Now the forum members know of one service department to avoid in SoCal. Have you considered notifying Carson Honda about the correct diagnosis? Which dealership was able to locate the problem?
Ditto! Third condenser as well under warranty. It would have been helpful if the service rep explained the bumper removal as some of the reason for the long shop time, a couple of days.
Gardena Honda was able to fix the issue. I was thinking about contacting the other dealership to let them know, but I'm not sure they'd be too receptive.
Thanks. This is just my perspective. If you don’t let someone know about a problem, there is little to no chance that the problem will be fixed. Honda typically emails a customer satisfaction survey to their customers after every service. That’s one way to handle the issue if your not comfortable talking to someone at the dealership, and it may actually be the best was for your message to be heard by someone who can actually do something. Most likely, you won’t be returning to Carson for service. So, why bother? Well, it doesn’t benefit the next customer if that service advisor continues to exhibit the same behavior he did with you.
I'd just add (if you have a bad dealer) it can be difficult even to get a covered repair. The first time I brought my Clarity blowing warm air, they insisted it wasn't the condenser. They did an oil change and some other work, nothing big, but charged me $300 for the work. They cleverly marked the AC re-charge $0.0. I know what the $300 actually did. The next year I brought it back same problem (and requested nothing additional). Wouldn't take no for an answer. They threatened me with a $459 diagnosis fee. I called their bluff; agreed. The condenser was repaired the second go-round 2 years after initial request and in both cases I brought a printout of Honda's warranty extension. A diagnosis fee can make sense, but $459 seems like an amount you quote to hope someone will give up and go away. I have the highest level of extended warranty (the 8 year, highest milage, zero deductable). Even so, just painful to get this fixed at my dealer. For the record, once they replaced the condenser, there was zero cost to me. So in the end I did get the repair completely covered.
It might, if the next guy reads google map reviews before going to the local dealer. The review, however, will not inform the reader as to the current employment status of the belligerent service advisor or whether they’ve had their attitude properly adjusted. The customer satisfaction survey is equivalent to a kid bringing home a report card. It’s the direct approach and is most likely to result in a positive outcome for other customers.
I have an unfortunate update for you all. My AC recently started making that distinct hissing noise that was indicative of low refrigerant yet again. Took the car to a dealership service center and they diagnosed that the evaporator core is now leading to a leak. Since my car is no longer in warranty and I did not pay for an extended warranty, I'm on the hook for the ~$2500 repair. The dealership service advisor has contacted Honda on my behalf to see if they'd cover some of the cost so hopefully that will help out, but I'm still waiting to hear back.
The evap core is really annoying to get at and unfortunately not really a reasonably DIY-able fix. You gotta disassemble the whole dashboard to get at it, then need a refrigerant recovery unit and vacuum pump because disconnecting the refrigerant lines to remove it breaks the seal. I took all of that apart myself to try to diagnose a persistent mold/mildew smell I was worried was coming from the evap fins; the way it's done up the refrigerant pipes are semi-rigidly fixed and could conceivably end up load-bearing if the other connectors are loose or it's improperly installed. That my best guess for why a crack might occur. The annoying part is that some cracks could (theoretically) be fixed relatively easily if you could remove the unit and say, disassemble and braze it, but you'd pay more in labor than a replacement unit costs.
I have also noticed a persistent and constant mildew smell coming from the fans since the first year of owning the car. I probably had a similar problem to you with the smell coming from the evaporator fins.
FWIW, after assuming it was the evaporator and taking the whole dashboard apart to verify, it turned out not to be a dirty core like I thought. In fact, the core was in quite good shape! I ended up using a foaming cleaner, which completely fixed the problem for about 8 months. I now apply the foaming cleaner regularly every 6 months as a preventative measure. I tried several brands of foaming cleaner, and Nextzett Klima Cleaner is by far the best IMO. No added perfume, you only need one can to completely fill the evaporator & blower area, and it's got a long "pipe" nozzle that puts the foam right into the evaporator. You do have to drill a very small hole in the duct to inject the foam, but it's way, way less problematic than I was worried about; a simple hand drill and ~1/8 in (total guess there, read the instructions!) bit does the job. You can cover it back with a piece of tape afterwards; I personally fill it with a lump of poster putty I can take off and re-use.
