Honda Accord VTi issues

[DS_1]

Hi Everyone,

Newbie here to Ozhonda. I bought my Accord VTi Luxury in June this year and fitted with the following accessories.

- Bluetooth unit - works fine and happy with it.

- iPod docking cable - costed me a bomb and has a lot of limitation with it. Reads only songs that are filed in to Playlist under names Honda1, Honda2, Honda3, etc. It does not support ID3 tags so the song names, albums, etc, are not shown on the screen of the car which means you very much need to memorise where you filed the songs.
Questions: Does anyone knows if there is any software update to this to make it happen?

- Outside noise - I am hearing outside noise when I am driving from 40Km up, could this be caused by the door visor (weather shield)?

- Steering is off centre and pulling to the right - my steering is slightly off centre and when taking off from stationary, it pulls to the right immediately. The guys at Eastern Honda has tried to align the steering but to no avail. They say the pulling right problem is because it is a unique problem to all front wheel drive cars. I did same on a Honda Jazz and Honda Odyssey and there was no pulling right problems.

Hope to get some good advice and inputs from mates here.

Cheers,

[kccord]

Steering pull can be caused by:

* Wheel alignment - Bring it to TIRE SHOP and get laser alignment, they will check all adjustment and bring it back to factory values, most importantly in this case, toe adjustment done on tie rod. This will bring the steering back to straight.

*Radial pull - Caused naturally by tire, on right hand drive car they pull towards the left very slightly. Could be the nature of the road banking as well.

*Torque steer - i.e. Most honda's with no LSD and engine on left side of the car (looking at facing forward), the power driven wheel is front right (since the shaft is the shortest distance from gearbox to wheel and power has tendency to go the easiest/shortest path). When you plow the throtlle on a slight uneven road or you have massive power it will most likely to pull to left.

People should now realize that not all mechanics that work in 'genuine' workshop are not all professional and god at it, majority of them are just dumb a**. Never heard that pulling to the right is a unique problem to fwd, biggest load of crap. Wouldn't bring my car for a service there if it is not because of the warranty.

Outside noise - very hard to determine coz it could be squillion of things. If it is you weather shield, check if it is mounted properly. Unless it is a common problem that they will make whirlling noise the faster you go.

[kccord]

Forgot to mention to check your tires and tire pressure and quote the question "Did your car pull to the left when you picked it up from the dealer??" Pretty sure it's not.

[DS_1]

Thanks Kccord for your reply. You certainly have a good understanding of the problem at hand.

Your reply mentioned that it should pull left instead of right due to torque and tire issues. What I am experiencing is pulling to the right. This is especially so when I take off from stand still. Also during drive, I can feel it is alot heavier to steer left than steer right. And of course Eastern Honda is saying it is normal.

Would you be able to recommend any good tire shop that I can go to get the problem fix? It's getting on my neck and I am not enjoying my ride at all. :(

I live in Melbourne.

Thanks again.

[kccord]

Well, I was using example of pre 2000 year of honda's where engine spin CCW. Torque steer happens when, you put you foot down and plowing through the power, you car starts to jerk left and right on fwd because slight hump on the road may cause slight resistance which cause power to go to the other wheel and vice versa. This happens on open diff.

Depends on driven wheels, your accord may have the K24 engine which spins CW, without LSD power delivery shortest is the left front wheel so torque steer 'can' cause it to pull right during starts.


Dude, you're in Melbourne so there must be a million shops there. I'm in Perth lol but nevertheless, do free checks first like tire pressure and the directional thread on the tires then visit any tire shop bob jane/tyre power etc or any suspension place, tell them your car is pulling to right side and get laser wheel alignment and your steering centered.

Did it come out of the dealership like that, pulling towards the right??? none of the honda's I've driven, Civic, Accord, Integra type R, Odessey, Jazz pulls towards the right so it is not normal.

[DS_1]

Hi Kccord,

Thanks. Yes the car came out like that I told delivery from the dealership. They have tried to fix it 3 times already and could not. Then came the normal for FWD cars reason.

I have just check my tire pressure last night and will try to visit Bob Jane or Beeaurepaires this weekend. Will feedback outcome soon.

Thanks a million!

[kccord]

No worries, hopefully it is something simple like tire's radial pull (try wheel rotation) or wheel alignment. Keep tire pressure according to the placard and hope it is not suspension, stuck brakes or major parts :p.

