oooof. yeah. hell, the arm rest on the fit cant stand the pressure of a human arm. no joke. they actually have a service bulletin about it.

that sucks about your crosstour. i feel for ya. i followed that thread you started from the beginning. total aggravation.

 

But if you break a clip then the cost of a new cowl comes out of your wallet. If Honda breaks a clip they replace the cowl free. Easy decision for me.

And from the sound of it very easy to break a clip. Even the experienced here have acknowledged breaking one.

_

 

I had a chance to drive the second Fit, the one with the most broken clips, and the engine sounds good. So using excessive valvetrain noise noise as the indicator, both Fits have no indications of any issues with the engine work.

 

Thanks for the heads up! I took a couple pics and video of the car just in case there's any foul up. I'm getting my spring bolts replaced on tuesday. I'm also getting them to look at my rear taillights which have had a problem condensation inside their housing this spring.

AND, worryingly, we've discovered my car is leaking oil. it's a 2009 floor model (sport) bought in August 2009 and it's just reaching 35K on the odometer.

Fortunately, the warranty will be able to cover all this.

 

Ultrawolf, + reps. That's what I call a constructive post!!!

Anyone who thinks that the solution is that we should remove our own cowls deserves negative reps. It's fine that you're self-sufficient and take that route but that should not be expected from the customer. And if you make a mistake, you eat the cost to replace/fix. That's just wrong when this is warranty work to begin with.

Edit: I just took my iPad down to the garage with this thread open and looked over all the pics vs my car. The dealer did a prefect job! There is absolutely no indication that anyone has worked on that section of the car. I'm still not sure about engine ticking noise. I hear a ticking noise but it sounds normal to me so I need to hear some new fits with their hoods open (in person) to compare. I'm not too worried about it right now so I'll do that when when I get some time. Once I check that off, I will send my dealer a letter to let them know that the job was done perfectly.

 

nothin - Well put. So much of what we think we hear is based upon thinking we hear something or that there's even something to be heard. It can drive you crazy.... ticking in the engine, what? You and your dealer have a good thing going.

 

That's fine - negative rep me. haha I was just stating a solution to the potential problem. Of course you shouldn't have to do this, but I'd rather not have to potentially take it back to the dealership. Personally, I probably will take it in, as is, and let them do the work because I have a lot of faith in my dealership, and they are very close by. That's a rare situation, at least, in my experience.

 

Know-nothin: Thank you for your comments - I've learned a lot from these forums and am glad I can contribute something. I also appreciate your report that your job was done correctly. That gives me ammunition in case my dealer says "there's no way to do the job without breaking the clips", or some other similar nonsense to try to dodge responsibility. I'm going to expect replacement of all damaged pieces, even if that means replacing the whole cowl because of a couple of damaged clips/tabs.

 

I was kidding about the negative reps and in any case, it was more directed at Lyon. *but seriously, just to be clear, I'm not neg repping anyone. I actually appreciate all these various opinions. *Also, I don't fault anyone for doing it themselves. But I don't think a good answer to dealer incompetence is to expect customers to do the work themselves.*

Thanks Krimson. Yeah, this was a great start with this dealer A+ all the way so far! So I'm keeping my fingers crossed.*

Dude, it's I who thank you for the thread. I had it on my to do list to check out the work more closely and you saved me a bunch of searching for clip placement and such. If you need anything from me (like pics of my cowl), let me know and I'll get them to you.

Edit: ignore the asterisks. Some sort of cut and paste formatting glitch.

 

true a lot of the materials in the car are really cheap. Arm rest, etc. I guess part of being a cheap car.

 

Dropped car off and waiting now for my pickup. Took some quick pics of top of cowl and under just for reference. I just want a clean job - something that I have come to expect from Curry Honda in Atlanta. It was also nice that the main tech who drove my car out stopped - came runinng up to me and handed me the wallet I left behind in the pass seat. So far - so good. Will report back later.

 

Were you testing him?

 

I was the first one in my area to get it done and my cowl looked just like yours, but I only had one clip broken off. My dealer did an awesome job of taking care of me. They ordered a completely brand new cowl and threw in an oil change for the trouble. Thanks Bob Howard Honda in Edmond.

