Small recall for big suspension issue on 2008 Honda Element
All owners of 2008 Honda Elements are being asked to stop driving their cars until they have had them inspected at their local Honda dealer. According to a recall issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the front bushing bracket of the left trailing arm of the rear suspension may have been improperly welded. If it fails, it could separate from the trailing arm causing the suspension to release part of the wheel hub, thus leading to a loss of control or crash. Although only 241 Elements are potentially affected (there are specific VIN number ranges during certain production dates), Honda is notifying all owners immediately and will inspect and replace defective parts at no charge. Rather than taking a risk, err on the side of safety and call your Honda dealer if you've got the keys to a 2008 Element in your pocket.
UPDATE: According to Honda spokesman Chris Martin all the affected owners were already notified before this story was published. Approximately half of the affected vehicles were unsold and sitting on dealer lots. Those have already been repaired. If you haven't already heard from Honda than you should be fine.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Brent 2:35PM (8/19/2008)
How are they supposed to get to the dealer?
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RL 2:44PM (8/19/2008)
Ha, good point. House calls!
Randy 3:25PM (8/19/2008)
Call you friendly Ford F-Series equipped tow company! They'll be able to tow a few Elements at a time.... Without a hitch! ..... buddum bum....
All kidding aside. This is another pretty serious recall coming from Honda. I hope nobody has gotten hurt or killed from their wheels falling off.
The Luigiian 5:07PM (8/19/2008)
"Call you friendly Ford F-Series equipped tow company!"
Have a friend tow it with their Honda Ridgeline.
why not the LS2LS7? 2:42PM (8/19/2008)
I think it's unlikely Element owners will see this recall notice as they are clearly blind as bats.
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Jeff 2:46PM (8/19/2008)
Worst car company today. How could they sleep at night? Their management should all be fired. The CEO is clueless.
oops, I forgot, this is not a GM thread, it's a Honda thread.
Ohh, Honda is wonderful, Honda is great, allow me to kiss Honda's other cheek.
blah blah
let the autoblog honda love flow down.
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Torrent 4:40PM (8/19/2008)
stfu. you're pathetic.
Jeff 4:46PM (8/19/2008)
Torrent -
Wow, I'm impressed with your vocabulary. What, did I beat you to the punch before you could slam the domestics?
poor baby.
MachWon 2:48PM (8/19/2008)
VIN number?
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Justyn 2:54PM (8/19/2008)
According to the Honda Element forums, VIN numbers:
5J6YH1...8L013895 thru 5J6YH1...8L013924
5J6YH2...8L014984 thru 5J6YH2...8L015673
2007RC46SP2 2:59PM (8/19/2008)
A Vehicle Identification Number, commonly abbreviated to VIN, is a unique serial number used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles. Prior to 1980, there was not an accepted standard for these numbers, so different manufacturers used different formats.
Modern day VINs consist of 17 characters which do not include the letters I, O or Q.
;)
MachWon 3:08PM (8/19/2008)
I know what a f'in VIN is. But vehicle identification number number? Yes, let's go get some money out of the ATM machine! Hurry kids!
2007RC46SP2 4:07PM (8/19/2008)
now that would be a PIN
A personal identification number (PIN) is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token (such as a banking card) and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system. Upon receiving the User ID and PIN, the system looks up the PIN based upon the User ID and compares the looked-up PIN with the received PIN. The user is granted access only when the number entered matches with the number stored in the system.
;)
Randy915 4:31PM (8/19/2008)
That was a micro-thread classic.
Torrent 2:48PM (8/19/2008)
Kill the Element and spend the money on the CR-Z. Simple.
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oldraven 2:56PM (8/19/2008)
-Waits for all the domestic haters to make this sound like Honda is being noble and just looking out for their customers....... unlike those evil US companies who issue recalls because they deliberately let their customers die.-
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Matt 3:01PM (8/19/2008)
What I'd like to know is how they can ascertain that only this specific build 'lot' of vehicles is affected. Was the robot welder not working properly the day these were built? Is it a part obtained by a supplier that had a worker fired for falling asleep on the job? It's good that they caught it so soon, but I'd love to know how they caught it in the first place.
Thomas 3:02PM (8/19/2008)
Yeah, cause those Ford Explorer and Dodge Durango issues were handled in an equally timely fashion.
Nothing on this earth is perfect; Honda owners are just more likely to be surprised by this fact. ;-)
Joshua 3:17PM (8/19/2008)
well, US companies are unionized, so they are basically asking for it.
ehisforadam 3:37PM (8/19/2008)
Matt: they can narrow it down so much because modern quality systems like ISO require them to keep a lot of records on what gets built. I'm sure it's a supplied part to Honda and they could probably trace it down to a specific shift of builds.
Joshua: I assume you men the US auto companies are unionized, because not ever US company is. Not even every US automotive supplier is unionized. And asking for what? Its quite possible that the part that failed was made by a company with union workers.