[goodboy]

ok boys, only one of you has a handle on this issue and its the owner of the vti with the problem, its NOT alignment or radial wear or anything like that.

I have EXACTLY the same problem and i have narrowed it down to this.

In all cars the wheels are aligned to centre themselves when you drive on the road. Most cars have some sort of "sneeze factor" where you can move the steering wheel a little to the right or a little to the left and the car will barely change direction.

lets assume this is 10 degrees from centre and there is very little direction change with this minor movement.

now what happens with this problem goes like this.

the centre position of your and my accord cars is actually 8 to 10 degrees wheel turned to the right. this means that the cars natural forward direction is the wheel turned 5 to 10 degrees to the right, and its always trying to centre itself to this position.

The "fat" in the sneeze factor allows you the illusion that if you straighten the wheel on a smooth road the car " sort of continues" to go straight, but any irregularity that bumps the tyres will throw this off again and your steering will re centre , again slightly to the right

this is why when you turn the wheel to the right it requires lighter pressure, whereas when you turn left it is immediately at the edge of the left turn sneeze factor and requires more pressure.

I have had 5 wheel alignments done with honda and they cannot fix it. the last guy built in some correction for me that forces it to steer to the left but this has mean that cornering has suffered as well as increased tyre wear.

All alignments were done to Honda Spec, and even adjusted within Honda tolerances to make it slightly pull to the left as an offset, but the centrering issue, the root cause of this problem remains

I don't know if it has anything to do with stability assist, electric steering or other but its a problem and its NOT happening to all cars.

I believe is some sort of misalignment problem probably one of the fitting jigs or body presses at the factory, and it seems to have slipped through and repeats itself every now and then.

You will also notice that the car tends to follow a right lean crown in the road with severe aggression, whereas a left lean crown, barely fazes the direction.

If you want, Id like for us and any others that have this problem to take our cars to an engineer, and determine if this is a manufacturing fault, I think we may have to instigate legal action, but I need to find others with this problem so that we can launch a case, I cant prove anything with one car, but if we have more we can , maybe try to prove its a manufacturing defect.

The car is otherwise sensational value for money.

the only other problem you will find id excessive brake wear on the rear brakes, it wont last more than 25,000 kms, but the repair is cheap and its not really a problem on an otherwise value for money car.

Another ther issue i had was the rattling rear shelf, which was the cause of multiple "lemon law" returns in the USA on this model, they have an easy fix for this but it tends to happen again.

You should also check whether the grey plastic trim on the doors and around the gear selector has started cracking or flaking away.

Great car, but the steering issue has left a sour taste for me.

I have just replaced my second car with Golf Mk VI GTI, and will replace this accord with another brand, Honda is better quality than most cars, and I am a honda fan, but every time i drive this car I keep getting reminded that i bought a new car that was defective, and that the dealers , you can see it on their faces, are denying it.

Im glad i found another person who knows what cars should drive, I have owned hinda's in the past and been very happy them.

Your thoughts please

[Rudy]

Rear pads are already being replaced now for free in the US... time for aus honda to follow i think.

[DS_1]

ok boys, only one of you has a handle on this issue and its the owner of the vti with the problem, its NOT alignment or radial wear or anything like that.

I have EXACTLY the same problem and i have narrowed it down to this.

In all cars the wheels are aligned to centre themselves when you drive on the road. Most cars have some sort of "sneeze factor" where you can move the steering wheel a little to the right or a little to the left and the car will barely change direction.

lets assume this is 10 degrees from centre and there is very little direction change with this minor movement.

now what happens with this problem goes like this.

the centre position of your and my accord cars is actually 8 to 10 degrees wheel turned to the right. this means that the cars natural forward direction is the wheel turned 5 to 10 degrees to the right, and its always trying to centre itself to this position.

The "fat" in the sneeze factor allows you the illusion that if you straighten the wheel on a smooth road the car " sort of continues" to go straight, but any irregularity that bumps the tyres will throw this off again and your steering will re centre , again slightly to the right

this is why when you turn the wheel to the right it requires lighter pressure, whereas when you turn left it is immediately at the edge of the left turn sneeze factor and requires more pressure.

