Honda City i-VTEC: Technical Issues & Solutions

[Akash1886]

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Friends,

I am sure many of you like me would be owning the 3rd Gen I-Vtec Honda City. I have owned this car since 2011 October and till date by god's grace haven't faced any sort of major fault. Though design wise there have been issues from OEM's side which have been rectified by me to my best possible capability but still there are certain issues which yet remain unaddressed.

Following are the issues (all inclusive) in the 3rd Generation Honda CITY Ivtec.

* Poor OEM Horns: Replaced with Hella

* Poor Wipers: Replaced with Hella Dyna

* Ground Clearance is bad: Sliced off my car's front mud flaps hence problem is much in control now. Total expense was Rs. 20 around 2-3 years ago.

* Tyres are smaller than what they should be. It came with 175 Section tyres and till date mine is running on the same ones. Expected to change them to 185 or 195 Section.

* Headlamps: OEM headlamps are very weak and in night time too they are of not much help. My Esteem's headlamps are better in comparison and so are the SX4's as well. So I temporarily changed bulbs with Philips Vision bulbs and marginal difference during night was felt.

* ODO Meter: The ODO meter is also malfunctioning. The DTE Feature and FE are never accurate. This is yet not addressed either by me or by OEM.

* Airbag Sensors of both front airbags are faulty from OEM's end. Did the reporting to Honda and yet to have an official revert from Dealer's end.

Apart from the above issues, there have been no untoward issues with the car in 4 years. I have listed above some solutions too with regards to issues of this car. If you are an owner of 3rd gen CITY and have experienced a issue or have a good solution to offer please feel free to write here.

Since no thread was there to deal with the issues of this 3rd Gen Honda CITY Ivtec issues, so I began one.

Regards

Akash

 

[ice_wise]

* Ground Clearance is bad: Sliced off my car's front mud flaps hence problem is much in control now. Total expense was Rs. 20 around 2-3 years ago.

* ODO Meter: The ODO meter is also malfunctioning. The DTE Feature and FE are never accurate. This is yet not addressed either by me or by OEM.

* Airbag Sensors of both front airbags are faulty from OEM's end. Did the reporting to Honda and yet to have an official revert from Dealer's end.

How did you chop the mudflaps? Were they plastic or rubber? If you can show some pictures, it wouls be great. I am fed up of replacing mudflaps (which come as a set) when one of them gets broken every other week due to poorly designed bumps. Why not remove them totally?

FE figures are never accurate on MID. I think a 10% difference always exists. Regarding the DTE, in my brother's Dzire, if the counter is at 85 km at one point, it will gradually show 55 km within a couple of minutes in the same driving style (even if we cover 15 km). Then it goes off when the DTE is under 50 km, and the car actually goes for much longer distance (85-15 = 60 km). So it is useless and unreliable.

And if I am not wrong, airbags won't function if sensors are faulty. You should have this corrected ASAP for your own safety.

 

[Akash1886]

How did you chop the mudflaps? Were they plastic or rubber? If you can show some pictures, it wouls be great. I am fed up of replacing mudflaps (which come as a set) when one of them gets broken every other week due to poorly designed bumps. Why not remove them totally?

And if I am not wrong, airbags won't function if sensors are faulty. You should have this corrected ASAP for your own safety.

Well, they are of plastic as provided by OEM. I am attaching a couple of pics for reference. These pics are post slicing of the Mud Flaps. You may see that due to repeated hitting of the flaps on bumps, the left one was slightly damaged as well. But after this trick, the car seldom rubs from the front. I had informed Honda ASC VP also about this cost effective jugaad.

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As of the airbag sensors, certainly if the main component that triggers them is faulty they will never work. I have lodged the request with Honda and have been provided a request number according to their recall policy for the same but yet have to get a revert from the Dealer here in Noida who is to carry out this job.

Regards

Akash

 

[ice_wise]

Well, they are of plastic as provided by OEM. I am attaching a couple of pics for reference. These pics are post slicing of the Mud Flaps. You may see that due to repeated hitting of the flaps on bumps, the left one was slightly damaged as well. But after this trick, the car seldom rubs.

