I am the owner of a 2004 Honda Civic. I purchased the car brand new 1/31/04 in Akron, Ohio. I have had all scheduled maintenance done to the car. I went to get my 30k service and was advised I needed to have my brake pads changed and my rotors resurfaced. Honda wanted to charge me 230.00 to do the work, and my uncle is a certified mechanic so he told me what parts to get and he would do it for me free of charge. Well once he got under my car all my brake lines, calipers, etc have been rusted out. When he took the calipers off the front right and left they literally fell into pieces!!! What I don't understand is why my car is only 4 years old and everything under the bottom of the car (except the muffler and catalyic convert) is rusted out!! I did live in a cold climate for 3 years before I moved to Georgia, but my goodness 4 years and everything is rusted out!!! I heard honda's are bad on rust, but that is for cars over 6 years old. Here it is I have 2 more months left on this lease and I had to purchase new calipers. Please help me understand.

 

I think you answered your own question...you live in ohio where it snows, and salt is thrown onto the roads to melt the snow. salt causes rust and corosion. It sucks to own a nice daily driver up north.

 

I understand that, but it sucks that the car is not even 4 years old yet and the bottom is completely (i think I spelled that wrong) rusted out. I still have a warranty on this thing. I know of people who've had their civics for years, and yes they live in ohio, and they have not had this problem.

The other thing that pisses me off, is honda has done all the maintenance. So they saw all this rust damage and never mentioned it. So I could at least try to stop it in it's beginning stages. I just moved to Georgia in March. Before I moved I took my car to my honda dealership and spent like 700.00 to get it ready for the road. I have had 3 oil changes, done by honda, since I came to georgia and not once have they mentioned the rust. What I guess they were going to wait till the calipers fell off the car to say, Ms. Hall you need to pay X amount of dollars to get the calipers fix!!

What's up with honda or any car manufacturer. If they know there's a coerison problem with their cars in the north, then do something about it!! I asked the honda dealer here in georgia, what could I have done differently to prevent it and he told me nothing. I washed the car frequently to get the salt and chemicals off and this is what I get. A four year old vehicle rusted out!

I wanted to purchase another honda, but after this I don't know.

 

My 2004 is completely spotless underneath and I live in a pretty salty harsh climate as well.

Any pics of your under carriage?

 

dont people up north have to spray there whole car down with something to not let them rust from the snow or salt or whatever.. maybe urs was brought up north before the dealer and nobody ever put that stuff on... 4 years should be enough time without any preventative

 

no pics yet. I haven't had the calipers replaced yet. I spent all of today trying to find them in salvage yards. I finally found a very good pair and I'm suppose to have them installed sometime this weekend. I will take pics and post them when my uncle goes under there again.

 

I'd like to see pictures, since I don't really think they were "rusted out". A lot of parts gather surface rust, as well as, typical brake rotors always have rust on the outer lip and hub area.

 

Heyyy how about getting your car washed in the winter and pay a little bit extra for the undercarrage spray as well, thats what i do every week or so during our winters up here in NY.

 

Yeah, i'm also in for pics of calipers that have "fallen to bits" due to road salt...