I have had 5 wheel alignments done with honda and they cannot fix it. the last guy built in some correction for me that forces it to steer to the left but this has mean that cornering has suffered as well as increased tyre wear.

All alignments were done to Honda Spec, and even adjusted within Honda tolerances to make it slightly pull to the left as an offset, but the centrering issue, the root cause of this problem remains

I don't know if it has anything to do with stability assist, electric steering or other but its a problem and its NOT happening to all cars.

I believe is some sort of misalignment problem probably one of the fitting jigs or body presses at the factory, and it seems to have slipped through and repeats itself every now and then.

You will also notice that the car tends to follow a right lean crown in the road with severe aggression, whereas a left lean crown, barely fazes the direction.

If you want, Id like for us and any others that have this problem to take our cars to an engineer, and determine if this is a manufacturing fault, I think we may have to instigate legal action, but I need to find others with this problem so that we can launch a case, I cant prove anything with one car, but if we have more we can , maybe try to prove its a manufacturing defect.

The car is otherwise sensational value for money.

the only other problem you will find id excessive brake wear on the rear brakes, it wont last more than 25,000 kms, but the repair is cheap and its not really a problem on an otherwise value for money car.

Another ther issue i had was the rattling rear shelf, which was the cause of multiple "lemon law" returns in the USA on this model, they have an easy fix for this but it tends to happen again.

You should also check whether the grey plastic trim on the doors and around the gear selector has started cracking or flaking away.

Great car, but the steering issue has left a sour taste for me.

I have just replaced my second car with Golf Mk VI GTI, and will replace this accord with another brand, Honda is better quality than most cars, and I am a honda fan, but every time i drive this car I keep getting reminded that i bought a new car that was defective, and that the dealers , you can see it on their faces, are denying it.

Im glad i found another person who knows what cars should drive, I have owned hinda's in the past and been very happy them.

Your thoughts please


My last visit to Eastern Honda to try to fix this problem, Eastern Honda arranged for one of area managers of Honda Australia to come and review the problem at hand. I went to collect my car at the end of the day, I am told the area manager got my car lifted up, checked and confirmed that it is within Honda specifications and to tell me that there is nothing wrong with the car as it is withing specs. There was no calls from this guy and definitely very poor customer service which is not Honda's corporate value which is maximise customer satisfaction.

I have written complaint letters to Honda Japan before followed by Honda Australia. This brought to the attention of guys of Honda Australia and they responded quite well. I suggest we try this route together and see what happens before exploring other options.

[goodboy]

can you tell me , after they replied from japan, what did they do to fix it, the owner of the honda dealership i bought this from is a friend of mine, and I went to school with the service manager.

If i can tell them what they need to do they will do it.

[DS_1]

can you tell me , after they replied from japan, what did they do to fix it, the owner of the honda dealership i bought this from is a friend of mine, and I went to school with the service manager.

If i can tell them what they need to do they will do it.


Hi Goodboy, sorry I didnt make myself clear. There were no fix from Japan, just a big complaint to Honda Japan to instruct the Aussie side to respond seriously. That's all.

The same for me, love the car but this feels like having a stone stucked in my shoe all the time. Had Honda cars overseas for the past 10 years and never had such problems before.

Just called Honda Aust customer relations, call ended in a heated arguement and the guy hanged up on me. thats 'good' customer service from Honda. My next car is definitely not a Honda.

[goodboy]

ds1, the problem is that the cars are soo good otherwise, mine turns two years old this may, and i will be selling it, but i would like to buy Honda Again, only this time I will be buying a car OFF THE LOT and test driving it before i hand over any money. Thats is for the future

For now I am waiting for my VW GTI 5 Door.

The last bit, there is a Honda Service bulletin that shows a similar problem on the 07 accord, and they fixed it by loosening the subframe, and jamming a crow bar, ( they call it lever) to push it to the left, then while holding it there tighten the subframe screws.

I took this to my dealer and he knew it but said it didnt relate to to this model.

I'm suspicious its the same problem, so i will find this for us, and bring it to this forum, and maybe then we can address it woth an engineer.

[DS_1]

ds1, the problem is that the cars are soo good otherwise, mine turns two years old this may, and i will be selling it, but i would like to buy Honda Again, only this time I will be buying a car OFF THE LOT and test driving it before i hand over any money. Thats is for the future

For now I am waiting for my VW GTI 5 Door.

