Well the only indicators I had that there may be a problem was the car was squirmy on snow or slippery road conditions and some inside wear on the Dunlap's. It was also very noisy. But I thought I should check before three yrs. was up! The HCH2 has been flawless other-wise, I really enjoy the car and am impressed with Honda quality over-all. I did jack the front of both driver and passenger seat up 1"1/4" and solved the comfort problem plus my knee is up above the e-brake hdle.now. Doubled the hours I can put on behind the wheel.Car is much more comfortable!!! Hal

 

Any class action law suits pertaining to this?

I contacted my consumer help groups through my various news channels in my area. My problem is a little different though.

I brought my 06' in for an oil change on 03/07/2008 and at that time discovered the rear camber issue. The rear tires were down to the steel belts. Due to excessive road noise, I had been regulary rotating my tires anyway, so now as a result, all 4 tires were effected. I asked the service tech (by the way, this all happend at a Honda Dealership) what could be causing this since I had been rotating the tires anyway, and he had no idea. Said he has never seen anything like this before.... Well regardless, the tires were not safe to drive on, so I bought 4 new ones along with an alignment.... At this time, I was completely unaware of Service Bulletin 08-001 which was published on 02/05/2008, a whole month before I was experiencing this problem... So now fast forward 13 months to April 2009. Again, I am in the shop for an oil change and again they bring me out into the bay to show me the excessive tire wear I am experiencing. At this time they inform me of the Service Bulletin 08-001 published on Feb 2009. They never mentioned the one that was published a year earlier. After I discovered this online while doing some research, I brought it to the Service Departments manager. My request was that the dealership should compensate me for my tires that I now need to purchase. If the dealership would not have been negligent in notifying me of the issue on my March 2008 visit, then the control arm problem would have been fixed at that time, and my current tires would not need replacing. Despite my attempts to make him understand this, he kept referring to the Honda Tire Chart that states that because my tires have 26,000 miles on them, that they are not responsible to compensate me anything. They have replaced the control arms free of charge, but I am now waiting to hear back from the consumer help groups to see if they can get anything done... Regardless though, they were negligent in not correcting the problem in March of 2008, so I refuse to EVER spend any more money at that dealership again!!

I'm not on here often, but I'll let you all know if my local news channel does decide to pursue this...

 

Following excessive noise on our work fleet's 2008 MY HCHII, the rear suspension arms will have to be changed out and the 4 tires changed due to cupping, at 20,000 km. The tread depth is OK but the tires were rotated at 10,000 at the first service so all 4 are affected. Honda will pay for two of the new tires and the office eats it for the two others.

This will be done once the parts arrive. Pretty strange that a 2008 model is affected too.....

 

Many thanks to giantquesadilla and all the others who have posted on this issue. Does any one have experience with HFP equipped Civics? I just purchased a 07 EX with 1,700 yes, seventeen hundred miles on it. I took it to the dealer for an alignment check and -2.4 deg. was the best they could get out of the rear camber. -1.5 deg. is the maximum allowable. I was unaware of the service bulletin and of course the dealer did not mention it was an on going problem. They said it was due to the HFP modifications and was not covered even though the car is two years old and less than 2,000 miles. The HFP (Honda Factory Performance) kit was sold and installed by a different Honda dealer when the car was new. The service bulletin specifically excludes HFP equipped and SI cars. I do not want to wait until the tires wear out prematurely to address this issue. I contacted Honda and they said I had to work through the dealer. I now have much more information to work with, but I am still uncertain how to proceed. Can anyone recommend a "good" dealership in the Austin, Round Rock area? The experience I have had with Round Rock Honda puts them more on the “bad” side of the fence. Once again, Thanks to all who have contributed to this forum and put so much information in one place.

 

Add San Tan Honda in Chandler, AZ to your list. They handled my rear arm replacement. They also ended up buying me new tires.

The inside tire edge was worn to the cords and they handled all of the maintenance and never told me about the wear issues.

However, I will tell yo that the new tires they put on, Dunlop SP37, aren't real good or noise or wear. Tires will be replaced as soon as they wear out in another 10K or so.

