Owners wait and see engine noise solutions

One of the CR-V owners from Qingdao, Wang Jun (a pseudonym), is caught up in a rights-defense battle with Dongfeng Honda.

In March this year, Dongfeng Honda CR-V reported an abnormal sound on the engine during the cold start. Dozens of vehicle owners involved in such problems subsequently submitted a joint letter to Dongfeng Honda, hoping that the company could “recall problems”. vehicle". Wang Jun, who is familiar with engine technology, is also a member of the rights protection group.

Dongfeng Honda Market Advertising Bureau official said that it has speeded up the process of this issue and will “change VTC actuators in time” for the owner.

However, the current plan has not progressed smoothly. It is understood that the Dongfeng Honda dealers have extended the warranty service for the "two-year 60,000-kilometer-long" warranty for some CR-V owners who have replaced parts and components but failed to completely resolve the abnormal sound. They even promised to free replacement of the engine for some owners.

For most other owners who have the same problem, the solution provided by Dongfeng Honda is only to replace the VTC actuator. Wang Jun asked the manufacturer to provide a lifetime warranty after he proposed to replace the VTC actuator. The negotiation with the dealer stalled.

Of the dozens of car owners surveyed, only two car owners reported that after replacing the VTC actuators, no abnormal sound occurred in the engine. After replacing the VTC actuators, most other car owners still faced engine abnormal sound problems. Even more embarrassing is that so far, with the participation of dealers, three owners have sold their problem vehicles at a transaction price that exceeds the market valuation.

A professional who has studied Honda's engine technology said that the current problematic vehicles are mainly concentrated on the K24 series of engine models. This series of engines is mainly installed in the Honda brand's high-end models, Dongfeng Honda has thus Faced with the market crisis of the main sales model.

Is the problem vehicle "high-priced"?

In the course of investigating the problem of abnormal noise in the CR-V engine, it was learned that the owners of these abnormal noise problems had different solutions.

A CR-V owner in North China, Chen Ming (a pseudonym), just sold his own car, and his car replaced three VTC actuators in one year. Chen Ming said: "After changing parts, engine noise problems still exist. In the process of communicating with distributors, I think that manufacturers do not seem to have other better solutions."

Not long ago, his car was sold to the "hometown friend" for a price of RMB 170,000. This price exceeded Chen’s expectations. After the engine was replaced for the second time and the VTC actuator was replaced, there was a valuation of “100,000 yuan” for a used car dealer’s vehicle.

Coincidentally. The former Shandong Linyi CR-V owner Wang Qing (a pseudonym) and the Yinchuan owner Shi Feng (a pseudonym) had previously changed the engine due to abnormal sound problems and said that their own problem vehicles also passed the "project mortgage" and "familiar friend" respectively. "Sell, trading prices are also higher than the market valuation of such models.

It was surprising that the above-mentioned owners had sold problem vehicles invariably at the same time, and the transaction prices were higher than the normal market valuation. An insider of Dongfeng Honda stated that "there have been coordination dealers recently helping some of the owners sell their cars." Previously, Dongfeng Honda related people once expressed the hope that the "repurchase" problem vehicle owners conduct technical analysis to find the final technical solutions. Then, the above-mentioned three owners sold the problem vehicle at a price exceeding the market valuation. Is this Dongfeng Honda's "repurchase" behavior? This guess is currently not confirmed.

“At present, these (car owners' problems) have basically been solved, and only one owner in Qingdao, Shandong Province still needs to continue coordination.” Dongfeng Honda Market Advertising Bureau official said.

However, not all owners are so "lucky." For other owners, Dongfeng Honda still insists on the "replacement of VTC actuators."

In response to this solution, more than a dozen CR-V owners were investigated. Only two owners said that after the replacement of the VTC actuators, “there is no abnormal noise situation at present,” and nearly ten other owners said that they have abnormal noise problems. unsolved". There are also some car owners are waiting to see, because the current warm weather is easy to cover the engine's problems, hope to fall this fall, "and then decide whether to replace the parts."

"The 4S shop manager has also advised us to wait until the weather is cold again." said a Hubei CR-V owner.

At present, CR-V owners who suffer from engine noise problems are still gathering and looking forward to better technical solutions. However, due to the increase in temperatures around the country at the moment, the abnormal noise situation has not deteriorated. The owners are worried that the next concentrated flashpoint may be this fall, when the weather may turn cold and the situation may deteriorate.

North American vehicles with the same problem can be changed?

Previously, as the replacement of the VTC actuator program was not approved, multiple owners jointly filed a recall request with the manufacturer, but this appeal was not adopted by the manufacturer. The relevant person of Dongfeng Honda expressed this: "No abnormal vehicle safety hazard exists, no need to recall."

Since then, some owners have once again asked the manufacturer to "remove the vehicle if the VTC actuator plan is not working." In this regard, Dongfeng Honda responded that “From the current market feedback, there has been no case where owners did not work after replacing the VTC actuators.” However, this statement differs from the survey.

