Finally got a chance to take my Fit-S into the dealership to have the two recalls done on it (floor wiring harness and SRS timing). I brought in TSB 07-018 to have that done too but they wouldn't do it without forking out $160. I have about 48k miles on it so I'm out of the warranty but it could be covered by goodwill consideration. The service manager was of little help. The chatter/poor cleaning issue has been there since day one but I've followed the advice on the forum about reversing the rubber insert and the noise went away ... for awhile. Now it's back and it never did really clean good. It's inconvenient to get to a Honda service department while they're open so I've been putting it off until I got the car in there for the recalls. Service manager claims that TSB's are only for Honda and are only there to help service techs out when they can't figure out what's wrong. He said he's never had anyone come in and complain about the Fit's wipers and that it only affected a small amount of vehicles. Actually, the VIN range covers over 25k vehicles and considering that what, 40k 2007 Fits were sold, I'd say that's a good proportion. To me, this TSB is an admission of a factory faulty part that could be bad from the get go. It certainly didn't appear somewhere between 36k and 48k miles. He basically told me flat out that he could cover it for free, but he didn't think he should. I suppose I should make some phone calls to some higher ups Monday and see what I can get done. It really irks me that the warranty is up so quick. I think mine was up within 14 months! He says it's because Honda's don't need a longer warranty. Well I certainly could have used a longer warranty today. Sorry, I just needed to vent! If anyone has any suggestions as to what I can do to get this taken care of, let me know. Thanks!

 

Call up Honda and complain.

 

Before you call Honda to complain, call another dealership, don't tell them that dealership "a" wouldn't do it for you, that will only make them say no. Just tell them that its been happening since you got the car and you'd appreciate if they could take care of it. At first the less of a stink you make about it the easier it'll be in the end.

 

Ah yes, The wonderful world of dealing with Stealerships.

 

That is the worst misconception I have ever heard. I continue to hear the word "STEALERSHIP" tossed around, the dealership is no worse than going to a second rate shop run by some redneck who uses oem aftermarket parts.

 

Maybe, but I would rather take my cars to someone i know or do it myself after the encounters i have had with dealerships in the past.

As far as aftermarket parts go...meh, I have been happy with 95% of the aftermarket parts that i have used to replace broken or insufficient oem parts.

 

I'm not sure what the OPs beef is. He complains about the warranty being up so quick, but he's the one that has put the miles on the car. I'm guessing the dealership offered you an extended warranty, right? He complains about a TSB not being covered out of warranty, but no dealer is going to worry about a TSB out of warranty. Yes, some will do it as a good faith measure, but they certainly aren't required to. Complaining to Honda may work, but you've got no ground to stand on. If it does work, it will be a good faith gesture on the part of Honda and not something you deserve. I say live and learn...

 

IDK.. even "Crappy American Cars" have recalls fixed for free at dealerships when the car is out of warranty. I might be a bit upset too.

 

First of all, there's a HUGE difference between a TSB and a recall. TSBs don't get mailed to every person that bought the car, because they are only for cases in which the customer has complained about the problem noted in the TSB during the warranty period. A safety recall is very different and mailed to each and every customer that bought the car. The dealer is obligated to fix the problem regardless of miles or age on the vehicle. This is for foreign and domestic automobiles.

When our Jeep was just over 12,000 miles Jeep refused to fix a rear brake problem due to the fact that the brakes were only covered for 12,000 miles even though there was a TSB for the problem. We complained and mentioned that we had an extended warranty, and they agreed to do it for our $50 deductible as a good faith measure not because they had to. So, I think you're wrong, but I'm only speaking from experience.

 

It all depends on the dealership and your relationship with them. The dealership I worked at would do about anything for anyone until they tried to **** us over on anything. I think most people's issues with dealerships are that they don't find good ones, they take it to a dealership that wont work for you.

 

You're right. I put a lot of miles on my cars. All the more reason why I need a reliable car that can handle it. If I wanted a disposable car, I would have bought a Kia. Funny thing is, if I would have bought a Kia, my factory warranty would have been 60k/100k miles and this would have been covered. I wish Honda could have enough faith and pride in their vehicles to provide the same.

The dealership I bought my vehicle from is different from the one I visited today. The dealership where I purchased is about 3 hours away from here. They were the closest one who had a Fit Sport MT in stock in a colour I didn't hate. My closest dealership (at the time) was unwilling to look for a Fit in stock somewhere else and have it brought in to make the sale and insisted I'd just have to wait on a 6-7 month waiting list. For obvious reasons, the dealership 3 hours away didn't offer me an extended warranty because it'd only be good at that dealership. This dealership I've dealt with today I have been to in the past to purchase accessories for my Fit. In fact, they run a few very popular websites and an eBay store with parts under dealer invoice. I figured they'd be a good place to take my car to for service as well.

My problem with this TSB is that it's obviously for a factory defect. It only affects the first 25 some thousand 2007 Fits and was issued in May of 2007. I can't imagine that all that many year old or less Fits were wearing through a set of wiper arms due to extensive use. Now if this was a bulletin for a 4+ year old car with expected wear helping techs diagnose common problems I'd understand why they wouldn't cover it, but that's not the case here.

As for making a stink, I think we were very civil at least at first. Hey I'm a friendly guy! It was the service manager who turned it into anything but. As much as I'd like him to eat crow and do the repair for free, I think I'll feel the other dealerships around and see what I can do. It's little things like this that will either earn you a faithful customer for life or make enemies who'll never come back. It's unfortunate in a sense that Honda cars sell so well that some dealerships in turn become cocky. They stop caring about your business because if you leave, they know someone else will just come along and buy that car you were going to buy anyway.

