to the computer and get no error messages, so I must be a loon. The service guy tells me that the car had only 2 or 3 bars of charge when he got in it (an HOUR AFTER I had dropped it off with a full charge), but that it charged right up to near full after he took it for a quick spin, so, he claimed, he could find nothing wrong in that! He actually said, "Hey, this was a first year model, they do strange things" In retrospect, maybe he's right.
The next day my car is 'ready'. I go in and they tell me they found nothing wrong. I asked them if they consider this new NO START/DRAIN/CHARGE thing as there being 'nothing wrong'. They said, no, but since nothing showed up as being wrong, there must not be anything wrong. Did I say how much I love dealers? Actually they were quite nice people, but if I want nice people I'll go to a park, I want my car fixed!
So....30 minutes after picking up my car with 'nothing wrong', it won't start again.
I suppose I should go right back in tomorrow, but why? What can they do if the computer doesn't say anything's wrong? It seems to be the only entity that knows about this car according to Honda. AND, to make matters worse, since they found nothing wrong, I was stuck with the 1 day car rental since Honda Care won't cover it unless the dealer has a code for a problem.
Thanks to many of you, I asked them if it could be the 12V battery. The service guy said, "Well, maybe, but why would everything else be working, and why would it only do it intermittantly" My answer: "My mechanic days stopped when I attempted to rebuild a carb on my old '66 Mustang...how do I know?" I'm checking the paperwork to see if they even tested the 12V...I thought he said he had, but wouldn't that have indicated a prob?
I have found an Optima battery (D51R?) for $139. Should I put that one in there and see if it solves this prob?
Comments/scoldings/shoulders to cry on..all appreciated.
Thanks for reading.
Kyle