von15

My 2017 Civic sat in my driveway for 2 weeks this summer while on vacation. As expected, there was noise when I started to drive it again. Some noise went away after a couple of days driving but I was left with a loud knocking.scraping sound when applying the brakes and this has not lessened at all in 8 days. I took it to the dealer for servicing and they are saying it is still the rust but I'm skeptical since I believe the rust should have gone by now. I know there was a service bulletin put out by Honda less than 2 weeks ago about brakes but the dealer is saying it's not applicable to my car. Does anyone have information on which bulletin that might be so I can get info on it? I do not want to be held liable for the service costs for this as it's a new car and I have kept up with the regular maintenance schedule. Am I going to have to do this every time I leave for a week or two??

RobertD

i don't see anything recent relating to brakes that applies to a 2017 civic. my system only shows ME what is relevant to the car i enter in. it would be a lot of wasted time searching to start flipping through different years and models looking a TSB which won't apply to you anyway. a TSB isn't a voucher for free work, so what's the point?

von15

If the bulletin applies, then yes, I have been told it would be covered. That is why I am trying to source this information.

RobertD

ok. well, i will second what the dealer said, the bulletin does not apply....or it would be on the list.

if you know exactly what kind of car it DOES apply to, i would be happy to post it for you.

von15

Are you saying this issue would be considered normal for a 1.5 year old well-maintained, under mileage car?

von15

So I heard from the dealer. They cannot specify the issue but believe they have to rebuild the entire rear brake system and are ordering parts for next week. They call it an "engineer investigation" which sounds to me like a build defect rather than a parts defect.

ezone

As of this moment, there are no technical service bulletins issued by Honda regarding brakes on 2017 Civic.
EDIT: No bulletins issued for USA. Canada could have different info available.


You have rusted brake rotors, which is something that is pretty normal (because bare steel)......and the same thing can happen to brand spanking new cars too.
The rust on yours apparently is bad enough that normal driving isn't going to scrub it off. The rotors will have to be resurfaced or replaced to get rid of the rust.

If Honda engineering is now involved and wants to investigate what happened to your car, you should be thankful and gracious because they will probably cover it under warranty.

RobertD

i agree with the post above.

i would say that is normal, yes. i think everything on cars these days is made by the lowest bidder, usually in china. i don't approve of it. it bothers me greatly. i'm so bent/bigoted on getting quality american product that i spent a full year looking for a simple pancake flipper that was made in the USA because the one i had was chinese and the staineless steel was rusting. eventually, literally a year later, i found one made in the 1960's in an antique store.

if i were in your shoes i would take it apart, clean everything, re-grease the grease points, and be done with it. i wouldn't expect you to want to do that though. i understand why you want to find the document and get them to do it free. my honda dealer would likely tell me the pads/rotors/drums were the issue and that they are a consumable/wear item and are not covered by warranty, just like oil, filters, tires, etc. to date the only thing we managed to get the dealer to fix for free was a tail light that was filling with water. she curb rashed a rim, and she bought the expensive warranty to cover rim damage. when purchasing the car and enough warranties to make a civic $30k, i specifically asked "if i scratch the rim with a car key you will replace it?" and the honda sales guy said yes. ...then they told my girlfriend that curb damage isn't covered. i told her to bring ME to the dealer and i'll get her rim replaced as i've never been one to get pushed around or bullied, she said no. i assume if you are willing to go be as psycho as me in the dealer they will either fix it, or have the police drag you out. usually when the little veins start wiggling in my temples people fall into place. if you know what car the document pertained to, i'll find it for you. then you can print it and go angrily have at it. i'm all for it. i just can't find it.

i certainly wouldn't let a squeak turn into an $800 brake job as your last post is suggesting.

von15

The rust scraped away after a couple of drives just as expected but then I was left with this rotating thumping/grinding sound when braking, which is what brought me to the dealer as it wasn't going away after 9 days. After the dealer had looked at it repeatedly today and followed up on their end with bulletins and other notifications (I don't know exactly all that they did - they did say they made a bunch of calls out to other folks), they say there is rust still but there is this "other" issue that they cannot currently diagnose which is leading them to think they will have to rebuild the rear brake system. So it seems there are two issues at play, possibly. The technician I spoke to said he hadn't seen this ever before. They did say they would confirm the costs would be covered before agreeing to do the job so I shouldn't be left with a surprise bill. Common sense tells me that if the service folks don't know what the issue is, that it is not a normal "wear and tear" kind of thing and would thus be covered, no?

