#
TL;DR:
Honda civic euro fuel cap doesnt open. Honda said its out of warranty and have to check up whats the matter. Anyone encountered this before? How to fix such an issue?
<rant>
So i was on my way for a pleasant road trip to the ski fields on friday from Auckland when I fortunately decided to stop over in Cambridge outside of Hamilton to fill up on the (just under) quarter tank or so of gas that I had left. I thought I might not be able to find another gas station for quite some time on my way down to Ruapehu that evening. This turned out to be the most stressful (not) fuel-up I have encountered.
I have just purchased my Honda Civic Euro 2012 in June - so quite a new car for me. Stuck with Honda as have always had great experience with Hondas in general. Great cars, reliable and good in driving. Ironically I bought it from a second hand toyota dealership (Albany Toyota - so not a shoddy place)
Fast forward to 4th Sept in Cambridge trying to fuel up. I pull the fuel cap opener lever under the steering wheel. To my surprise, I get a linear feel from the wire connected to the lever. Different to the feedback I normally get on the release lever (which has like a yank about halfway through the pull on the lever). So I just presume that the fuel cap popped open. I walk around the back of the car and saw that it didnt open. I asked my friend to yank the cap opener again. Didnt pop open.
Fast forward another half hour of going to and fro - starting up the car, locking the car, popping the bonnet (to check if that lever is working). Consulting the car manual, checking with the gas station attendant, calling AA to see if they knew a solution. Nothing worked out. The fuel cap just refused to open. Googled for it and saw that there were a few instances of honda civic to do this. They recommended trying to use the secondary lever that can be accessed by removing the carpet from the boot and undoing a few other clips to reach the lever on the inside of the boot. We tried to do this as well but there were simply no way to do this at 7.30pm in a gas station in Cambridge under a phone's light.
Luckily - managed to drive back to Auckland with less than a quarter tank and park at home. Contacted Honda servicing this morning and would you look at that, my car is out of warranty as at 8th August 2015 (not even been a month). They asked me to bring the car in to check up and see whats the problem but also informed me that the car is not under warranty anymore.
I have to take the car in the morning tomorrow and check up what the issue is (just realised how inconvenient Honda servicing actually is, they close open at 8 and close at 4.30 and are not open on weekends - how does a person working a normal 9-5 manage to get their Honda serviced is beyond me). I am keeping some faith in Honda that they are able to tell me that it was a simple issue with some cable or something and fix it up in less than half hour and have me on my way to work tomorrow morning. Or at worst case, tell me to leave the car there for the day and they will get it fixed up and I can pick it up in the arvo after work.
</rant>
Has anyone encountered such an issue before? What are my rights as a consumer? I believe that there may be some aspects of CGA which is applicable and where even a product outside warranty (within a reasonable period), should be covered by the manufacturer.
