Ottawa MG Club

Honda CRV Recent Challenges
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It’s not only MGs with which we have challenges. Modern cars have them too. And sometimes, in both cases you think ‘what the heck were the designers thinking?’

One of our ‘modern’ cars is a 2013 Honda CRV AWD with very low mileage which we have had from new and had hoped to run it for at least another 10 years. It has been garaged and babied with that in mind.

Recently I have had three ‘annoyances’: AWD; TPMS and Check Fuel Cap Warning.
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AWD (All Wheel Drive ie: Always On as opposed to 4 wheel drive (4WD) which is selectable on)

On the Honda CRV it is done by permanently linking the front differential to the rear differential through a long driveshaft. Simple and cheap to do but adds huge profit to the price.

Honda in its wisdom wanted to prevent this long driveshaft from ‘whipping’ when spinning so they added a bearing and hanger mid-way along and attached it to the under-body. For reasons never explained to me, they positioned the hanger off to one side (probably to make room for some other gadget). This means the bearing is constantly flexing as it spins. And, of course, it is ‘greased for life’. And, of course, it is not a replaceable part - you need the whole driveshaft, bearing and hangar. Think it’s several grand.

Chinese knock-offs are available for under 1K. But still the same bad design.

There is another alternative: convert your car to Front-Wheel Drive. It is simple. And many reports will demonstrate that FWD with good winter tires is as good as, or better, than AWD.

To do it simply remove 4 bolts on each differential and 2 bolts on the hanger. Lower the driveshaft to the floor and dispose accordingly.

I was seriously considering this route.

Now the advantage of the new Honda driveshaft is that they run it in a straight-line, front to back, through a ‘directionally corrected’ bearing hanger. Surprise, surprise. What were they thinking?

Due to some miscommunication on Honda’s part they went ahead and did the upgrade then realized their mistake, and for a long time would not give me an invoice. In the end I got it at ‘knock-off’ price.

At this point I imagine the Tesla drivers are laughing out loud.
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TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System)
Not a bad idea but for a few years you had to pay the garage to ‘reset’ the monitor to recognize the new season’s tires. What were they thinking?

The next generation allowed the owner to flick a switch under the dash after changing tires and presto it was done. My contact at Toyota HQ tells me that customers got very ticked off with it and applied pressure on various dot-Gov organizations to abandon the idea. Guess I’m stuck with the irritating twice-a-year cost.

Last week (with external temperatures at about minus 28C) we went to Kanata Theatre. Upon leaving and starting the vehicle the TPMS indicator came on. My navigator was demanding we should not return home on the Queensway. I kicked the tires; they looked OK and we got home safely.
When the air temperature rose, I pumped the tires to the correct pressure then went for a 2km drive while the system ‘learned’ and switched off the TPMS lamp.
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Check Fuel Cap Warning
This warning lit up on a cold day as I was leaving the ski hills.

Called the EVAP system, this is a refinement of the ‘charcoal canister’ system on later MGBs. Sort of.

It consists of several components designed to prevents fumes escaping into the atmosphere.

Depending which end of the system you start the first in line is the fuel cap. The corrective procedure is to use a lint-free cloth to wipe the cap and fuel pipe clean, and then ensure that they are tightly closed. If this doesn’t work then buy a new Honda approved cap and install. If this doesn’t work move to the second component. I ignored the new cap step.

The second component is a small purge valve hidden deep in the engine bay, bolted to the engine and hidden behind the air cleaners etc. What were they thinking?

Procedure is to remove the air cleaner setup, remove the purge valve (2 bolts, 2 hose clamps) and install a new Honda approved valve.

The subsequent components are buried somewhere under the chassis near the fuel tank. If I had to go there, I was going to ignore it for a few months.

Being used to poking around behind the dashboard and in the tight corners of my MGB made it easy for me to pull a Houdini and get my hand alongside the valve at which point I gave each of the 2 hose clamps a twist and a shake and a shiggle. After extracting my hand and re-attaching it to my arm I fired up the engine to find the warning light had gone out.

That’s a wrap. Just imagine writing this in the 1960’s where our ‘modern’ car was an MG and our classic car was a Model T. What would we have been saying? Anybody willing to write that story?

Michael