Saturday, December 7, 2013

Rear view camera

My friend now looking for rear view camera to his new civic.
I inspected mine for him.

This is what you get with in "Comfort" model of New Honda Civic.



Chip peace of camera. Look at fitting, teeth fixation, not a nut. Poor cam...

Now take a look how original Honda Camera is looks like if you pay for "Sport" edition.

And this camera connected to I-MID display (top one) originally. And it has guide lines that I'm missing too with cheap version. Don't mess with front camera connected to multimedia at bottom :-)
Image source: http://forummotor.israelinfo.ru/viewtopic.php?p=911675#p911675

Dimensions of mine camera are (approx) 29 x 29 mm. It pops up for 15 mm above a place (not including inner part).

Now wiring.

Not messy, connected as usual to reverse mode lamp. But without a fuse as normally you should do if connecting ANY accessories, Honda IL idiots.


And it goes to the multimedia via right shoulder fitting.

I tried to find on eBay and AliExpress this item - no luck so far. But it has some rare body.
The only similar cam I found... in Russia! Phantom CA-2301, but it has nut fixing.


Regarding to guide lines.
Take a look again on wires.

Usually camera has 2 wires. Here we have 1 to camera and 3 out: 1 - video signal, 2 power line, 3 -??? it has connector. For what?

I saw few cameras on eBay that has special wires for guide lines and mirroring options like this one.


Need more investigation...

8,000 km | 0Y 6M

Monday, December 2, 2013

Spark plugs

Checked spark plug in 1st cylinder - flying colors!

Marked as NGK IR DILZKR7B11GS (NGK 95710)
D - 12mm thread size, hexagon size 18.0mm
I - Irridium electrode
L - Compact type (shorty)
Z - Inductive resistor type
K - Metal Shell Size: 12 ø x 19 mm, 16.0 mm Hex.
R - Resistor type
7 - Heating rate 7 (2 is hot > 13 is cold)
B - Special design feature
11 - Wide gap 1.1mm
G - Unknown feature
S - ???

Torque specs for these  14.6 - 19.7 Nm, I would say ~17 Nm is ok.

Heating rate explained


Owner's manual says 2 models can be used:
NGK and also DENSO DXU22HCR-D11S.


Looks like it is this sweety - tall, slim and thin

Set of 4 plugs cost below $40 on Internet. At Honda... no idea yet :-)

Honda part number is 12290-R41-L01 but it refers to DILZKR7A11GS, probably previous revision.


If I remember right, manual says replace each 90 or 105 Kkm. But I think that's a good idea. Dying plugs can destroy coils. I plan to replace (if car still be with me :-) at 60.

7,850 km | 0Y 5M

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Honda Civic Coupe 2014

Image source: HondaTuningMagazine
Such a buity :-)
Debuting at the 2013 SEMA show in Las Vegas on November 5.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

SEAT Leon Cupra R Mk2

A little off topic.

My friend recently upgraded his SEAT Ibiza Cupra to SEAT Leon Cupra R Mk2 and started blogging too.
Happy to introduce you our blog's friend Alexander Kantor and his http://leon-cupra.blogspot.co.il/.

What is Cupra R? Oh dear :-) That's 265 horse power @6000 RPM and 350 Nm @2500-5200 RPM in stock from 2.0L TSI engine. And it can be tuned very easily to get more. He already upgraded to APR Stage I. When I kickdown on Civic he is already finished - that's what this mean :-(

His profile at Russian's Drive2 platform - http://www.drive2.ru/cars/seat/leon_cupra/leon_cupra_mk_ii/mralx/journal/

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Vehicle ID Plate

You can find this plate is on driver's door.


Manufactured in UK by Honda of the UK Manufacturing, Ltd.
Model: FK2
Engine R18Z4
Color: YR578M (Urban Titanium)

5,500 km | 0Y 4M

Touch Up Pencil

Source: http://www.roweshondaparts.co.uk/product/URBAN_TITANIUM_08703YR578MHE
When I was on meeting with Honda (Meir) people, I've ordered touch-up pencil for my color - Urban Titanium (code YR-578M).

Cost to me 115 ILS (~$30) to buy from official garage.
Next day I was able to get it.



Made in Germany.

On internet you can get it for about half price but need to find offers with delivery, so I went and bought it here locally.

How to use?

P. S.
If you don't know what color do you need to order, open driver's door and look for this label at bottom.
Color is second line on right section - YR578M mine.


5,500 km | 0Y 4M

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Meeting with Honda representatives


The meeting with Honda Israel (Meir) representatives was done. People attended:
1. Me, the Cockroach Fighter
2. Ilan Cohen (אילן כהן) - Top Car Netanya's garage manager (Honda's official dealer and service)
3. Norit Mor (נורית מור) - Meir's customer's service manager
4. Lior Cohen (ליאור כהן) - Meir's Director of Technical Support
5. My friend Grigory. He came from Haifa with new Honda Civic Comfort manual transmission.