What method did you use? Simply cut it with a hexa blade like thing? The results look better than I had expected. I will try this with my Swift also if the process is simple.

 

[Akash1886]

What method did you use? Simply cut it with a hexa blade like thing? The results look better than I had expected. I will try this with my Swift also if the process is simple.

Indeed, I used Hexa Blade only. It took about 15-20 minutes for the mechanic to do the needful. Total cost, 20 bucks. However, does Swift also have GC issues? Never heard of it!

Regards

Akash

 

[ice_wise]

Indeed, I used Hexa Blade only. It took about 15-20 minutes for the mechanic to do the needful. Total cost, 20 bucks. However, does Swift also have GC issues? Never heard of it!

Regards

Akash

It doesn't scrape (underbody) or bottom out. But the mudflaps break or come off (after clips break) on some poorly designed speed bumps. That is why I am thinking of a permanent solution to this problem. Did you do these to your OEM set? I am thinking of buying ultra cheap aftermarket set and then do the chopping.

 

[TSIVipul]

Akash sirji, I really doubt if the front mud flaps were so much vulnerable to scraping (I guess we never faced it). Instead, the area which I felt that scrapes most is the one I have marked in the pic. Get 5 people in a City and cross a speed breaker and you will understand when the 'dhap' sound comes. It always comes when the rear wheels are just about to cross or touch the speed breaker.

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However, does Swift also have GC issues? Never heard of it!

First of all, the older swift also had the GC issues and it also used to scrape at the same point as City does (I had a Swift VXi way back and the car served us in village till now, it was a master in scraping with 5 on board). Adding to this is the fact that ice_wise's car is loaded to gills with some true blue heavy duty hifi system for producing the perfect beats and thumps

@ice_wise:
DJ wale babu you need to upgrade the shoes of your Swift and all the issues are gone.
Go for good 195/70 section rubber if you have 14 inchers or 195/60 if you have 15 inchers and all the issues are gone.

 

[Akash1886]

I really doubt if the front mud flaps were so much vulnerable to scraping (I guess we never faced it). Instead, the area which I felt that scrapes most is the one I have marked in the pic. Get 5 people in a City and cross a speed breaker and you will understand when the 'dhap' sound comes.

Vipul I agree due to low GC of this particular model 5 pax make the car often scrape on breakers. Leave aside 5, in 4 pax too it often scrapes from rear. But, when the car first climbs on breaker, its from front and first point of contact are the mudflaps and they often scrape on breakers. So, when I tried the jugaad, it did help me a lot at least the front scraping has gone away. I was earlier suggested of spacers and all but I decided against it. A better Tyre upgrade can be good option rather.

Regards

Akash

 

[CRACING]

Nice thread Akash Ji. It will be most useful for Honda City owners. Thanks for creating it.

In my car as well, mudflaps used to scrap road humps and make loud noise. After getting irritated, I bought flexible rubber mudflaps from the local car shop. These are mostly used on rally cars.

Here is the snap:



Now these mudflaps serve their purpose and they don't make loud noise when scraping road humps. They bend and then return to original position. Using since a year and still they are good. Cost of each is Rs. 100 and different colors are available.

I like rally cars so I have fixed them little outside.

As of high road humps, I try to go slow but on rare cases I miss it and bottom gets hit. Lucky worst didn't happen so far.

 

[ice_wise]

Adding to this is the fact that ice_wise's car is loaded to gills with some true blue heavy duty hifi system for producing the perfect beats and thumps

@ice_wise:
DJ wale babu you need to upgrade the shoes of your Swift and all the issues are gone.
Go for good 195/70 section rubber if you have 14 inchers or 195/60 if you have 15 inchers and all the issues are gone.

I didn't face scraping of the part you highlighted. Maybe because I mostly drive with one passenger, 2 at max. The car hits at the point where the front wheels just cross the speedbreaker and the car dives down due to the effect (of crossing the speedbreaker and touching the road). The mudflaps hit the speedbreaker immediately and break (or the clips break).

