If you're not having problems, and tire wear is ok, I'd leave it alone. FWIW, like any major surgery, there's always a chance of "complications" when getting major mechanical work done.

 

I have Civic Hybrid 2008. At around 15K miles, I observed the car had a little vibration and noisy. Also, I started to noticed the tires had uneven wear.

I mentioned about this a couple times (when I had oil changed) to the Curtiss Ryan Honda dealer, where I bought the car from. They always said that they could not find anything wrong with the car, even after performing road test.

When the car had 34K miles on it, the noise and vibration were so noticable, plus the wears all on 04 tires. I brought the car to them again. It was around Dec. 2009. I insisted to have them to do another road test with me on the car. They gave the notice that 04 tires were bad that caused the noise and vibration. They adviced me to replace 04 tires, plus doing a wheels alignment. I asked why the tires were out of alignment, theygave a very "general explanation" = "road is bad; bad driving behavior; you hit something"....I just could not buy their explaination because I always took care of my car, but I followed their advice to wait a couple thousand miles until the tires become completely worn out, then they would do the fix.

Later, on Feb 2010, I found the service bulletin, in which I found every symptoms was exactly what I had experienced on my car. I printed out the bulletin, brought it and the car to the dealer again. The car had 37K miles.

I left the car for them for checking and headed to work. Later, they called me at my cellphone, adviced that the upper control arm would need to be replaced. They wanted to charge me for $370 for the part and the aligmnent, as they said my car was out of warranty. I disagree with them and started to call Honda Customer Service.

Surprisingly, at the end of the day, when I came to the dealer to pick up my car,they told me that the service bulletin was not applied to my car's issue and the part was OK!

The Honda Customer Service Manager call me 02 day laters. First he told me that he contacted the dealer, and said the same thing. but then, suddenly he said he just noticed that the VIN in the TSB included my car's VIN number and he said my case would be covered. He offered Honda pay for replacing the part, the alignment and plus 02 tires's cost. He said he needed to talk with the dealer again and would me a call later.

02 days later, he called me back. He said he could not give me his previous offer because the dealer said the part would not need to be replaced, and that he could do nothing about it. He adviced me to seek for a second opinion from another Honda's dealer.

I took my car to another dealer (Executive Honda) to have them look at the rear upper control arm. Guess what? the Excecutive Honda's technician examined the car, confirmed that the upper control arm needed to be replaced!

I called the HOnda office again to update this new information. Finally, after a week, I had a chance to talk with the manager for my case. He kept his initial offer: Honda would pay for the part, the alignment work and 02 tires.

I have to say that it was a long stupid battle. It is stupid because I have to fight for things that is not at my fault. I do not blame Honda, but I blame its dealer: Curtiss Ryan Honda. I trully think that this dealer does not care about its customers but care too much for their own benefits. The Curtiss Ryan Honda should know about the TSB and should check it on my car (after too many times I mentioned about the symptoms with them). Their attitude would drive the customers away from Honda, not just from their place itself.

I want to file a claim to Curtiss Ryan Honda. Does anyone know a good way to do that?

 

Landtrd,
Sorry to hear about your drawn-out battle with Curtis-Ryan. But I'm glad the problem finally got sorted out with another dealer. It was worth it to go for that second opinion at Executive.

 

I had the upper control arm problem with my 07 Honda Civic Hybrid.

Link to my HCH control arm experience

My story has a happy ending!

 

I now have this problem. I replaced the tires today at 41,000 miles as two of them were worn (one abnormally so), and discovered that I needed a complete alignment. I was surprised because I did not feel any sort of steering pull. This was from my personal mechanic, so am confident this is on the up-and-up. Advisor said that the rears they could tune to green, but the fronts are still slightly off. Almost like the frame has been bent, he said.

Driving home on new tires, I noticed an immediate improvement in the short distance MPGs again. Because I've not been commuting long distances this past year, I haven't paid as close attention to my MPG, other than it's still high 40s on highway stretches (at high speed, knowing that I need to replace a tire).

