How Did Honda's Reliability Die?

I'm a retired mechanic. I always bought honda because of reliability. The 1.5 in 2017 to 2019 is terrible in cold winter condtions. No heat and oil dilution. Honda use to stand behind their product. The 2.4 was an amazing engine. After 30 years of being a loyal customer. I will speak with my wallet.

This man speaks the truth. That's why I bought a low mileage, used 2020 Civic with a 2.0 liter, naturally aspirated, port injected engine and six speed manual transmission. It's a really good car.

Like Scotty Kilmer always explain: Buy Toyota, Lexus, Mazda, Honda but don t pick up CVT transmission and small turbo engines.

As a mechanic and owner of Honda , Acura, Lexus and Mazda, I agree with everything he is saying no BS and good advice.. Honda has had to many problems for the last 10 years to say they are still #1 or 2.. but all new cars are made less reliable with way more problems..

Some thoughts on the 1.5L turbo, which I consider Honda’s most pressing problem. A DIY’er with the 1.5 had his oil analyzed after a 5000 mi oil chance using 87 octane gas, and found a 6% gasoline dilution … which is a lot. He then repeated the experiment using 93 octane, and found a 1.2% dilution. The surmise is that the turbo is creating so much pressure that pre detonation is occurring, which is forcing more gasoline through the piston rings. This is also a possible reason for the premature head gasket failures that seem to be turning up. So the general advice for maximizing the life of this engine seems to be to use 93 octane, 3000 mile oil changes, stay off the turbo for “recreation”, and let the car idle for a minute or two to allow the turbo to cool and re-lubricate before shutting it off. This assumes you own a 1.5. If you don’t and are really looking for long life and reliability, don’t buy one.

Ever since Mazda went back to building their own transmissions the quality has been fantastic.

Thanks Mazda for sticking to the still reliable and time-tested auto and stickshift! 😃

I have an old Accord 2006 that went over 500k, half a million kilometers and still going strong. The 2.4 reliability is legendary.

I can proudly say we have a 2004 CRV (2.4l standard engine in CRVs), and it has 310,000 miles on it with hardly any problems. Recently, the alternator had to be replaced.

I work for Honda, and have firsthand experience working on these vehicles in the great white north. The issues I have with them are not what was listed here which I find mildly suprising. The fuel dilution has not been much cause for concern. Have hardly seen any with catastrophic engine failure that wasn't a result born of extreme neglect. Perhaps we will see further down the line as they age the consequences of excess fuel build up. The problems I have with the 1.5T engine are the injectors that seem to fail at or around 80,000km. (The vehicles running higher octane fuels tend to delay that a bit more.) and the rear main/Transmission input shaft seal leaks have been a source of frustration for awhile now. Unrelated to the 1.5T the AC condensers on 10th Gen civics seem to be as fragile as glass, and frustrating to say the least to deal with. Every 2 years I've had to replace my condenser. (Fortunately under warranty.) HVAC is definetely not a strong point for Honda. I do agree with the quality going downhill, but mostly from a parts quality perspective. These constant recalls are proof of that. But to me the overall design is solid, and I'd argue they've proven less costly to own than vehicles in the past (Especially V6's, including the recalled ones.) Remember it was not long ago (2011-2017) when they had Piston ring land issues, and that resulted in the engines getting torn down. Not to mention they had oil leaks everywhere, that prompted Timing belt replacements constantly, and caused breakdowns. (Oil pump seal leaks, Power steering pumps leaking into the timing belt, weak hydraulic timing belt tensioners, Spool valves that leaked oil into the alternators causing break downs, ect.) New generation of vehicles, new problems. I think they're doing the best they can, given how they're forced to implement all this new technology in the last 10 years to meet emissions standards, and compete with other brands by implementing annoying infotainment, and crash avoidance systems which make cars in general more annoying to own and service as they age.