[Suspension] URGENT: Defect on Civic Safety Critical Part

[NH Dan]

Originally Posted by FMEA

I do not own a Civic myself, but if I did and saw this post my personal next steps would be to contact my dealer straight away to check if my vehicle has the defective rear wheel spindles fitted (Honda in Swindon will have a list of effected vehicle VIN's that have been fitted with the defective rear spindles in 2005) and if it has, demand that these are changed immediately - be warned that your dealer will not know about this defect so do not let them try and fob you off!! if they do try to fob you off ask to speak direct to the Dealer principle. I would also contact VOSA and Honda to find out why this information was only brought to your attention by a concerned member of the public when they both have specific responsibilities under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005 to act in a situation such as this as to ensure public safety.

I hope you all take this post for the reasons I have written it, as my only objective is to ensure that the safety of you, your passengers and that of other road user's is not being put a risk by the actions of Honda and VOSA (or to be correct, the lack of).

This bugs, faults and irritations forum looked the best place to post this information but if it's not can you please ensure that you forward this post onto your fellow Civinfo members who you think have Civics that may be effected.

I like this, your dealer wont know anything about this so dont let them fob you off. - How can we 'fob you off' if we dont know anything about it??

I can also assure you that the DP or a dealership would be one of the last people to speak to regarding this matter as unless he/she has received confidential info from the manufacturer, he/she will also know less than you/the service dept about it.

My personal advice to civinfo members out there is to hold fire unless you have serious concerns over your own car, noises etc - this will be dealt with within the next few days i'm sure.

FMEA seems to know exactly how many cars are affected and therefore i'd assume the Honda also do and whether they are UK or Euro cars or both.

Hold fire until you hear any more on the matter.

The more I read this post, the more the segment i've highlighted in red seems to niggle at me.

[terry]

My 2002 Civic had a wheel bearing changed under warranty because it was noisy......could this have been an early issue FMEA is warning about......or is it one of those things that can happen in any manufacturing process.

Reminds me of a story from a while ago.... a company had a Japanese supplier, the contract stated 2 failures in every 10,000 parts, so when the delivery was made there were 10,000 good parts, and 2 failed parts! the Japanese company didn't ubderstand why they wanted the 2 failed parts though!

Terry

[Al Stirling]

Aww NO...!! Just when I'm really enjoying my Civic, I'm fearing one day it's going to turn into a wonky shopping trolley while doing 70ish on the 77...!!

If true I hope this is resolved by Honda before someone is seriously injured.
I'm on my 5th Honda now and have always praised their build quality and reliability compared to other brands..
I hope this is not the start of "the wheels coming off" for HUK...So to speak..!

[TTDegs]

interestingly, when Honda had a problem with the US civic wheel bearings, they issued a recall...

Honda Recalls 180,000 US Civics Due to Potential Bearing Failure
(this was due to a seal by the way, not a spindle size thing)

can't think why they wouldn't do the same for ours, if needed

[skam]

Originally Posted by Pottsy

FMEA,

I see that you have come back to this thread a couple of times and not replied, so I will present the facts, and let the readers come to their own conclusions.

1) You are the same person as SCF, and you posted this thread asking about suspension problems. Of course you are fishing for information, but why the concealment behind two usernames?

2) The ip address you used to make a post on this thread resolves to THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY.

That's enough for me! What FMEA posted is NOT TRUE! Case closed for me and i believe that you all do the same!

[GHGH]

Originally Posted by civicfan

Perhaps they do it "the Ford way" i.e. silently replace the items during routine service and/or tyre changes, and that would explain why the early Civics still have their rear wheels.

Maybe this is common practice? Read in the paper about a Volvo having some warranty work done, which they refused to inform the owner in detail.

[Kremmen]

My opinions:

Anyone here had a major rear suspension failure with stripped threads or anything related to this accusation ?

As Pottsy said - why wait till now = suspicious IMO

Fact :

In the Auto Express magazine Drive the Deal can negotiate circa £4K+ off some Focus models but only £2K off some Civic models. I think Ford have a sales concern and are having to resort to the Citroen method of heavy discounting to shift the metal.

Oh, by the way, Ford Focuses of about 4 years old have a dodgy instrument panel that can completely stop working which has caused one person to get a speeding fine (Watchdog this week).