 

I guess my point is: if there is a problem on a NEW vehicle and it is not due to operator error or abuse, it should be fixed no questions asked. ESPECIALLY if it is a known issue with the car. You can't expect to drive the car for 100,000,000,000,000 miles and complain when you need to change the brakes, but how in the world would a regular driver mess up a wiring harness? The main objective of my point of view is the OP's situation was B.S. on the stealership's behalf. Obviously a customer had a problem that was of no fault of his own and it should be corrected. If people are going to get all defensive and try to justify the situation every time a dealership is trying to get extra money out of person you have no ground to stand on. The purpose of a dealership is to make money, and they will try to do that by ANY means legal, and i understand that.....however.....DO NOT try to tell me that dealerships in general (Honda or otherwise) will perform better work with better parts for a comparable amount of money, because it will not happen like that.

As far as "finding a good dealership", how are you going to do that exactly? Better yet, how many new cars do you think you will own in a lifetime? -even if you go to a different dealership EVERY time, and you are an enthusiast that buys a new car every 2 years, that means approximately 30 cars if you buy your first new car at 20 and die after 80. If you have an "enjoyable" experience with half of them, who is to say that if you go back you will deal with the same person? how would you judge the service if you never have anything go wrong with the car? When you are dealing with a population of ever-changing people, you can not depend on a consistent experience one way or another. At the end of the day, they are trying to make a buck off of you, and anyone that thinks differently is an idiot or selling something.

Sorry if if offend anyone in the posting of this message, but what i am saying is the truth as i know it to be. I did go off on a bit of a tangent, and I apologize for that, but when a person has a genuine problem that should not be his and is not getting taken car of the way it should that bothers me. What bothers me more than that is others saying that it is justifiable and thinking of ways to put the consumer at fault (when he obviously is not). One of these days those people will realize that they are consumers too, and i am not only taking the stand for this guy, but for the "other" guy as a consumer as well.

as the old saying goes: if you are not with us, you're against us.

 

It's a freakin' wiper, go to AutoZone and buy a Bosch for $15.

 

It's two wiper ARMS and they're $160. Check the subject and read the original post. If it was just the blades, I would have done exactly that.

 

I understand this and I'm telling you that if you buy new WIPERS (not blades nor arms) other than OEM you'll lose the noise and have better performance. There should be no need for new wiper arms and no reason to think you deserve something that isn't entitled to you.

 

I had the arms changed on my Fit as per the TSB. It was ok for about a week. Then it worse then its even been. It got so bad that I drove my Mx-6 when the day called for rain. Seriously, it was so loud I couldnt talk on my phone without people asking what the backround noise was.
I changed the wiper BLADES and its been fine since.

Change the blades.

 

You are responsible for taking defects to dealer's before the warranty or TSB notice period runs out. If you don't, its your responsibility to fix at your expense.If you didn't response it means you didn't have the problem which happens a lot.
We give warranties on our work and live up to them; but if you came to us 6 months after the warranty expired you wouldn't get anything from us unless you showed us an original part or repair was not done correctly. If you had known for a long time and just ignored it you wouldn't get anything.
I am amazed at the owners who feel no need to maintain their vehicles and yet want everyone else to take care of them. That's directed at all makes. We get people in here who haven't changed oil in 25,000 miles and the valves clattering yet think they are owed repair. Thats the reason you signed all those delivery documents. We are inbusiness, yes tio show a profit, and when you come in with a problem after the warranty or notice runs out we don't get reimbursed by the manufacturer, I guess you expect us to fix it for free at $70/hr plus parts?
Do your part as owner.

 

I think that if I just replaced the blades/wipers that the problem would be solved for 10k miles again and then it'd come right back, just like flipping the OEM blades worked for awhile and then it was back to square one. If the defective arms are going to cause new blades/wipers to wear prematurely then it's just going to be a waste of money for a temporary fix.

The TSB's expired? It's not even a year old! Honda isn't exactly forthcoming with TSB's either. Perhaps if they would have alerted me in May that this is a known problem with vehicles manufactured around the same time as mine, I would have had the opportunity to get the car in before their 36k warranty was up.

In my business if it's discovered that we put out something faulty we go to the customer's location and replace it at no charge, no matter how old it is, no matter how much use it has. However, in my business if this happens, someone's life would be at risk and/or a company/government would be out a million plus dollars per hour of downtime! These arms which Honda in essence admits were defective from the factory can result in a safety issue where the windshield isn't properly or effectively cleared of precipitation. If I was Honda, I'd be replacing anyone's wiper arms in the affected VIN range that had the problem. I bet the only reason it isn't a recall is that most people do just replace the wipers and they think it's no longer a problem where that just masks the real cause. The service department already confirms that the problem in the TSB is what's wrong with the wiper arms on my vehicle. I don't think it's too much to ask them to replace an item that's faulty from the factory.

This has nothing to do with regular maintenace on the vehicle. I've replaced the air filter when it was dirty, I get the oil changed regularly, I rotate my tires every 6k and check their pressure. Everything you're supposed to do, I did. The tension on my wiper arms is not something I expected to have to check. My last car with 275k on it never developed an issue with wiper arm tension. Like most people, I suspected the blades. I read on here to flip them and that solved it for awhile. I suppose I should have taken it straight to the deaer instead. Perhaps if they alerted me that I could potentially be affected by their defective part I would have. I can't respond if they don't give me anything to respond to.

 

Ideally you should be replacing your wipers every 10k miles, they don't last forever. If you have the same wipers at 48,000 miles than that's the problem; flipping the blades doesn't make them new.

 

I got the arms done under warranty. They cost the dealer about $33 a piece. After some time I had to still do the old reversing of the blades to make it stop skipping. I would go the Bosch route first. That's what I'm going to do eventually.