I bought a 2012 Honda Civic SI from Honda of Fort Myers on 7/29/2014 with 44K miles.. After about 2000 miles of use the clutch started making a grinding/squealing noise when starting from a stop in 1st gear. This is a well-documented issue on multiple forums online when doing a google search and there is also a TSB on it. I brought my vehicle to Honda of Fort Myers service center on 12/29/2014 with approximately 50,600 miles; (This would leave approximately 9000 or so miles left on the 5/60 powertrain warranty). The mechanic says he could not duplicate the problem so we go for a ride around the parking lot so I could let him listen to the problem. The vehicle makes the noise while said mechanic is inside the vehicle and he admits to hearing it.
I also show him videos taken with my dash cam where the sound is present and also a YouTube video of someone elses 2012 Civic SI doing the same thing. He brings the vehicle back into the bay to check it out and returns approximately 15 minutes later and tells me he cannot duplicate the problem/sound. He says he has had 3 mechanics drive it and they cannot reproduce it either. (This is in fact an intermittant problem). We go back to the office and he tells the service manager there's pretty much nothing that can be done if he cannot reproduce the problem himself and I argue the fact that he has already heard the issue and now is doing nothing about it.
At this point 2 service managers have arrived into the conversation and tell me the same thing. They then try to get me to authorize a tear down at MY cost to try to find the source of the problem. I advise them that I will not be paying ANYTHING to authorize a tear down because I had just bought this vehicle 4 months prior for 16K and I should not have to be putting money into a vehicle that is only 2-3 years old with this low of mileage. I was told later on in the day that this sound is "normal", the clutch looked "brand new" and I "shouldn't worry about it" and they weren't going to fix it.
I have called American Honda and spoke with them for 25 minutes and was pretty much told the same thing; that I bought an "AS-IS" vehicle and unless I authorize an expensive teardown at my cost that they will not proceed further with a warranty repair. This is completely unacceptable and I'm hoping a bunch of us 2012 Si owners will come together and make a class action lawsuit out of this. As we know Honda is no stranger to class actions. They also tried to tell me that the clutch is a non-warrantale item because it is a wear item which I understand. However, as previously stated the clutch disk appeared brand new and is not the problem. In my research of the problem the issue seems to be the clutch springs rubbing against the pressure plate and making said screaching noise which would be covered by warranty because only the clutch disk is non-warrantable.
Honda of Fort Myers Reviews
I bought a 2012 Honda Civic SI from Honda of Fort Myers on 7/29/2014 with 44K miles.. After about 2000 miles of use the clutch started making a grinding/squealing noise when starting from a stop in 1st gear. This is a well-documented issue on multiple forums online when doing a google search and there is also a TSB on it. I brought my vehicle to Honda of Fort Myers service center on 12/29/2014 with approximately 50,600 miles; (This would leave approximately 9000 or so miles left on the 5/60 powertrain warranty). The mechanic says he could not duplicate the problem so we go for a ride around the parking lot so I could let him listen to the problem. The vehicle makes the noise while said mechanic is inside the vehicle and he admits to hearing it.
I also show him videos taken with my dash cam where the sound is present and also a YouTube video of someone elses 2012 Civic SI doing the same thing. He brings the vehicle back into the bay to check it out and returns approximately 15 minutes later and tells me he cannot duplicate the problem/sound. He says he has had 3 mechanics drive it and they cannot reproduce it either. (This is in fact an intermittant problem). We go back to the office and he tells the service manager there's pretty much nothing that can be done if he cannot reproduce the problem himself and I argue the fact that he has already heard the issue and now is doing nothing about it.
At this point 2 service managers have arrived into the conversation and tell me the same thing. They then try to get me to authorize a tear down at MY cost to try to find the source of the problem. I advise them that I will not be paying ANYTHING to authorize a tear down because I had just bought this vehicle 4 months prior for 16K and I should not have to be putting money into a vehicle that is only 2-3 years old with this low of mileage. I was told later on in the day that this sound is "normal", the clutch looked "brand new" and I "shouldn't worry about it" and they weren't going to fix it.
I have called American Honda and spoke with them for 25 minutes and was pretty much told the same thing; that I bought an "AS-IS" vehicle and unless I authorize an expensive teardown at my cost that they will not proceed further with a warranty repair. This is completely unacceptable and I'm hoping a bunch of us 2012 Si owners will come together and make a class action lawsuit out of this. As we know Honda is no stranger to class actions. They also tried to tell me that the clutch is a non-warrantale item because it is a wear item which I understand. However, as previously stated the clutch disk appeared brand new and is not the problem. In my research of the problem the issue seems to be the clutch springs rubbing against the pressure plate and making said screaching noise which would be covered by warranty because only the clutch disk is non-warrantable.