A Pig and Honda's Design Flaw Costed Me Rs.22K For A.C Condenser: Weak Amaze


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Hi All
I own a Honda Amaze diesel, 7 months old and it has run about 8500 kms since.
On 12th July, while I was leaving my office, I noticed that even after switching on the AC, there was no cooling. I parked my vehicle after an km and checked all the settings, but was not able to find any problem.
I thought it might be some faulty connection. I called up the Honda Service center next morning and they asked me to deliver the car at their service center to have it checked. On Friday I was able to leave office early and handed them the vehicle. Yesterday morning I got a call which almost gave me a mini heart attack.
The service head told me that the condenser is broken and shifted backwards which has to be replaced for 18K and 4K for service charges. A total of 22k. I asked them how was it even possible as I never had an accident. They said the car has taken a MAJOR hit due to which the condenser has broken.
Without any delay, I went to the service center. I saw the vehicle, and asked them nicely, "does it look like the car has taken a MAJOR hit?"
They kept quite and did not answer anything. I literally sat down and started thinking when I had an accident, because as far as i know, I never had any.
after 15 min of thinking and visiting all the corners of my brain I recalled one incident which happened a month ago. A PIG suddenly crossed the road I had to apply brakes hard. This resulted in a sudden stop and as far as I remember, I did not even hit the pig.
I got down from the car and checked my bumper, there was no sign of damage or any scratch. The pig ran away immediately after braking.
When I told this to the service person, he said that is probably the reason for the breakage in condenser.
I asked them how was it even possible as if it would also have been a hit, it was such small impact. how could the AC condenser breakdown in such an minor event.
After lots of argument, the service person said that the placement of the AC condenser in Honda amaze is not proper and it is kept very much in a position where even a small hit would result in a condenser breakdown.
And my case was not the first as there has been several cases of broken condenser.
I met another person over there who said his relative faced a similar situation when his amaze slightly rolled and struck a car while waiting in red light. He loosened the brakes and the car slightly hit the front car. nothing looked suspicious until next day when the AC stopped working.
As this was a accident and I could do nothing, I have called up insurance guys to get this thing resolved.

I have heard honda amaze's engine seize problems in water clogged roads, but this was never mentioned in any forum
I hope Honda rectifies this design as 22k on such small incidents is not expected.
I am actually afraid of driving the car as I do not know what fragile elements Honda has put in. I do not want to see the engine with a big crack on it because a dog jumped over the bonnet.
Planning o sell the car of course with a huge loss :(
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

When i read the title i thought you're about to scold someone as PIG but relieved to read an actual PIG.

This is not a good indication. Company do major road test to identify faults due to actual road driving. How couldn't they identify the issue previously. No one has done a hard brake condition? It must surely be there in the checklist. I think they rushed up the production. If amaze has this flaw then brio too has this or the extra weight added is causing this?
 

allhyundaicars

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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

These indeed is a big problem. Anyways i hope the insurance company passes the claim and make sure you upgrade to zero depreciation policy if you are not using one.

Anyways couldn't understand one thing , will they shift the condensor backwards or the cause of damage was the shifted condensor ?
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

@ratheesh
The condenser was pushed backwards due to the impact. This was definitely not a strong design. I wonder what all other parts are stressed to the limits in case of a minor hit or hard braking.

@allhyundaicars
Yes I will upgrade to the zero depreciation policy.
The condenser was shifted backwards even if it was hooked to the brackets. The bracket design must be so faulty that it is equal to not having the bracket and just placing the condenser on a metal plate. Imagine the battery on its plate but without the screw brackets holding them
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

Be happy it is just the condenser, i read in another forum a guy losing his engine,
His car lost oil on the highway due to a minor underbody hit somewhere. Dont know i can post links to other forum here but will paste the relevant para. From your incident i think the car internal parts are weak like its outer body.

''One of my friends owns a Honda Amaze petrol model, the car's Engine got seized on 26th Dec 2014 suddenly on express highway, the car was towed by nearest workshop and then there it was diagnosed that there was no oil in the engine.

But then it led to many questions. The story i wanted to share here because Honda and its dealers said they will not cover damage under warranty as well as under Insurance. At the time of incident car was not even one year old, it was serviced as per the Honda schedules and the repair cost is whopping 2.7 L Rupees and as per Honda Dealer they cant give a new Engine as per directives from company. Parts will get assembled at dealer premises.

It was the engine-oil filter area that had a minute crack and the oil had been leaking from there. There was no explanation as to how the crack had occurred. The techs only speculated that a stone might have hit that area and could have damaged it. There was no evidence of any stone inside or any other damage to any other parts.
The techs informed me that the engine had been totally been damaged and the repair costs were 2 lacs 70 thousand. In other words, the engine would have to be replaced completely.
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

I have had three hits till now in my Dads verna , all of them on the Highways ,
1- Hit a Stork , commonly known as Bagula , at a speed of 100 km/hr . ( broke my left side - fog light assembly , and got it plastic welded ) .
2 - Next time i hit a Dog , Broke my right side , fog light assembly . Speed - 80km/hr.
3- Third time Again i hit the dog , this time at a nominal speed of 20km/hr , and By god grace nothing happened this time .

