Honda Civic & A/C problems.

Hello Friends,

Got a post again on to Honda Civic (The good old favorite commuter of mine).

This car has been doing great except for some things here and there it has been a great ownership experience till date and and on top of that it has also saved my life once :) in past.

Ok! So coming back. Now-a-days, am using Honda Civic majorly as my secondary option for daily commute or primary option for out stations trip (which is not that frequent these days).

While starting my car in the morning found A/C's blower is in full swing but it was not cooling at all (literally it had no chill!! :D)

And after an hour long drive it didn't turned up once in the whole journey and from past experiences the first go to thing was YouTube (to find out what could be the most obvious and DIY as fix.)

Narrowed down to A/C relay in the fuse set. Gave it a tap as was suggested in the video, tried some more fiddles but nothing made it to work. But me being me and trusting YouTube, finalized on "A/C relay only" must have broken. So i called the most trusted car A/C repair mechanic in my area. Hemkund Sahib Car A/C in Sector 23 of Dwarka.

Owner, he is a gem of a person it was going to be my second encounter with him and me being the pseudo pro asked him if he has the A/C relay for my car so that i can just fix it of my own and he being he politely said yes (and he always says YES no matter what you inquire for.. i like that about him) and so i got to his workshop.

It being a Saturday(weekend) there was crowd but not very hectic one he moved my car under the shadow(it was hot out there in open) and asked me to start the car. Which i did and then after his inspection his words were...

"Baadshaao yeh toh khuch start he nahin hua.. no koi ghoon na ghaan" (Vague translation: Brother there is no sound at all of compressor/fan starting up) and i was like and what could be the reason for that and what about the relay!

Its a bigger problem than just relay as per the condition and may be relay could also be adding up but lets focus on the main crux why compressor didn't started!

He asked one of the technician to look in for pressure and coolant gases, which was not there at all and hence he started to check for any leaks in the a/c radiator coil and other pipes. Upon half removal of bumper found out one connecting pipe was having stains of leak and later on it got confirmed. So there was no gas in it and hence for safety of A/C devices(to prohibit dry runs), no internal components were booting up and hence "no ghoon na ghaan".

That specific connector was not available in house at that moment but he contacted some vendor and asked for it on urgent basis. After a bit of hustle he agreed to deliver to his shop but it consumed about an hour and half more.

But finally connector arrived and got it fitted in the car, pushed the coolant and switched on the A/C and yes it came up to life. It costed me about 4 hours in duration and about ₹ 5K on pocket, but good as it got fixed.

Things were going good for next couple of months but then suddenly A/C died again that too just like that without any external characteristic. Cooling went for a toss and had to complete my rest of about 40 mins journey fiddling with open/closed windows (as i become more restless to honks in Delhi's traffic condition and also the heat).

And visited Hemkund Sahib Car A/C again (in a week time) fearing of any more leaks (this time they have shifted their place about 70-100 meters forward (from their last location) and what they found this time (after inspection)? Yes it was the relay. Yippey!! I was like wow i got to a solution before the occurrence of problem. But thank fully this was just Pluck, Plug and Play fix. Which costed me about ₹ 400.00

And currently Civic is doing very fine. It still feels such an exuberant thing to drive that every time if i get a thought about letting it go (as it is getting old) am forced to say NAaaa :D

My Civic and some very stubbron vibarations issues

Hello friends,

Its been long time that i posted something here and this time i won't even say was lazy.. lately been facing a few of blows on personal front and life has not been the way it was to me since last post, but all that can come in picture may be in a different post altogether. Lets talk about civic here, my Black 2007 Honda Civic.

That sweetie has been one hell of a car. Believe me i have not driven super cars yet but whatever that have driven this one is a very sweet machine, from racing one traffic light to other... to cutting corners... to driving 150 to 210+ km/h... to listening melodies in rainy days or some time just talking to her it has been very good in fact i will say great car to me.

But as with almost everything wear-tear happens and my car is no different.. Many of you don't know but at the start of this year Civic met with bad accident on road, hitting a feet height pavement at 150+ km/h from front and the impact was such that right side alloy wheels turned into pieces suspension assembly broke at rear and after all this all four in the car walked out and the first statement i heard from one of my friends (to other) "Good morning" (he was sleeping while crash happened)(can elaborate more but thats not the aim here)

And from that day onwards something or the other kept on bothering me from cars perspective too(because some very personal stuff were also bothering me). Got the damaged parts replaced got her set of 4 + 1 brand new Michelin Agnis tyres but it was not the same car, i think...

There was this sound something like humming from right front wheel, was vibrating steer at 90+ km/h confidence of breaking was not there.. always kept thinking that it might just leave the road again and this time may be i will not get the chance also to walk away.