 

This is a good thread, as well as the one it came from. The talk about the problems getting the cowl back properly make me worry a little about the internal work....one part in particular.

(For those who may not have already looked at the service bulletin that the dealers are supposed to be following, there are service manual procedures referenced, rather than repeated in the service bulletin.)

When the technician is about to remove the rocker assembly, ie step 8 in the service bulletin procedure, the manual specifies that all 16 rocker arm adjusting screws are supposed to be loosened first. That takes all uneven stresses off the assembly. Then the 11 bolts holding the rocker assembly are to be loosened by only two turns at a time, and in a certain sequence. The rocker bridge itself is a thin cast material (see it on page 2 and 3 of the service bulletin) and these manual procedures obviously want the technician to treat it verrrrrry carefully.

However....I can easily imagine a technician in a hurry just skipping the part about loosening all 16 of the rocker adjustments, and then just zipping out all 11 of the rocker assembly bolts with an air ratchet....'cause it's a LOT faster that way.

Then when the rocker assembly is bolted back to the head, the manual says for the 11 bolts to get retightened again by only two turns at a time, in a certain sequence. Ten of them wind up with 11 ft-lbs of torque and one is at 7.2 ft-lbs of torque. Then each of the 16 rocker clearances get adjusted. Which means adjusting a few, rotating the engine a little, then adjusting the rest.

However...again I can imagine a tech just zipping all 11 rocker assembly bolts in with an air ratchet. Then maybe checking a few valve clearances ('cause he never loosened the rocker adjusting screws) and calling it done.

I've read about one instance where the rocker bridge was broken "somehow" (ha) and another where the owner was just told that they needed "a part" and it would be a few days before they could get it. I'd guess that was another one.

Anybody else have concerns? Heard of problems? Thnx!

 

ahck. mine's at the dealership now getting this done.

i hate stealerships.

 

had ours done over the weekend. no problems yet. I looked around under the hood and couldn't see any obvious damage - just a few fingerprints in the dust.

 

i think your full post was excellent.

no matter what, there will have to be an element of blind faith going into this, but it would not hurt to mention these concerns with the service writer, as well as expressing awareness of the cowl issue. it might increase the odds of getting the job done right.... as would sticking with the same service writer thru the entire process.

i had an oil change 2 weeks ago, knowing i'd be back soon for the recall. the assistant service manager gave me his card, circled his name and said, "i virtually live here, call me when you're ready for the recall, and any questions you have." i'm going to lean on this dude (in a positive way) as the link between my concerns and the tech actually doing the repair.

people can laugh at excessive caution.... but there's nothing to lose with covering all your bases.

 

Just got back from dealer and all went well. Only one tab snapped off, but all hardware looks to be in place and no scratches - including the cowl plugs, etc. Tab may have been snapped off when I had my windshield replaced prior by separate vendor.

I am posting my invoice below in case this helps anyone who is going through the process.

Dropped car off at 12 noon and was done by 330pm. Car felt stronger at the low end and a tad quieter. All in all, great experience at Curry Honda - and always has been. Great staff and very up to date tech team.

 

Thanks Ultrawolf for the pics! My cowl is intact, but it looks like the two fasteners on the left and right are missing... I'm guessing it's from the time I had some body work done though. Oh well, I'll pick up the clips from the dealership tomorrow.

 

OK, we convoyed both Fits to the dealer for the service manager to look at. To pave the way for this visit, I called this morning and directed his attention to this Fitfreaks thread. So he knew exactly what to expect. He was duly displeased with the problems and said they would replace cowls and left and right end caps on both cars. He took pictures of the damage. He also offered that they would pick up the cars at our house and leave us loaners when the parts were in.

I asked how I could be sure the valvetrain work was done right when the cowl work was clearly not done well. He said he watched the valvetrain work being done on one Fit because he hadn't seen the recall work done before and wanted to verify the process. He said he can verify that one was done by the book. He said a different service tech did the other car, and that he would have a trusted tech verify proper valve adjusment and torquing of bolts on that one. Short of doing the work myself, that will have to do.

Neither one of us mentioned anything about "customer retention", i.e., some sort of freebie or other compensation for the hassle. I want to focus on getting the cars right first.