But now sharing some of my friends experience about the Honda City , Swift .

City got hit by a dog , at 60 km/hr . split the bumper into two parts .

Swift - Got hit in a pole while parking , speed was 10 km/hr or maybe less, also tore the bumper into two parts .

while i have also seen this many a times on and off the road , these things are not mentioned on forums as it is considered small things , but i feel every dent or crack shows the built quality of the car .

Sad , to hear about ur condenser :|
 

allhyundaicars

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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

@ debashish - well that's just plain stupidity. And i am sure this is design flaw and honda just wanted to push this product into the market.

Anyways what are they plannimg to do now ? Did they update the design ? Do check new batches if possible. You will get this fixed but another incident and you will face the same consequences.

@ chevrolet - i too read this. And i think every manufactured should have a blinking light to tell about any problems in the car. The less oil light must have lit but i am sure in that case the person driving the car didn't notice.

It can be the fault of honda too. I mean i had an engine oil leak because the mechanic tightened the oil filter more than required which broke the seal. I saw the oil droplets and checked the oil level ( was low about 1 liter) got it fixed asap.

@ jaskgrand - i think the bumpers , front especially are made a little bit weaker in comparison to other parts. The reason ? To avoid more damage to pedestrians. Anyways i have a fluidic verna and the front bumper is pathetic. A normal auto rickshaw was able to crack the bumper near fog light housing at just 5kmph and another rickshaw made a hole :p all other parts are strong.
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

I think you need to shoot a mail to Honda stating your experience and highlight the flaw in their design. They will probably check and recall the vehicles of that batch and fix the issue. 22k is not a small amount and one doesn't expect a new car to give big bills just because they braked hard their car. Honda is known for its quality and I am sure they will try and recitify the issue ASAP.
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

Apart from the condenser issue, which is internal, the exterior has some downers, at least for me. I don't have superpowers, but I can see that a proper look at the Amaze does give an impression that the sheet metal is weak, in a sense that it could bend easily with a little push. The boot area definitely looks like it could get a palm-size crater if you pushed with your hand in medium force, which wouldn't happen in Dzire. 22K is Honda parts price as expected.
 

allhyundaicars

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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

The new batch will get a higher mileage

http://www.motorbeam.com/2015/07/cars/honda-amaze/honda-to-launch-updated-amaze-with-higher-mileage/

Its a mileage war among honda & maruti. They are only interested in it.
Making the metal weaker and thinner and using even thinner tyres [lol] rightly said they just want to increase the unreal mileage figures. Anyways hyundai is 1 step ahead to give false claim ( i guess they are reimbursing us customers for giving false mileage figures)
But now i think people not just give preference to mileage but the overall package.
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

so sad to hear that you are facing some very serious issues with your New car. i think when it comes to body strength of car, Honda is now following Maruti's footprints. They are making body parts lighter and weak to get more FE figures.[anger]. For me Honda is now losing the faith.
if its a fault in their design then why they are looting the customers? they should accept it and should rectify it free of cost because car is in warranty.
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

@ debashish - well that's just plain stupidity. And i am sure this is design flaw and honda just wanted to push this product into the market.

Anyways what are they plannimg to do now ? Did they update the design ? Do check new batches if possible. You will get this fixed but another incident and you will face the same consequences.

@ chevrolet - i too read this. And i think every manufactured should have a blinking light to tell about any problems in the car. The less oil light must have lit but i am sure in that case the person driving the car didn't notice.

It can be the fault of honda too. I mean i had an engine oil leak because the mechanic tightened the oil filter more than required which broke the seal. I saw the oil droplets and checked the oil level ( was low about 1 liter) got it fixed asap.

@ jaskgrand - i think the bumpers , front especially are made a little bit weaker in comparison to other parts. The reason ? To avoid more damage to pedestrians. Anyways i have a fluidic verna and the front bumper is pathetic. A normal auto rickshaw was able to crack the bumper near fog light housing at just 5kmph and another rickshaw made a hole :p all other parts are strong.

But , that is not good , i mean u cannot just think the fact that sumthing which projects the engine , can be weak .
i know verna's bumper is weak but not as weak as compared to many other manufacturer's .
My cousin owns a swift and i am sure he is very disappointed with his bumper .
[frustration]
 
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Re: A Pig and Honda's design flaw costed me 22K for A.C condenser - Weak Amaze

My cousin owns a swift and i am sure he is very disappointed with his bumper
Bumpers are meant to be bumped into. Us poor drivers have no choice. It will tolerate the most scratches and damage over time. Is there such a thing as a strong bumper, I don't know. But it's of great concern if that thing behind the front bumper malfunctions on its own one fine day while driving :-)
 

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