sampson100

Long story short (kind of):
My 2004 Honda Accord EX killed out on the freeway while out of state. Had the car towed to nearest honda dealership. Tech told me A/C drain leaked condensation onto my ECU and completely shorted it out. Close to $1400 to fix. Seems to me that is horrible design to route any hose carrying any form of liquid that close to a major comuter componant.

I contacted the dealership to see if this repair would be covered under the Federal Emissions Control Systems warranty. I was told this situation isn't covered due to the a/c condensation causing the actual problem.

Called Honda of America customer service to see if any type of goodwill warranty could help me out. The lady claimed since the car is far outside of the manufaturer warranty there is nothing Honda can do to help me.

Sorry this is so long. This has been a very stressful situation as I CAN NOT afford $1400 right now.

Has anyone had similar experiences? Were you able to get any of the work comped? Any ideas how I can persue this further? Any help will be greatly appreciated!

8VEYBEYB

step 1. go to junkyard price ECU in my case 150$

2. pull up the carpet in passenger side , the ECU is in the center or right under the carpet on the passenger side , should only be 3 connectors and 10mm bolts holding it in , real easy to get to , so you replaced the ECU for 150 , then you gotta fix the condensation problem , not sure what to do there but 1400$ is inflated you could probably float away with that estimate.

sampson100

Unfortunatley I was out of state at the time. I was in a bind, work is already done (at a Honda dealership). Sounds like I got taken for a ride.

8VEYBEYB

DAMN! NOOOOOOO! i would call honda corporate.

sampson100

I called honda corporate. The lady there said that because the vehicle was out of warranty, they are unable to offer any compensation. I was hoping they would give me some sort of goodwill warranty. Seems like a design flaw to me to route the a/c drain right past the ECU.

Honda dealership charged me
$734 for ECU
$35 for filter for cabin air intake (supposedly the cause of my ac drain getting clogged)
$75 for shop supplies/hazardous disposal ???????
$26 to have ECU overnighted
and $472 for labor

I'm starting to feel like an idiot for agreeing to pay that much. but being on the road, out of state, with no resources I didn't know any better. I figured while dealerships are usually more expensive, I could trust them more than some corner repair shop.

sampson100

Anybody ever have this covered by the 8 year 80,000 mile emissions warranty?

sampson100

bump

BLKFLSH

I don't think you have a chance this will be covered under any warranty. Your only chance is "good-will", but since they already have your money, your chances of getting some back are very slim also. Usually if there is a "common" problem, Honda will extend the warranty, but this is the first time I've heard of this happening.

bkindness

yup, that's might be true

sampson100

Thanks for your imput guys. I've always owned hondas because of their reputation of being reliable. To have this big of a repair on a (relatively newer) car is just kind of disappointing to me. Seems kind of like a fluke (although I have read about several occurences similar to mine, mostly on acuras, but a few accords). I had to borrow the cash to get this work done ($1400 is astronomical in my economic situation) and I'm not sure how I'll be able to pay it back. I'm gonna give one more shot at talking to honda corporate to see if they can help me out in any way.

99blackcivicSi

the prices seem a bit high, 1 hour diag, 1 hour key reprogram and transfer pcm data, 1 hour to clean drain deoderize system and install new filter (i do this for .5 since they literall take 2 minutes)

i don't see where the other 1.5 hours is coming frmo i assume they charge ~100 bucks for labor there so on a grid with tax it would equate to 47ish for labor, a clogged evap drain more than likley it was off rather than clogged unless there was some tar or something in the tip of the rubber hose that drains it, this is quite rare indeed i personally have not seen one clog from inside of the blower box due to the fact the filter is well before the drain, on that vehicle its even before the blower motor right after the fresh air intake for the HVAC system

Canuck99

Have seen this a few times, drain plugs up and water fills Evap case and then overflows and fills computer...Not cheap but yes go to Scrap yard for sure....

Every time you pull out the A/C cabin filter there is always some crap, bits of leaves seeds or whatever on top of the filter, you pull it out and that stuff drops into the blower gets blown into the Evap box and bingo clogged hose. Never had this issue when The filters were mounted upright! ...Pulled Kleenex out of a plugged hose once, had dropped in from a mouse nest built on top of the filter, customer thought they got it all.

Miro1975

Just got this fixed today.

Same problem. A/C condensation dripped on ECU. When they taken unit out there was water inside.

Car was cranking but not starting. Carpet was also little moist

Got used ECU for $55.00 at local junk yard and took it to Honda dealer

They charged me $265.00 for replacing ECU, programming Immobilizer and new batteries in keys. Also diagnostics ....

Wow this post is old

..