That "true blue heavy duty hifi system for producing the perfect beats and thumps" is sold now. So the car would run fine for the next few weeks. I got XM2s (185/70R14) this September because I was looking towards comfort rather than grip/performance. I drive slow but loud. Still the issue was there on some badly designed speed breakers. Going for a lighter setup this time and I don't think I will face the problem anymore.

OT - Vipul your writing style is really funny. Lol, I was reading the serious initial part of the post with full attention when this (DJ Wale Babu) happened!

 

[pavi]

Nice thread Akash Ji. It will be most useful for Honda City owners. Thanks for creating it.

In my car as well, mudflaps used to scrap road humps and make loud noise. After getting irritated, I bought flexible rubber mudflaps from the local car shop. These are mostly used on rally cars.

Here is the snap:

View attachment 184867

Now these mudflaps serve their purpose and they don't make loud noise when scraping road humps. They bend and then return to original position. Using since a year and still they are good. Cost of each is Rs. 100 and different colors are available.

I like rally cars so I have fixed them little outside.

As of high road humps, I try to go slow but on rare cases I miss it and bottom gets hit. Lucky worst didn't happen so far.

Could someone clarify me on the below query?

I have a query regarding gear change and rpm change. I don't know whether this was happening from start, but I started noticing this for sometime now while upshifting gears. When I change from 2nd gear to 3rd gear (most noticed at this scenario), and release the clutch I could see the rpm is moving upwards by around 600+rpm. I understand this can happen while downshifting gears at (somewhat) higher speeds. But is this an expected behavior while upshifting gears?
When the same is happening I could feel the movement of car being 'not so smooth', almost like 'downshifting from higher gear to lower gear at a higher speed, do give us a jerk kind of feeling right??'. Not sure if I am confusing you guys.

Thanks in advance.

 

[nag2fat]

Also one main problem in 3rd gen honda city is EPS rattle.. Haven't any one came across this issue??? A metal noise near the right side front tyre...??

 

[ice_wise]

Could someone clarify me on the below query?

I have a query regarding gear change and rpm change. I don't know whether this was happening from start, but I started noticing this for sometime now while upshifting gears. When I change from 2nd gear to 3rd gear (most noticed at this scenario), and release the clutch I could see the rpm is moving upwards by around 600+rpm. I understand this can happen while downshifting gears at (somewhat) higher speeds. But is this an expected behavior while upshifting gears?
When the same is happening I could feel the movement of car being 'not so smooth', almost like 'downshifting from higher gear to lower gear at a higher speed, do give us a jerk kind of feeling right??'. Not sure if I am confusing you guys.

Thanks in advance.

At what RPM and speed are you shifting from 2nd to 3rd? I think you are at too low an RPM and the ECU does this to prevent stalling maybe.

 

[pavi]

At what RPM and speed are you shifting from 2nd to 3rd? I think you are at too low an RPM and the ECU does this to prevent stalling maybe.

The speeds for gearshifts I usually follow are given below.
10-30 kmph - move to 2nd gear (2000 - 3000 rpm)
20-40 kmph - move to 3rd gear (2000 -3000 rpm)
40-60 kmph - move to 4th gear (2000 -3000 rpm)
>60 kmph - move to 5th gear. (2000 -3000 rpm)
So my sweet spot for a gear shift lies between 2000 - 3000 rpm. I have tried shifting at higher rpms say 6000rpm at times (while enjoying the vtec kick).

Note : I have a driving experience of more than one lakh kms. And I have a WagonR which have covered 80,000 kms with out a clutch overhaul.

 

[Akash1886]

Also one main problem in 3rd gen honda city is EPS rattle.. Haven't any one came across this issue??? A metal noise near the right side front tyre...??

In Morning time, at times yes as you said rightly steering rattles and from the right side wheel in front a "thud" noise comes up! But in my car this is not a regular feature. It happens only 1 or 2 times in 15-20 days. I thought maybe some oil shortage or something would be there but nothing like that.

Regards

Akash