2009 coolant odour after ping fix (amongst other things)

[ghardie1]

Hi,
New to the forum but I have been keeping an eye on the Euro ping thread for while.

I bought a new Euro Lux in Sep 2009. Pinged on the drive home from the dealer. They finally conducted the ping fix late December after which the pinging has been dramatically reduced but still there under certain situations.
The car now occasionally smells of coolant on startup and when you stop. I cant find any leaks and the coolant level has not changed so it’s probably a slight hose weep. I'm just about to contact the dealer to fix.
Just curious if anyone else has a similar issue.

The car has a number of other annoying issues.
1) Rattle from front passenger door when accelerating.
2) The car is very camber sensitive (ie you need to constantly steer the car). I've swapped the tyres around which improved the situation but its still not ideal.
3) Front speaker distorted (fixed under warranty).
4) Handbrake needs a lot of clicks to hold on my mildly steep driveway. The dealer came back with the ADR definition of ten clicks to tell me they were not going to do anything about it.
5) Driver door hard to open on really hot days (yesterday was 44C in Melbourne).

I really want to like this car but it’s making it hard for me to do this. The dealership (Fentree Gully) is very unhelpful. The car itself has a lot of good features and generally drives well but all the little bugs really annoy me.

I bought the car because I just left Holden after 15 year of driving Commodores, Saab 93s, Astras etc. I used my Holden discount to buy another car for my sister and my wife liked the idea of owning a Honda. The Euro has been the most problematic car I've owned which really surprised me.

In hindsight I should have bought a Calais V V8 (which was the same money as the Euro after discounts). The Euro has a nicer interior and slightly quieter (apart from the very high road noise) but the Calais has it beat almost everywhere else.

A couple of other comments on the pinging issue. I let one of my Holden engineering (Engine Calibration) friends drive the Euro. He said that Post detonation is related to the combustion chamber flame front (starting at the spark plug) compressing non combusted charge in the cylinder and causing it to ignite before the flame front arrives. The interaction between these flame fronts causes complicated wave patterns in the cylinder. The guts of it are that post detonation is bad and should not happen. It can cause damage to the engine through high vibration levels.
The other point is that I’ve asked several other Euro owners (while filling up for fuel) if there cars pinged. Everyone said yes. Now I know its not the most thorough research project but I would suggest that the number of Euros pinging is greater then the 60 Honda Australia has quoted based on my 100% response rate.
I feel sorry for Holden because if the Commodore had an issue like this pinging it would be on all the current affair shows. Honda can keep this one fairly quiet.
Sorry if this note is a bit hard to read (I just threw it together).
Cheers

[tron07]

just wondering, coolant got smell??

could it be ozone smell or ioniser smell?? or mold smell? My Euro tend to emit a smelly mold odour from the air cond vents for a short period of time every now and then.

[aaronng]

2) The car is very camber sensitive (ie you need to constantly steer the car). I've swapped the tyres around which improved the situation but its still not ideal.
That is the downside of trying to have a good handling car using standard street tyres and comfy spring and damper rates.



4) Handbrake needs a lot of clicks to hold on my mildly steep driveway. The dealer came back with the ADR definition of ten clicks to tell me they were not going to do anything about it.
If you look at the rear brakes, they are tiny and not really adequate to hold such a heavy car on an incline. Assuming yours is a manual, always put it in 1st or reverse when parking on any incline. That was what we learnt many years ago from driving school, so I guess that has been forgotten nowadays.



5) Driver door hard to open on really hot days (yesterday was 44C in Melbourne).

Check the door striker for alignment. Someone else had this problem but the dealer fix was to realign the door to match the striker but it caused the door panel to look misaligned.

[MKI4EVA]

Is this a manual or Auto?

[ghardie1]

Hi,
Automatic Euro.

Its definintly coolant. I've had enough leaking radiators on old cars to know....
I agree that modern cars have gone to sharper steering which tends to take away the old sneeze factor (you know when you sneeze and end up in the other lane). My Euro is more sensitive then other modern cars I've driven to this issue. You can have sharp/ stable steering.


I'm probably more annoyed with how the dealer and Honda Australia deal with issues. Most of the items listed (apart from the Ping/Post detonation) are generally easily fixed but the dealer really is not helpful.
eg. 1) I asked for the door rattle to be fixed. First thing I was told that rattles are not part of warrenty. Maybe so, but at least take a look (its called customer service).
2) Ping issue. First thing I was told when I rang was that I had put the wrong fuel in the car. It was still running on the fuel that was supplied from the dealership.... I really felt like I was being fobbed off. Emailed Honda Australia- they did not reply and I had to chase them down. Just not good enough....
3) Handbrake ADR reply was a bit of a joke. The ADR requests a hill gradient of something like 20-30% (ie very steep) at Gross Vehicle Mass. I really dont think my car would hold on this test as is.

I wont be getting the car serviced at Fentree Gully but want to get these minor issues sorted out with them.

[aaronng]

3) Handbrake ADR reply was a bit of a joke. The ADR requests a hill gradient of something like 20-30% (ie very steep) at Gross Vehicle Mass. I really dont think my car would hold on this test as is.

If you leave your gearbox in P and have the handbrake up about 6-7 clicks, it should hold on that incline.

[tony1234]

Hi,
Automatic Euro.

Its definintly coolant. I've had enough leaking radiators on old cars to know....
I agree that modern cars have gone to sharper steering which tends to take away the old sneeze factor (you know when you sneeze and end up in the other lane). My Euro is more sensitive then other modern cars I've driven to this issue. You can have sharp/ stable steering.


I'm probably more annoyed with how the dealer and Honda Australia deal with issues. Most of the items listed (apart from the Ping/Post detonation) are generally easily fixed but the dealer really is not helpful.
eg. 1) I asked for the door rattle to be fixed. First thing I was told that rattles are not part of warrenty. Maybe so, but at least take a look (its called customer service).
2) Ping issue. First thing I was told when I rang was that I had put the wrong fuel in the car. It was still running on the fuel that was supplied from the dealership.... I really felt like I was being fobbed off. Emailed Honda Australia- they did not reply and I had to chase them down. Just not good enough....
3) Handbrake ADR reply was a bit of a joke. The ADR requests a hill gradient of something like 20-30% (ie very steep) at Gross Vehicle Mass. I really dont think my car would hold on this test as is.

I wont be getting the car serviced at Fentree Gully but want to get these minor issues sorted out with them.
Go to another dealer service dept.As you are in Melb.(i think!)i'm sure some of the Melb. guys can recommend a dealer to go to.

[denot]

You dont need to sort out issue with the crap dealer. Also, I do think that you are over critical about the car because of your bad experience with the customer service... Some dealer have really poor customer service eh? :thumbdwn:

[tknova]

If your after a dealer in Melbourne, I've had great experiences with John Blair Honda in Prahan with my 06 Euro.

I've had two sets of headlights replaced, clutch cylinder replaced, and 4 services completed there.

Every time I've received the car back, theres not a finger print ect on my car. These little things make a huge difference in the customer experience i have received & enjoyed.