"In general, the return of the vehicle requires the approval of the manufacturer. If the manufacturer does not nod, the dealer does not have the right to withdraw the vehicle." A relevant person in the after-sales service department of a joint venture company introduced.

In this context, some owners of rights-protection have continued to compromise. A CR-V owner in North China said: “At first, we hoped to withdraw the car and then returned to the factory to replace the engine. However, these requirements were rejected. The stalemate has so far allowed the manufacturers to extend the warranty if I can.” A CR-V car owner in North America is much more fortunate than the one encountered by domestic car owners. On May 12th this year, on a website called AutoGuide, a car owner named freshman announced the replacement of his own 2.4LCR-V. His car had a cold start after traveling 200 miles (about 322 kilometers). After the engine was abnormally sound, and the local dealer had coordinated several times, the final dealer agreed to replace him with a new CR-V.

For the North American netizens described above, no confirmation has been obtained from the relevant parties.

“I hope that Honda will find the root of the problem six years after the (sound abnormality) problem, so that many Honda's loyal users can get an effective solution. This should not happen to the Honda brand.” The owner is on the website. Leave a message like this.

However, industry insiders said that the same situation in the Chinese market is different.

"If the precedent of the decommissioning drive begins, there will be more car owners to follow up. No matter the cost or the brand image, it will have an impact on the company." An analyst who declined to be named said that even if it is "repurchase", Nor can it be carried out on a large scale.

Automobile industry analyst Feng Shiming said, “For a responsible company, even if no effective solution is found at the moment, manufacturers can provide consumers with an estimated solution time, and issue a resolution filing, such as providing a spare car. "In February this year, after another Honda model was exposed to the problem of abnormal sounding of fuel tanks, the company publicly stated to consumers that after communicating with Honda China, it is expected that "the solution will take eight months."

Test Honda Technology Strategy

Although the Honda CR-V noise has evolved into a global problem, Honda has not been able to provide a complete solution. Some technical experts have said that this is because there is an "inherent design flaw" in the engine of the i-VTEC (Intelligent Variable Valve Timing System) technology that Honda has installed a VTC actuator. In a follow-up survey, it was found that engine noise problems may be concentrated on some of the high-end models of Honda.

According to relevant experts from Honda China, there are many ways to realize the i-VTEC technology effect. One of them is the VTC actuator. The VTC actuator is applicable to the K24 series and other dual overhead camshaft engines, while other series The engine is not used. This also explains exactly why the products with abnormal noise problems are basically concentrated in 2.4L models equipped with K24 engines. Products such as domestic Civic and Fit also use i-VTEC technology, but due to the single overhead camshaft structure, Therefore, there are few engine abnormal sound conditions.

A technical person who once came from a multinational parts and components company stated that the dual overhead camshaft structure is more complex. With the addition of VTC actuators, the engine is more accurate in gas distribution under the same working volume, and the fuel utilization rate is also higher. It is generally used. The pursuit of performance in the high-end models.

It is understood that currently equipped with a Honda K24 series engine models are mainly CR-V (K24Z8), think platinum Rui (K24Y5), Odyssey (K24A2), song map (K24Y3) and Ai Li (K24Z5) and other models.

A professional familiar with Honda i-VTEC technology analyzed that the crux of this phenomenon is still the VTC actuator. There are two possibilities for the occurrence of abnormal noise problems: First, hardware problems, including previous reports in this newspaper. Analysis of pin clearance problems, and leaks in the oil line, can not establish effective oil pressure, and eventually produce abnormal noise; another possibility arises in software problems, that is, hydraulic solenoid valve control program (ECU) There is a problem, such as ECU to VTC set the inlet and exhaust delay or advance time should be 0.1 ~ 0.3 seconds, but the actual set value is 0.5 seconds, and the mechanical parameters of parts between different models have tolerances, resulting in the actual operation During the process, mechanical stalling occurred, and finally no effective oil pressure was established.

"The engine is a system problem. If there are design flaws in the hardware, the whole system may need to be adjusted, and the software processing will also test the accumulation of the company's technical capabilities and experience data. It will take a long time to solve the problem." Indicated.

However, the feasibility of finding a solution for the problematic model equipped with i-VTEC technology cannot be evaded for either Dongfeng Honda or Honda.

Not long ago, Honda released a technical propaganda slogan under the theme of “FUN-TEC”. It aims to reshape its market position and reputation with a brand new technology brand image. Its new generation powertrain technology “Earth Dreams Technology” has been As an important strategy to begin full promotion.

As the second largest single market for Honda in the world, the Chinese market is also regarded as the area where FUNTEC's technology products are given priority. The engine products of the new generation powertrain are upgraded on the basis of the hardware of the original products, such as the conventional injection of the cylinder into the direct injection of the cylinder, but i-VTEC technology is still used on the technical path. This also means that Honda is still unable to avoid the engine technology problems existing in some CR-V models.