The last bit, there is a Honda Service bulletin that shows a similar problem on the 07 accord, and they fixed it by loosening the subframe, and jamming a crow bar, ( they call it lever) to push it to the left, then while holding it there tighten the subframe screws.

I took this to my dealer and he knew it but said it didnt relate to to this model.

I'm suspicious its the same problem, so i will find this for us, and bring it to this forum, and maybe then we can address it woth an engineer.


Thanks Goodboy, I love my Hondas as well. Been driving them for more than 10years now changing from Honda to Honda.

I am really disappointed by the response from customer service at Honda Australia, they basically says my complaint ends there and they will not entertain me anymore. Toruque steer is torque steer, it is an inherent characteristic in all front wheel drive cars. There will be no more solution to my problem. It is within specifications and I have accept it as it is.

Thanks for the help and look forward to getting a response soon.

[aaronng]

Get your car's wheel alignment checked for front and rear, get a printout of the alignment too. With my car, it was driving straight from new. When my rear camber alignment changed where one side was 1 degree more than the other side (because of the rear being lowered), my car started to pull to the right. When I say pull, I mean that when cruising without touching the accelerator, I could keep the wheel straight and the car would drive straight. As soon as I let go of the wheel, the car would veer to the right. I tested this on a flat road (4 lane freeway) and it was bad enough to change lanes within 5 seconds on its own. All this when the front wheel alignment was PERFECT.

Had the rear wheel alignment fixed up (by using a rear camber kit) and the car drives straight now. Don't underestimate what a little bit of wheel alignment changes can do to your car's characteristics. Even changing 0.5mm of front toe made a world of difference on my car (take a ruler and see how big 0.5mm is).

[snajper]

Good luck mate with Honda fixing anything.

My Honda has been pinging since new (18 month) and was taken back to dealer 7 times. They never replaced anything. They usually blame on fuel or me. It still pings every day.
Hondas are good cars until something goes wrong.

Two things you can do about road noise.
1) turn up stereo. (That is what I did)
2) Sell Honda and never buy one again.

[DS_1]

Get your car's wheel alignment checked for front and rear, get a printout of the alignment too. With my car, it was driving straight from new. When my rear camber alignment changed where one side was 1 degree more than the other side (because of the rear being lowered), my car started to pull to the right. When I say pull, I mean that when cruising without touching the accelerator, I could keep the wheel straight and the car would drive straight. As soon as I let go of the wheel, the car would veer to the right. I tested this on a flat road (4 lane freeway) and it was bad enough to change lanes within 5 seconds on its own. All this when the front wheel alignment was PERFECT.

Had the rear wheel alignment fixed up (by using a rear camber kit) and the car drives straight now. Don't underestimate what a little bit of wheel alignment changes can do to your car's characteristics. Even changing 0.5mm of front toe made a world of difference on my car (take a ruler and see how big 0.5mm is).

thanks aaron, will find time to get wheels align again.

[DS_1]

Good luck mate with Honda fixing anything.

My Honda has been pinging since new (18 month) and was taken back to dealer 7 times. They never replaced anything. They usually blame on fuel or me. It still pings every day.
Hondas are good cars until something goes wrong.

Two things you can do about road noise.
1) turn up stereo. (That is what I did)
2) Sell Honda and never buy one again.


Hi snajper, I know exactly what you are going through. Will give it one last shot and decide from there. What is disappointing is that Honda Aust has totally ignored my complaints and insisted that they are right and I am wrong.

Cheers,

[NileshP]

Hi snajper, I know exactly what you are going through. Will give it one last shot and decide from there. What is disappointing is that Honda Aust has totally ignored my complaints and insisted that they are right and I am wrong.

Cheers,

Here in Australia, Honda used to be in the top five most sold cars five years ago, then it lost share to Nissan and Mazda and slipped down to 6th. Now it sits on 8th position. Apparently Hyundai is doing better than most and now sits on third position (beaten Ford).

Why is Honda failing despite?
1. Poor customer service (have letters to prove this)
2. Non-existent etiquette when they deal with customers who spend 10s of thousands on their products. (have letters to prove this)
3. Dealers using semi-skilled apprentices to service and work on cars
4. False ego based on past good rating

My Accord VTi 2008 will be the last Honda when I change the car next year.