Both Norit and Lior are major figures in Meir organization chart that related to customers. This is a slide from Meir conference presentation Feb 2013 that I found in Google, download full preso here.

To make it short, here are bullets I learned from this meeting:
1. Lior said that this installation is bad and they fixed it from now on.
2. Norit said that they did their "homework" about my complain. Still no idea what this means.
3. Parking installation was made by some new technician that was new to the job.
3. Honda will not call new car's owners to fix this incomplete installation, so it's on you guys.
4. Norit and Lior are not sure that cockroaches got into the car from hole in parking sensors cap, so no compensation will be for me. They think sure that cockroaches came into the car with my cloth or open doors.
5. Norit said because it's not installation issue but I suffered from cockroaches, she can offer me first service for free at Honda garage (equals to about 500 ILS for end customer, less for company).
6. Norit said that I should try to find another parking spot.
7. Ilan thought I found only few dead cockroaches that pictured and uploaded to prev post.
8. I asked for compensation of extermination that helped me partially to stop cockroaches around my car and free 3 services for my new Honda. That is a minimum. And we were expecting that Honda will call new owners to bring them to nearest to them garage to seal the hole in plastic. When I expressed my terms, Norit said that she didn't came here for negotiation, if I don't want one free service I will get nothing.
9. Norit mentioned that it is the first case with cockroaches in Honda. For me too :-)
9. Ilan before worked with Alpha Romeos and was specialized in carburetors, that great bold plus for him as professional.

Overall satisfaction from meeting: it was very interesting and positive mostly because of Lior and Ilan. Norit was totally aggressive.

What I did not understand is why did they call meeting if that is not Honda fail as they say and all talk is about 500 ILS and only because I gone through this. If it worth working hours of 4 people? First free service you can ask when you buy a new car if you push on sale agent.

The facts I have:
- For two years on same parking from 3 my cars only Honda was approached by cockroaches.
- I washed my Skoda Fabia every week. At least for an hour back lid was open towards cockroaches place. Never saw roaches or any insects because of that.
- Mazda 3 that I took after I sold Fabia had no cockroaches for 1.5 month on same place.
- Same cockroaches are around all our 2 buildings that mean 24 cars can be approached by them. I will check with neighbours, but as far as I know, no complains were made. Cars parking around my car have no issue except of ants. That I haven't too in Fabia or Mazda.
- No garbage or sewerage located near to my car.
- Dead and life bodies of cockroaches was found mostly in trunk. Limited winners were able to get to dashboard and front seats, doors.
- There is no other way to get into the trunk beside parking sensor hole or air ventilation. Latter was inspected and I found it perfectly closed as it should be by design. Passengers doors are double sealed with rubber and back lid have one rubber around.
- Next to my car I got neighbour that works in Eldan car rental company. He changes his working car about once a month. I will check if he ever experienced this with any of his cars.
- Also I almost the one that park a car backwards, meaning front of the car toward exit, but others that park opposite need to drive first backwards in a morning to get out of parking.

I will continue to bring attention to this accident as I think that's totally Honda's fail. But in other ways.

Update (2013-10-24)
Yesterday Norit made official summary of our meeting and today at 8:57 she scanned it and sent to my email at 9:07 (hours of course not important).

I will disassemble the trunk plastic again just for picturing that plastic one more time but now with a scale to see, may be I'm wrong, may be the hole is just "few millimeters".

Update (2013-10-25)
Got today this paper "from a friend" :-)

From here we see that all multimedia, twitters and parking sensors installations were done in Bet Tet Teder Baam (ב. ט. תדר בע"מ), interesting. I should visit them... I think :-D
Address in Google Maps and Street view. They are registered company on Ministry of Transport page and the even have Google+ :-)


If Honda (Meir) central located in Rishon LeZion where all cars should be prepared... that is 12 km away from that place. So new cars should be transported by auto transport broker to there. Looks expensive.

Ok, that makes sense. On Honda's site them listed as official garage but a little different - Tet Dalet Reish - Maarechet Azaka VeShema (ת.ד.ר – מע' אזעקה ושמע).
I can't find pictures of open garage on GMaps. But Israeli sites do have them. Yes, I see Honda Accord.
Source: ZooMap
Source: http://ymap.ynet.co.il/Navigate.aspx
And that is probably not the only place for installs. If Honda sells about 550 cars per month (September 2013 data) that's roughly 18 cars per day, one garage will not handle it.

