even if you have changed the tires on your own and you are seeing the signs of wear then you are still owed the control arms and alignment. you will stilll get the needed repairs if they are needed. and also there is nothing saying you have to buy the tires if your prorate is out. you can tell the dealer to just do the arms and align your vehicle and youll take care of tires later. there is nothing in the tsb that says honda wont fix the arms and align it if you refuse to purchase the tires. so make sure your local dealer isnt trying to talk you into buying tires by telling you that

 

You can add Honda of Concord in Concord, North Carolina, to the good guy dealership list. And by extension, probably the other Honda dealerships in the Charlotte area that are also owned by Hendrick Automotive Group.
We have a 2007 Civic Hybrid and started noticing the roaring noise coming from the back. We took the car to the dealership this morning and after a little wait while they were looking at the car, they showed us the service bulletin. They are fixing the problem as I'm writing this.

 

Any suggestions on replacement tires? I have the Dunlop tires and lots of the noise - will be taking car in for service on the arms and will be replacing the tires. Tirerack says that the following tires are manufacturer tires, but I am looking for a more quiet ride along with the good mileage. If I could get traction in any kind of moisture conditions that would be good too. I just dont want to lose out on FE and will accept some tire noise if necessary - but prefer not to have to listen to it. I have 38k on the car so I will be paying for the tires myself (no complaints on that).
Bridgestone Insignia SE200-02

 

I have a 2006 Hybrid. Just talked to my local dealer here in Raleigh, NC. This issue does NOT affect all Civics - it depends on your VIN. If you call the local dealer and give them your VIN, they can check it against the Honda database and let you know whether your car is included or not. My car got a clean bill of health - lucky me!

 

Got my car back today, the control arms were bad and were replaced.....I find the car much quiter, smother and no longer pulls to the right something I complained about from day 1 and after 2-4 wheel alignments in 6000 miles.....gone what a relief. Also, I always thought the rear wheels looked slightly tipped in towards the top, I presumed that was normal, apparently it was not as they no longer have the tipped look.

What did P**s me off was the mileage, the dealer had managed to take my 42.9 display reading down to 31.1 in 16 miles of driving ...I can't comprehend how they did that unless they left the motor running, but why would you leave the motor runnning to replace the control arms? No, I think they had a really "fun" test drive on the control arms....I complained but what good does that really do?

I guess the good thing is thanks to you guys, I caught it early & it is fixed with no tire proration.

 

A report from Indianapolis. Penkse Honda is my dealer and they were good to work with. I first spoke with the Service Manager and he was already aware of the issue and said to bring it in to make sure that the problems I was experiencing were due to the control arm issue. Once that was verified, services was scheduled a couple of days later and was completed per the bulletin. Tire replacement (rear only as the front was fine) was fair. Honda America paid 50% even though I have 32,000+ on my car and according to the bulletin they were not going to pay any part of the replacement.

Thanks for the original post!

 

Thanks to person who posted the actual service bulletin. I purchased a used 07 Civic Hybrid with 17,000 miles. I noticed it was riding rough after driving it for 500 miles. The dealer stated I was the third Civic owner to mention the bulletin - the first Hybrid owner though. I was told the other two owners were denied. By chance my claim was approved, and the upper control arms were replaced under warranty. The tires were still within specs, so they weren't replaced. Thanks again for making the information available.

 

Here's an update on the situation with my 2008 Civic Hybrid... I opened a case with Honda back in March stating that I didn't believe the correct rear upper control arms were on my car, even though it's a 2008 (produced in Nov '07). I was originally told by my dealer and a regional Honda representative that I had the correct arms, even though they didn't have "C" printed on them. I had a local tire shop check my alignment, and the rear camber was definitely out of spec, so I escalated to Honda Customer Service, and was told that my car was in spec at that time, but they might make a change to the TSB. I followed up on the ticket yesterday, and received a call today from the representative who stated that TSB 008-001 was expanded to include 2008 models with certain VINs, including mine. I'll make an appointment with my local dealer and post the results.

FWIW, I now have around 3200 miles on the car and the tire "howling"/"singing" is a lot worse than it was with 500 miles on the car. The rear undulation over rough roads has seemed to get a little better though, unless I'm just getting used to it.

 

Took my 07 HCH in for it's B1 tune up and mentioned the TSB and that it felt "loose in the backend". They must have had other Civics in for the same thing before me, because they knew exactly what I was talking about. They changed out the control arms and realigned the car...even gave me a loner for the night. They didn't even mess with the 36 psi in my tires when they rotated them!! Absolutely no complaints here..except when they test drove the car they dropped my FE, but driving like a granny isn't how you test drive a car so I'm OK with it.

By the way this was at Steve Bailey Honda in OKC.

I just drove it home over 40 miles at 70.1 mpg a new high for me!! So no adverse reaction to the mechanics!!

Did I mention I LOVE THIS CAR !!!

 

Thanks. I mentioned that in the original post.
Thanks!