Remembering this thread, I am going to call the dealer tomorrow and ask about the Service Bulletin 08-001 and get this repaired. Wish me luck!

 

It is very important that they use the new wheel alignment specs. Otherwise the tires will continue to wear: From the TSB:

4. Do a four-wheel alignment using the new rear
camber specification listed below:

Rear camber specification range:
- 1.5° to 0° (- 1° 30’ to 0°)
Front toe: 0 mm (+2mm/-2mm)

Rear toe: 2 mm (+2mm/-1mm)

 

I have a 2007 Honda Civic EX 2 door coupe. I have had no problem with vehicle until it hit 30k miles. My rear tires were bald and had a blowout last week. I did think it was too soon for tires to be this worn at 30k miles, but I replaced all four tires.
The problem occurred when an alignment was done and I was told that tires could not be aligned due to negative camder for my rear tires and was advised that rear upper control arms needed to be replaced. My tires were replaced at a local tire company (who shall remain nameless) and they advised this repair was going to cost around $900.00. I found it hard to believe that a three year old Honda with 30K miles would need such an expensive repair. I did some research and found this web site about TSB 08-001. This Bulletin described the problem with my car almost exactly. My tires did wear out earlier that they should have but I never experienced excessive pulling from the car or a loud roaring noise from the back tires.
I took car to Honda dealership the next morning and told them of problems I was having and how I thought the problems were related to TSB 08-100.
My warranty had just expired a few weeks beforehand so I was not sure they would perform the repairs for no charge or low cost.
The dealership told me that the problem was related to TSB 08-100 and that it did need to be fixed to avoid damage to my new tires. They said it was a manufacturer error.
End of story is that Honda dealer did replace the upper control arms and then did a four wheel alignment. The dealer did so with no fuss, no haggling and I was only charged a very small fee (under $40.00) even though the car WAS out of warranty.
I would like to add this dealers name to list of dealerships that want our business and have shown they are very receptive to correcting the issues listed in TSB 08-001. They have earned my business forever and will probably buy another Honda whenever I decide to replace my current Civic.

Colorado
Mile High Honda
2777 S Havana Street
Denver CO 80014
Service Phone: 866-375-7713

 

Thanks again to everyone who shared their information previously. Here's my end result:

Honda World (Westminster, Calif.) replaced the control arms at no cost and aligned to specs; I paid $99 to have the toe end realigned to specs. So a trade-off, as I was out of warranty and already had replaced my set of tires. All's completed.

 

I just got my car back today after 9 days waiting for American Honda to approve the goodwill gesture. Here is the condition: Civic 2007 EX 27,000 Miles. It is out of warranty in Jan 2010.
I complained about noise and vibration during highway speed and mentioned the TSB 08-001 to the dealer (Ron Tonkin Honda, Portland, OR). They inspected the vehicle and found that the rear arms didn't have the "C" stamped on them, and measured the tires' thread depth. Front tires at 5/32 and rear tires at 3/32 WITH UNIFORM WEAR. The back tires wear more because they were at front for the first 25,000 miles. Anyway, the service manager still recommended American Honda to replace the rear arms as the goodwill gesture to the customer, and he also speculates the quick wear maybe caused by the defective rear arms.
At the end, they replaced the rear arms and did alignments for me. The total bill was 330ish and American Honda is paying for it.
I still haven't driven the car much so I can't confirm the noise and vibration disappear.

 

Did a Honda dealership do your routine maintenance, in particular: the brake inspections? Or did you, or anyone? I'm trying to understand why the tires weren't rotated for 25000 miles. The easiest and most opportune time for rotation is at brake inspection, when the tires are off anyways.

IMO, 25000 miles on the front is almost enough to get OEM tires down to 3/32" remaining tread depth. What were they, Dunlop, Bridgestone? And what model? Considering the lack of rotation for such a long stretch, and that the wear was uniform, I'd say Honda's bent over backwards for you.