5,200 km | 0Y 4M

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Recommended oil problem


When you open owner's manual that Israel importer gave us, you will see the following recommendations (gasoline/petrol engines)
Lets translate this photo to English:
1. Models with service reminder
- Honda Genuine oil, ACEA A3/B3 A5/B5 and above. Viscosity 5W-30, 0W-30, 0W-20, 10W-30.
2. European models without service reminder
- Honda Genuine oil, ACEA A1/B1 A5/B5 A3/B3 and above. Viscosity 0W-30, 0W-20, 10W-30, 5W-30.
3. Other than European models without service reminder
- Honda Genuine oil
- API SM and above. Viscosity 0W-40, 0W-30, 10W-40, 10W-30, 5W-40, 5W-30

Great. Now, when you call to official service garages you will find that they offer you 2 options: Paz oil from barrel or Honda's HFS 5W-40.


Honda HFS has API SL approval and viscosity index 5W40... that is not feet in any of above recommendations.
I called to more than 10 garages in central area. Everyone has this oil and nothing more. They told "this is what you need" and "this is what we have from importer" and "I don't know what standard is it, it's 5W-40". You can check it, choose any garage and call.
The only garage that have another option was in Herzliya that offer als CHAMPION NEW ENERGY 5W40 that actually holds API SN and that means it's even newer than SM standard.


My friend with new Civic but manual gearbox called and wrote to Israeli importer about that issue. They told that owner's manual has an error and API SL is what you need bla bla bla. If you have an error, tell us all! You don't need to print new manuals for that, just put sticker on top of error with new instructions.

SL oils was recommended to previous Civics 8th generation. Looks like they sold some old shit that remains in strages OR some strange things happening! Yummy!

So we bombed U.K. Honda Customer's Service representatives with questions, because new hatchbacks come from their manufacturings.
They are funny. They refer us to Israel dealership.

And for every response they add at the end "some not helping answer bla bla bla dealership, whose fully trained technicians are best placed to inspect your vehicle and provide any advice and/or technical assistance."

Ok, this is dead end. We stop talking with them and wrote to UK garages that can be found on "find a showroom" page.
I wrote to Chiswick Honda, top UK Honda seller (as also support confirmed later). And got great service from their personnel.

First of all, they use Castrol MP 5W-30. It has API SN approval, newest. And of course not older SL.

The guy was so kind, he put bottle on the scanner and sent me back sticker!
Click to zoom
So to remind you. In UK they use newer recommended SN and in Israel they use old, not recommended SL.
Interesting? May UK have another recommendations even that cars and engines were built on same plant?

I can't find UK's owner's manual on Internet and Israel importer said you need to buy and order it from UK or whatever. And... I asked if he can scan oil pages for me. I didn't expected that he will do that, but he did! :-)
You can download source from here. Pictures attached below


As we see from last screen, we need API SM, confirmed.

I asked about service reminders. He said that, as far as he knows, Civics doesn't have reminders, only Honda Jazz has. Also Erez garage (Haifa) confirmed that Civic has no reminder.

This is another question for tomorrow's meeting with Honda's local representatives.

Update (2013-10-21)
After meeting with Honda's reps, oil problem explained this way. You can use oils that:
- Or ANY genuine Honda oil (that's why API SL is ok)
- Or any commercial available oil with API SM and newer and matching recommended viscosity.

You can bring your own oil to service but there is a big chance that you will get warranty issues if something happened and it was not oil from official garage.

Update (2013-10-24)
Honda HFS oil come from Europe to Israel. More precisely - Belgium.
TotalElf is blending them. MSDS of Honda oils.

And this also helpful link - TotalElf MSDS for OEM oils. Total do that for Ford, GM, Nissan and Mazda too.

5,100 km | 0Y 4M

Friday, October 11, 2013

Honda's response



I've wrote to Honda Customers Service to get e-mail address to where I should send my complaint.
This is what I got in response

So the e-mail is moked@mct.co.il.
And I send them link. After a day I got reply

That they will reply in 48 hours.
And they did it as promised, after almost 2 days.

They want to meet me personally on next week in Netanya's Top-Cap dealership. Next week because their service center manager is abroad now.

Great. Waiting. Meanwhile discussions on forums
Hebrew - http://www.carsforum.co.il/vb/showthread.php?t=501125
Russian - http://forummotor.israelinfo.ru/viewtopic.php?p=904114#p904114

Update (2013-10-14)
Got a call from Meir (Honda). Meeting is scheduled at 12:00 on 17th of Oct at Top Car, Netanya.
With Director of Customer's Service and Garage Director.

Yesterday I was in Rishon LeZion as I looked for other Civic's owners to check if they have same potential issue or it just me. It was Honda Civic 5D Sport, the owner got it few month ago. Same installation. I promised to fix it with sealant but forgot it at home. Lucky me there was ACE store nearby to where I ran and bought it.


4,900 km | 0Y 4M