BTW- I am still having cupping problems on the tires. Nobody can tell me why though I suspect they haven't fully figured out the issue yet.

 

Wished I had stumbled on this forum thread about a year ago But despite that I just took my car over to Beaverton Honda in Oregon and was told even at 55k miles there's a 90% chance Honda would agree to change out the control arms for me.

I had recently gotten the tires replaced myself and the old ones made it all the way to 55k so I wasn't too bothered, but I did notice the telltale inner edge wear when the old ones were taken off which prompted my internet research.

It took me printing the TSB and the first few pages of this forum thread complete with pictures and physically going to the Honda service center and insisting to discuss the issue with the head service area manager to get this response though. Over the phone I was getting the run around. Even at the service check in desk the person tried to educate me on what the difference between a "recall" and "service bulletin" are. I then educated him on what "defective" meant and that Honda can call it whatever they like but they still sold me a car with bum parts that wear my tires down faster.

I'll post back whether they follow through or not, service manager was going to put in the call to Honda today. Regardless I am happy with the car, I just wish companies were a little more stand-up regarding matters like this.

 

I found an attorney that wants to look in to the possibility for a class action to pay for the tires that were ruined by thier bad product. As I understand it that the arms that were manufactured were too short. Which caused tires to cup due to the negative camber.

Timothy Frantz Pa
352-326-5608

 

I haven't posted in this thread for a while, so just to present the contrary view, and I truly am not a Honda shill, just relaying my experience and observations:

We have over 70,000 km's (around 45,000 miles) on our OEM Bridgestone Insignia SE200-02, well apart from maybe 2000 km max, last winter, when I installed snows. We have 5/32" tread depth remaining on the backs, and somewhere between 5 and 6/32" remaining on the fronts. They're rotated about yearly, as directed by the Maintenance Minder, which is why the fronts are currently a bit better.

As far I know we have the "non-correct" rear upper control arms. They've never been changed, and I've had a look, don't see any "C" marking.

I've no complaints with the tires, apart from their increasingly lousy snow traction as they've worn down (hence the snows last winter).

They feel ok, ie: the ride feels smooth, no pulsing, pulling to the side. The wear looks fairly uniform, going from out to inner edge. Maybe a very slight increase in wear on the inside edge.

I've looked till my eyes bleed, but can't see cupping. This is with the tire off, in my hands, in good light. It may be there, and maybe I don't know what I'm looking for, but it's subtle...

Still, I'm not saying it isn't happening. Maybe some people are having their rear suspension tolerances nearer to limits, and this in turn is making matters worse.

I do hear a lot of people saying "negative camber" as if this is synonymous with "something wrong". Honda spec's negative camber. Maybe they're backpedalling now, realizing their design went too far, not sure. But it's not unusual for rear suspension to have a small amount of negative camber.

Again, maybe it's a bit too much neg camber, and if the tire is near the negative end of the camber spec tolerance, this is making things worse.

But in my experience, no problems, decent miles from one set of tires, maybe one more year's worth of wear in them, and nothing untowards observed.

 

I don't think you a Honda shill, apparently for whatever reason, you do not have the problem...for me, the roaring (road noise) was making the care miserable to drive...still not the most quiet car in the world especally here on these rough roads but MUCH improved. And yes, I showed unusual tire wear after 7,000 miles, so, count yourself lucky, go buy a lottery ticket and cross your fingers...as far as a lawsuite, that is nonsense..Honda is making good on the problem, some dealers are jerks but then again so are some customers (I have my moments).
Tires are wear items, you got use out of them, right? yes they probably wore out sooner than expected but by your own admission, you didn't keep that close of eye on them, you expected someone else to do that for you...so, who's fault is it you were not an informed, proactive consumer?

 

Just to verify: are you saying you had the control arms swapped out for "correct" ones, and new tires put in, and after 7000 miles the new ones are starting to show cupping?

One thing too, regarding road noise: the factory undercoating's primary purpose is for sound proofing. Don't know about yours, but with our '06, especially with my zealous hosing, the rear wheel well undercoat is more-or-less gone, say 60% gone, and the rest very dried out and thinned.