— A Honda Civic air conditioning recall allegedly should have been issued because the AC systems allegedly crack and leak refrigerant, lose pressure and fail to cool Civic occupants.
According to a Civic class action lawsuit, a recall should be ordered to repair air conditioning problems in 2016-2019 Honda Civic cars, but the plaintiffs say owners are typically stuck paying for repairs.
The lawsuit alleges the Civic air conditioning systems are "guaranteed to fail prematurely and well in advance of their expected useful life."
The plaintiffs say 2016 Honda Civics were the first ones equipped with air conditioners that use R-1234yf refrigerant, but owners claim they didn't know the refrigerant would leak throughout the systems.
The Civic AC systems are allegedly unable to withstand the pressures when circulating the R-1234yf coolant. Multiple air conditioning components allegedly cannot handle the pressure, including the condensers, compressors, evaporators and discharge and suction lines.
These components allegedly can fail while the Honda Civics are still covered by their warranties. However, the class action lawsuit alleges Honda usually refuses to repair the air conditioning systems under warranty.
The plaintiffs say Civic owners are forced to pay huge "diagnostic fees" just to get Honda dealerships to look at the cars. Then dealers inspect the Civics only to claim damage was caused by impacts with road debris. An impact from debris allegedly voids the warranty.
The Civic AC class action also alleges dealers may tell owners that no leaks were found.
The lawsuit says instead of a Honda Civic recall, owners are forced to pay up to $2,000 to repair the air conditioning systems. But the plaintiffs claim the replacement AC components are as defective as the original systems.
"Other AC System components invariably fail outside the warranty period, forcing Class Members into a never-ending and expensive game of whack-a-mole involving a vehicle for which they paid tens of thousands of dollars." — Honda Civic air conditioning lawsuit
Replacement Civic condensers, compressors and evaporators are allegedly perpetually on national backorder which forces Honda customers to wait many months to have cool air in their Civics.
The Honda Civic air conditioning lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs Amado Munoz, Carolyn Heier, Ben Hu, Gary Tetrault, Matthew Robinson, Michael Schwartz, Frank Costobile, Rachel Fairchild, James Tillery and Lingyan Yin. Some of those plaintiffs were included in a separate Honda Civic AC class action lawsuit that was dismissed.
The Honda Civic AC lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California: Munoz, et al., v. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., et al.
The plaintiffs are represented by Greg Coleman Law PC, Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP, and Berger Montague PC.