Anyway, all is well, I have my car back and I await the ordered parts for next week. Thank you for following up.

von15

LOL No psycho-customer here. I'm still calm and polite because I can see they are following up and investigating and not just handing me a pile of crock. And that I can appreciate. We will see how I feel next week though when they confirm if it's covered or not. They told me later today that it was in fact not a service bulletin but an "engineer investigation" that has prompted them to go this route so I guess there's really no document to look up. Thanks for looking anyway.

von15

Not sure what comments ever prompted you to assume I have been ungracious or ungrateful. I never said one degrading word about the car, the company or the dealership. In fact, my dealings with the dealer have been nothing but polite and professional as I am very appreciative that they are investigating and not just giving me the run-around. Wanting to inform myself is not being ungracious.

Way to give a warm welcome to a new member.

ezone

Welcome to the forum. Didn't realize you were new here when I poster earlier.
I was on lunch break, just kinda blew through the thread in a hurry before going back to work.


Also, I kept looking at the list of bulletins RobertD posted LOL

I just now noticed you are in Canada. There could be bulletins and other information issued for that country that we in the USA don't have access to.

I guess it was the way I interpreted the first post you wrote, I gathered you were rather skeptical of the answers your dealer gave you and you seemed concerned about being responsible for the cost of repairs.
By the way, it's not a new car anymore.

If you could see both outboard and inboard braking surfaces of both rear rotors, I'm pretty sure you would find one or more obvious outlines or marks in the shape of the rear brake pad(s) where they sat against the rotors while rust formed during the two weeks the car was sitting. (It's known to some of us as "lot rot")
The outline is probably raised significantly higher than the rest of the braking surface (severe rust), causing the noise and vibration you complained of.
I have dealt with similar situations/complaints many times, and if conditions are right the problem can become very noticeable after sitting just a day or two.

Normally brake pads and rotors are considered wear items, in the USA many related issues are covered by warranty for 12 months/12,000 miles (or whatever the equivalent KM is). The cost of resurfacing the rotors to fix your complaint could well have been your responsibility in many cases.

If engineering wants to be involved so they can find out more about the issues (and I see now you posted that cost would be covered by warranty, that's certainly a plus) that might eventually help owners and/or techs in the future.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

i think you should realize he is not just any a-hole, he is an a-hole that solves things no one else could even have guessed what it was.
This is the internet, don't react to every thing like your manhood need to be protected

We can assure j-a$$ responses they could be, but ezone forgot more than we have knows about car troubleshooting

just let it pass. seriously.he might save you a lot of pain in the future. (maybe not in this case if engineering got involved to study what happened.)

cheers and hope your case gets solved.

von15

I was skeptical of it being JUST due to rust and, as it turned out, according to the dealer I was right. Much of what I wrote at the beginning of this thread was before my final conversations with the dealership when they ultimately decided the bulletins didn't apply and it was going into investigation, so some of my earlier comments were based on preliminary info coming from them. Not sure if you've read the latest comments I posted but the issue has been shelved until parts come in next week. So it's in wait-and-see mode now.

ezone

When you drop the car off, tell them you'd like to see the parts they remove before they send them off to engineering.

When you go pick up your (fixed) car, check out your old brake rotors they replaced.
I bet you'll be able to see the brake pad outlines I described, and they may be visibly raised with rust and/or easy to feel.