The Honda Stepwagon / Stepwgn Owners Club

Hi all

I've just returned from a "Grand Tour" of Italy in my Stepwgn during which I kept a record of fuel purchased ... 5376km (3340 miles) / 440.80 litres (97 gallons) = 34.43 mpg. Better than I was expecting!

For those considering lpg conversion, in Italy unleaded was around €1.42 and gpl €0.62. If I'd had the conversion done before I went it would have half paid for itself already!

Now to sort out the problems that occurred, for which any advise would be gratefully received ...

1) Central door locking has stopped working. It was intermittently not working before I went but now it's permanent. Probably just a loose connection somewhere but where? I'm guessing it may be expensive to get fixed.

2) Parking brake light on dashboard is permanently on. Noticed it between Sorrento and Rome. Pressed it thinking I was driving with it on, but the decelleration confirmed I wasn't.

3) Intermittent windscreen wipe not working. Normal wipe is ok.

Regards

Brian

Brian - most of us have not had such problems yet with our Stepwagons - how did you get on fixing these? Would be useful to know what the problem was and how to fix them!

Cheers

Lewis

Hi Lewis

I wish I could tell you how to fix the problems but I can't. I took it to a local garage who also do caravan/motorhome servicing. They had it most of August trying to sort them out.

Between Italy and taking it to be fixed I took it down to Cornwall for 3 weeks and it developed more problems.

1. The engine struggled to start when it was hot
2. The aircon wasn't working

The garage thought that all the problems were electrically related but struggled to find any info on them that wasn't in Japanese. They said that the Honda dealer in Peterborough wasn't interested but Wellhouse were helpful.

So how were all the problems fixed?

1. Sods Law fixed the engine starting problem. It started first time when I drove it to the garage to be fixed and has done since.
2. The aircon still doesn't work. The garage said that it was empty and got a specialist company in to recharge it, but it still didn't work so they didn't charge me.
3. They fitted a new central door locking unit. I now have two key fobs: one to lock the doors and the original one which still operates the electric side door.
4. They fitted a new parking brake light on the dashboard and blanked out the permanently lit one. They said it would have failed its MOT otherwise.
5. Intermittent wipe still doesn't work.

The day I collected it from the garage I took it down to Cornwall for another 3 weeks (retirement is hard work!!). When I got near Oxford my satnav displayed a message telling me to plug it into a power source - but it was. The lighter socket was dead. After a couple of weeks using my road atlas and making good use of my bus pass (which I do anyway) I decided to check if the fuse had gone and it had - completely! The garage must have removed it and not replaced it. So that was easily fixed.

As I've posted under "Bodywork", while in Cornwall it rained continuously for 24 hours and my carpet was soaked. Rain is getting in somewhere and emerging inside seemingly behind the fridge. As I won't be using it much until next Spring, I've got a nylon cover over it at the moment. Come next Spring I'll be taking it to Wellhouse for a service and hopefully all the problems fixing.

As you may have guessed, I'm not a happy Stepwgn owner at the moment.

Best wishes

Brian

Brian - sorry it took me a while to catch up with your Stepwagon Trials! You seem to have a Friday vehicle as the problems seem to be arriving like buses!

I guess the risk of a grey import is exactly what you are experiencing - there are no detailed service manuals in English for these as you have found out so the best approach might be using a car electrics specialist - does your stepwagon have a plug in diagnosis connection? I would expect one and it is likely to have standard OBD II codes to show what is wrong. (see here: http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/honda/) However diagnosis and cure are different animals!
As I guess you know, finding electrical faults takes time and can therefore be costly. A lot comes back to the car mechanic and the best ones are probably not at the Honda dealer but some back street car specialist. Can't advise where to find one in your area though.

I hope you turn the corner soon and get back to enjoying Japan's secret mid sized van!

Lewis

Hi Lewis

Although the garage I used didn't manage to fix all the problems, I'm sure they spent a lot more time than the 2.5 hours they charged me for.

I'm old enough to remember cars without aircon and intermittent wipe and can easily manage without them, but what I can't put up with is the latest problem of the carpet becoming soaked when it rains. I think that will be one for Wellhouse to sort out when its next service is due. I won't be using it much until next spring so I'll keep it under cover until then.

Best wishes to you and your family for Christmas & New Year.

Brian

Sounds like a good plan Brian - ours is still in use though as it is the family transport! probably off to Carlisle over the Christmas holiday as long as the snow does not stop us!

Thanks for the Christmas greetings - I hope you and yours have a peaceful and enjoyable Christmastime too.

Lewis

Brian, interesting stories
Is your Stepwagon a camper conversion? If so could this have lead to a few of the problems such a sthe water ingress?
I'm looking into buying an unconverted wagon and hope I have better luck than you seem to be having
Good luck with getting it all sorted.

Hi

Yes, mine is a camper conversion.

I never did sort out the water ingress properly. On my RF3 the roof has a plastic trim along the sides which isn't sealed to the metal roof so the water draining off the roof goes under the trim. I didn't want to take the trim off and break it or find I couldn't refit it so, to test if this was the source of the water ingress, 12 months ago I put a length of Unibond repair tape along the length of the roof to seal the gap and it's been ok since. Emergency over, I've not got around to fixing it properly.

Brian