22nd Aug 2003, 09:55

I have had my 2003 Honda accord five months. The motor makes a loud ticking noise, there is popping sounds coming from the rear, middle and front. I have already had to have to rotors turned at 10,000 miles, and they have new carpet on order for me know. The carpet was pulling away from the sides. I have took the car to the shop and the techs do not hear the motor or the popping sounds and they are driving me crazy. I still have my 1995 Honda Accord with 180,000 miles and it has never gave me any trouble at all.

25th Aug 2003, 10:29

For the past ten years my family and I have owned a total of six Hondas, and we have loved every one of them. So you can imagine my excitement when the new Accord came out. I researched various makes and models for six months, and test drove the Lexus ES 300, Toyota Camry, Mitsubishi Gallant, and the Honda Accord, and found that the Accord offered the same level of quality as the Toyota/Lexus, and more options for less money.

So I bought my Accord sedan EX V6 on December 30, 2002, and after two weeks began experiencing problems with the car cranking. Since the car was bought for my wife, I thought that it may be a faulty security chip in her key, and the car was operating as it should. It failed to crank three times while she was commuting to work, and I thought that it was her imagination and she was over-exaggerating the problem, until one day I got in to go to the grocery store and the car failed to crank. I attempted to crank the car with all three keys we had, and the car would not crank. I then became disgusted and just held the key over, and after approximately 45 seconds of continual turn-over, the car fired off. I was very upset, so I called the dealership the next day, and he said that they had reports of other V6 Accords with the same problem.

In the first two months of ownership of my Accord, it has been in the shop for 35 days. The dealer finally replaced the fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator and the main fuel relay, and still no fix. They now will not take the car for any more repairs, because they say the Honda engineers have not been able to isolate the problem, and have no fix for it. My dealer says that they have had five more V6 Accords come back with the same problem since mine was reported.

I love Honda's cars, and I know they make excellent vehicles, but I would think that they would have worked all these major problems out of their design before they release a vehicle on the market.

3rd Sep 2003, 20:55

I've had my 03 EX-V6 Leather Navi for only two months now. I feel the tranny is not shifting where it's supposed to be. I can't get the car in 5th until I hit 48 on a straight road, slow acceleration, no load. Honda says the trany is smart and will learn my driving habits and shift accordingly, it's all computer controlled now, but 48 mph to go into 5th??? I don't believe it...

7th Sep 2003, 07:44

I have a 2003 Accord and quite honestly it stinks (literally). It puts off a sulpher smell. I contacted the dealer and he said that to try and use a higher octane gas, that they just don't make gas like they use to. Well for three months I have used the expensive gas and it still stinks. They also advised me that many people have had this problem and the only solution that Honda is offering is to use the high octane gas. -frustrated (previous loyal honda customer)

29th Sep 2003, 21:21

I just bought my 2003 Honda Accord EXL and after the things I went through with my VW Jetta VR6, ANY of the problems mentioned above seem minute. If you don't believe me, check out the 1999-2000 VW Jetta section on here for reviews.

I personally LOVE my car and after 1000 miles haven't had a problem with it at all! I guess we'll see though.

24th Oct 2003, 21:36

I purchased my 2003 Honda Accord LX 4-door sedan with a manual transmission in March of 2003. Shortly thereafter, I began to hear rattles in 3 of the 4 doors at speeds anywhere from 25 to 70 mph. These rattles are intermittent and although they appear to be based on whether a door or window has been opened or closed, this isn't always true. Sometimes, the noise will stop or start for no apparent reason. The rattling stops when I place my hand on the top of the door panel by the window. There are also rattles in the passenger dashboard, particularly when I turn right, and rattles coming from the CD compartment.

I took the car in and foam cushion tape was placed inside the door panels and around the CD compartment to stop the noise. On the way home from the shop, I noticed that there were still rattles in the door panels. The noise from the CD compartment is gone, at least for now. The service manager indicated he wasn't sure whether the rattles from the passenger dashboard could be fixed.

The second time I brought the car in, the techs added more foam tape inside the door panels.

The third time, I stated that the foam cushion tape appeared to be a temporary solution. The tech that road with me to determine the source of the rattles this time indicated that the foam cushion tape was Honda's recommendation so more foam cushion tape was added. The pressure exerted on the windows by the addition of foam cushion tape is now affecting how freely they open and close. When I picked up my car, the tech indicated that the rattles in the passenger dashboard had been fixed, but I'm not so sure.

My car is scheduled to go back for a fourth time next week. I've asked for new door and possibly window parts. I do not want any more cushion tape in the door panels, especially since it is affecting the windows, which I can no longer tint unless I want striped, scratched windows.

At night, you can see light between the door of the glove compartment and dashboard.

As for the light in the glove compartment, Honda apparently recognized there was a problem with the way the glove compartment door and dash fit because there was already foam cushion tape on the underside of the door opening. The tech simply moved the tape, but you can still see the light coming from the glove compartment.

The speakers are poor and vibrate with the bass set at the default (C), even at a moderate volume. From a design perspective, unless the car is on a completely level surface, water on the car drips into the trunk.

Although my car handles well, shifts satisfactorily, gets good gas mileage (30 mpg average city/highway), and has plenty of backseat room for my long-legged passengers, I'm tired of driving with what sounds like a swarm of flies. I am so disappointed with my Honda.