Took it to local garage and after quite a few test drives was able to convince the person that it must be the right wheel bearing.. He was quite skeptical but on my insist he replaced it, that was around Rs 1400.00 +  Rs 200 for the press machine and Rs 500 as labor charges. Result: humming sound went away. I thought finally things are getting normal with my sweetie but no i was wrong.

Vibrating steering issue become more and more prominent and it was like Praveen why can't you send me to Honda service center(HSC) and get me fixed.. am i not good enough for you now to ask for proper authorized service center visit but service center guys were more lame than me.. as per them things are quite ok and they can't figure out whats the reason behind vibration and gave the car back... I kept the car running like that and lately it started making noise while braking as if something is hitting the brake disc rotors and the cycle begins again.

As per my local garage may be suspension bushes or the rotors must have gone wrong.. they replaced the bushes and got the disc cleaned on lathe machine but that thing was so stubborn to go away. Between all these I saw one very strange thing... what the local mechanic did is that he jacked my car from front right so that front right tyre is completely off the ground.. took the tyre off and started the car (switched to Drive mode) brake disc was hitting the brake caliper pins while rotating in an alternate fashion, which he ignored but i didn't .. i asked him to get this disc also removed and see of that hub is also doing this behavior (as per him this is not that abnormal) but upon my forced request he had to do it and there i saw that the hub was also showing wave behavior but as they has changed that hub's bearing only a month back so they don't want to take the blame if bearing or hub has gone wrong but kept insisting that it must be disc only and they will re-put that on lathe machine and get it fixed but i was pretty sure the culprit is the hub.

To be very sure, took it to Honda Service Center(HSC) again and elaborated the problem over phone (as driver has picked it to HSC) as i was not physically present there but again they were not able to figure out the issue. Even though i was so precise explaining about hub and its bearing (would be the culprit and how to confirm it...) they just can't get to it and my car came back with interior cleaned along with leather polishing on seats and nothing much but at least they were frank in telling me that they were not able to get to crux of the problem and hence its not fixed as of now.

And day before yesterday took it to Palika Bhawan, RK Puram, New Delhi (opposite to Hotel Hayat) and explained the problem and asked the mechanic to do the same exact steps and then it will become clear.. At least this time they listened because i think they didn't had any thing to loose and neither to take blame of some kind and finalized on yes its the hub (and if worst case may the axle), but as the hub(with bearing) is a thing which rarely gets any damage is generally not available with any store there. Now what do i need to do, wait or could i ask Honda to get me one but both things will take time.

One among those mechanics came up with the idea of why not get it fixed it on lathe machine while rubbing of the extra dent (which is not visible from naked eye) this way even if there is a slight dent on hub wheel it will not be propagating that on the brake disc plate(rotor) (because its directly mounted on that) after some negotiations i agreed.

They took it and came back in 40 min.. hub was looking shiny from the front as they have grinned for that uneven surface and rest was exactly the same. Keeping fingers crossed they put the things together which is not that tough but mind you not very easy too and its very laborious.

Took the test drive and it seemed to work... there was no vibration on steering and it was not screaming while breaking too.. on a safer note got all the tires balanced and aligned too and even though has not taken it for any long rides yet but initial observations are very satisfying (Total cost: Rs 3500.00 including labor charges) and also for the first time i got my civic a new accessory the "steering wheel" cover.. it is very much well stitched and finished have a look.

 
@ Rs 2200.00 What you say?

Honda Civic engine vibration fix

Hello people, 

Long time.. no post?? its all because of my laziness :D but this one is not about computer but about my car.
It is going on winters here in Delhi and my car started showing vibrations during cold start and it was really bad and vigorous while doing reverse and it use to go away after say initial 1-2 km run.

Let me tell you about my car, its 2007 make Honda civic (India) an automatic. 

Initially i thought that it will go away with time, might be due to something temporary but it was getting really annoying every morning and was not able to stand it any more so decided to get it fixed. Got to two car workshops(other than Honda authorized workshop) and they were not able to identify the issue and some said it might be the O2 sensor or the engine mount. 

Honda guys said it is the mount but from the naked eye there was no damage to engine mount and the cost they said was something around 10.5 K oops. This much of cost for car vibration it was something that i thought is really expensive and being a delhite, need help now as the cost was not at all satisfying :) So i went to Palika bazar car market (opposite to the Hayat) and from there got the engine mount replaced with just a self trust that the vibration is only because of engine mount. 

New engine mount cost me around Inr 3600 and Inr 300 as the labor charges and also got the front disk pads replaced(as it was due) which cost me 1500 more :) 

And my car is back :) 

Vibration completely gone and more effective braking now. From the service guy i cam to know that Engine mount was not damaged but got pressed (seems Honda civic engine is bit heavy for the designated mount and it is a common problem with civics in India). Please refer to pictures below. 

Engine is touching the mount completely(mount hydraulics not working, needs replacement)

New engine mount replaced (and now the hydraulics will eat the vibration coming from engine) and no more vibrations

Hope this gets as help to somebody required someday.