Took my car into Acura for Service on Tuesday for the following, sunroof rattle (2nd visit), driver's seat creak (5th visit), a knocking noise in the engine and service.

The last time I had my car in there they parked my car in the fence causing two puncture marks and numerous scratches on my bumber. I got an estimate to have to cover removed, repainted and re-installed for $275. I told them I did not want spot paint due to overspray & halo effect.

The service manager took it upon himself to go ahead and have it spot painted, they only fixed the gouges and not the scratches and there is overspray on the hood, remainder of bumper and headlight.

I wrote it on my invoice and told the service rep to have tha manager call me first thing. They will now pay for the full paint and cover removal, removal of all overspray and I will make them replace the headlamp if it's not cleaned to my satisfaction.

If that is not bad enough, they called me tell me the noise is valves and needs adjustment and the so called bumper to bumper warranty does not cover adjustments. I know have a call into Client Services. Oh by the way they want $597 dollars for the valve adjustment.

Just when you think its bad it gets worse, the technicaian ripped the console when he took out the seat (gotta a new leather one-so this is a score)

I left the dealership and on my way home discovered the sunroof is still rattleing, and the seat is still creaking. I will be having a word with client services about the delership when they call. I have asked them repeatedly to replace the entire seat, since they can't fix the previous four times and they keep replacing the seat track, um hello, it;s been replaced 3 times, thats not it morons.......

So if you are ever in Jacksonville, Florida please stay clear of Acura of Orange Park.......

 

Dude,

I feel for you. There is nothing more I hate than inept service people.

I have purchased at least a dozen new cars in my life and have been through all types of service departments. My overall experience with dealer's service has been less than favorable.

It is a rare find for a dealer's service dept. to consistently perform at the level of excellence. My definition of excellence is not all that narrow either.

I often laugh when I see people advertise their used cars as "Dealer Maintained".

Unless it's factory warranty work, I try to steer clear of the dealer.

 

Me Too. They pay no attention to detail and basically act as if they do not care about you, less that is you are there to buy or trade for a new car.

 

I had a creak/rattle by my left ear that I thought was the sunroof. The tech said that it was the foam cushions in the headliner and he insulated them with the felt/tape to eliminate. I think it worked, but I had on a jacket that was making a lot of noise so it was hard to tell last night when I picked it up. Hope this helps.

 

have asked them repeatedly to replace the entire seat, since they can't fix the previous four times and they keep replacing the seat track, um hello, it;s been replaced 3 times, thats not it morons.......

4 times...Check you state Lemon law.

they called me tell me the noise is valves and needs adjustment and

Call you dealer up. Ask them what the first major scheduled maintenance is for you car (hopefully you are under 100,000). Ask them when you should have your valves adjusted. They should say 100,000 or more. (Tape the conversation if you can)

That's when you get them.

 

Interesting thing happened to my drivers seat. The seat was also making a creaking sound, this would happen everytime I came to a stop and then hit he gas again. 2 weeks ago I let my gf drive home and she put the seat all the way forward, while the seat was moving we hear this loud crack. The next morning I found all sorts of broken plastic pieces on the floor in the rear but now the sound is gone! LOL.

 

I've taken my 2001 TL in for all the same problems as the rest of you. (seat creak, sunroof creak, headliner creak, rear deck creak) and each time the dealer claims to have fixed it. I am all happy that the sound is gone ... for about... 5 minutes.... and then it is back I hate going back and back and back just because of a creak...

 

for the seatbelt squeak... get some WD-40 with the little straw, and spray some right into the seat belt buckle. where the red plastic is that u push to unbuckle ur seat belt.

 

Thx Str8acura.... that solved one of my problems... now does anyone know about the sunroof squeak? As long as I remember Hondas have always had this squeak, and usually it doesn't bother my cause I have the music up, but when I do, theres that rattle, and some other creak/rattle on the passengers door somewhere.

-Ryan
'99 SSM TL

 

There is a fix for the sunroof. They esentially put teflon tape around the rim of the sunroof opening, so the gasket doesn't rub against the painted surface. There is a TSB for it, but I don't know the #..... Anyone???

 

There is also a fuse cover that rattles... Go here.

http://www.geocities.com/~gamesmgr/chod/acura/#Noise5

Good luck. I am now at peace with my rattles..

 

BTW the fuse cover rattle comes from the passenger side, possibly the one you were talking about... (not the driver side)

 

There is a fix for the sunroof. They esentially put teflon tape around the rim of the sunroof opening, so the gasket doesn't rub against the painted surface. There is a TSB for it

This is the TSB for the Moonroof squeak:
(You will need Adobe Acrobat to view)

http://www.andysara.com/TSB00-032.pdf

 

Update:
Spoke to the service manager on Friday and admitted full responsibility. He said the paint work was an internal mis-communication and will do whatever is necessary to fix the problem, including taking it to my own body guy, replacing headlamps, etc.

He said the seat repairs are done according to service bulletins and as advised by Acura. He told me that they have sent several technical memos about the seat problems and Acura is not responding (remember the tranny). He is going to have his trim and dash specialist come in and try to repair it. he said they think it is the bushings where the seatback attaches to the base, to much play causing the noise.

Client Services will not pay for the valve adjustment, because they stated it was normal wear, bull****. Never had this in any of my previous Honda products. I told them this is absolutley ridiculous, since I have had Acura do every bit of service form oil changes to 15k, 30k, etc. I told them if it cost around $150.00 I could live with it, but $600.00 will usually give you a whole valve job on an American car.

It is very evident to me that Honda/Acura motor corpoaration is changing their direction to more of an American car mentality. I'm afraid this will be the last Honda product I will buy. I still love the car, but I bought it cause it was backed by Honda and that is no longer there modis operanda.

My sister is running into the same prolems with her 2001 Odyssey, so it really appears there is a changing of the guard over there. It's ashame, I always felt that I would have a Honda product in my driveway, this just reinforces my decision to buy another explorer over the MDX......

 

Valve adjustment doesn't cost $500...I can do it myself in about 2 hours. I adjust valve on my Integra all the time before and takes me about 30 mins.
As for your comment about getting an Explorer over a Honda because of all the problems you are having with Honda...Well, every car has problems...some kind of problem. And to think an Explorer has LESS problem than Honda, you are greatly mistaken.

 

Well, I have had an 97 Explorer since November of 96 and fewer problems in nearly 6.5 years of ownership than I have had with a 2.5 year old TL. My point is Acura is not backing up it's product like my experiences in the past with Honda. It took a LA times article before Acura finally started to extend the warranties on the tranny.

 

Yep, bad press usually gets the job done faster and has more of an impact.

I would reccomend to everyone that they tell their friends about all the problems they've had with their acura products, hopefully the drop in sales will promote change.

 

I had the sunroof creak (when roof is fully opened). It was fixed when an Acura technician replaced the whole sunroof tray. It was a big job as trim and headliner all had to come out to do this. The dealer did all this under warranty. I am very satisfied with this technician/dealer.

 

Well, I have been waiting to take the car back to the dealership when the back ordered seat heater comes in. To my amazement it is still on back order. I guess maybe if the ignor me I'll go away...Fat Chance!