Ford have been very kind to these owners and are only going to charge them £99 each to have the instrument panel replaced!
It is a 'manufacturing defect' and should be replaced FOC in my opinion.

Job done - my next car is very likely to be another Civic

[robbo51]

Could Ford be worried that they're losing sales of the Focus to Honda??
As Pottsy says, "very suspicious".
IMO..Not something to worry about

[GHGH]

A new form of phishing

[cb550]

Looking at the dimensions qoted by FMEA,if 21.968 is the higher dimension to BS standards refering to M22 male,and 21.450 is the actual minimum Honda have accepted,surely the resulting tolerance is 0.518,rather than 0.282 stated by FMEA ??

[Doubtingthomas]

All far too technical for me, I'm sorry. I bow to superior knowledge. I only hope this matter is resolved, once and for all, quickly.

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by robbo51

Could Ford be worried that they're losing sales of the Focus to Honda??

If the thread stated that ALL civics are likely to be affected then maybe but why say it is only some from the first batch?

[HappyMan]

Originally Posted by Topcat

If the thread stated that ALL civics are likely to be affected then maybe but why say it is only some from the first batch?

There is obviously some truth in what FMEA has said as Honda has responded with a statement.

The overall question that needs to be asked is: Has it affected anyone?

I really don't understand the need to go to the press and scaremonger on here IF as Honda and VOSA have stated they are looking into it.

In my view this takes us back to the statistical issue we discussed in another thread. Honda and VOSA have to consider the problem from a statistical probability perspective. Maybe there was a problem but the probability of an accident is statistically unlikely but an investigation is under way regardless.

I think we should wait and see what happens.

[pcr]

For a machined thread, 0.5mm too narrow sounds quite significant to me, that's the sort of tolerance a carpenter might work to.
If VOSA are investigating this matter then I would imagine it must have some substance.
Is there an owner of one of these early cars with the wherewithall to measure this thread ?

[dave525]

If this is so safety critical as FMEA suggests then I can not see that any manufacturer would not respond immediately. Have any Civic's suffered any major incidents because of this defect ?. I wait with baited breath to see the daming review in the newspapers

[Topcat]

Originally Posted by pcr

If VOSA are investigating this matter then I would imagine it must have some substance.

I totally agree.

[illegalhunter]

Fema Fedral Emergency Management Authority Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[cb550]

Well this FMEA or whoever he really is,perhaps he'd forgotton he'd already signed up with another name.Got to give someone the benefit the doubt on that eh.

Thing is, if all this is shortly to go public etc etc,why come on a forum and cause uncertanty,worry and upset among members(and viewers probably looking at the possibility of a new car purchase)?

The alleged affected cars will have been on the roads for some considerable time by now.if its how FMEA says it is,all is going to be revealed shortly.

[liamcalland]

I am going to keep a close eye on this thread but not bother commenting until full confirmed facts are posted.

Honda are clearly aware, and will know the amount of people reading this forum and will now know some Civic owners will be very concerned about the accusations made. Honda will act if needs be.

What I find highly doubtful is FEMA saying the media are going to make a big "who are" over this. The media would only ever be interested in something like this if someone had been seriously injured or killed. There is no story for the media so think that is total B.S.

The Handbrake problem got minimal coverage by the media and that is only because people had damage caused because of the faulty handbrake.

I find FEMA's scaremongering very dissapointing, and agree with the other post that he could have worked much more closely with the Admins of this site before posting such a serious topic.

I await the full outcome of this.

[TTDegs]

Originally Posted by pcr

If VOSA are investigating this matter then I would imagine it must have some substance.

Originally Posted by Topcat

I totally agree.

Only an educated guess here, but would someone like VOSA pretty much have to investigate it if someone made a claim like this?

ie - if you emailed VOSA from a (say, picking a manufacturer at random...) Ford email address, stating (again, picking a topic at random) "I wish to inform you that the machining tolerance of the m22 wheel spindles on several thousand Honda Civics is out of spec" - then VOSA could hardly just ignore it, could they?

Doesn't necessarily mean that there is any substance to it just becuase VOSA are looking into it.


Which isn't to say that this is the case - there may well be some substance to the claim.
But I'm just pointing out that simply becuase VOSA are investigating (which, by the way FEMA claims they are not - or not 'fully' anyway), might not add any weight to the claim one way or the other.

As I understand it anyway