NHTSA Complaint #11547639 — 2012 HONDA CR-V

As nearly every Honda CR-V driver of this generation will state, the car always experienced a startling 1-2 second grind upon cold start up in a Northeast USA winter. With 198,000 miles, it began to do it at every start, especially the first start-up in the morning. I knew a while back that it was a faulty VTC actuator that Honda first knew about in the 2000s, but didn’t resolve until recently. A local Honda dealer confirmed this noise is the “normal” VTC actuator noise, and shrugged it off. They also shrugged it off when it was under an extended, covered warranty and I complained about it then. As many reading this likely know, the VTC actuator malfunction has numerous implications to the tensioner and the timing chain, among other components of the engine. Honda was allowed to brush this off because this was never considered a mandatory safety recall. And clearly, there is an issue because there is a class action lawsuit currently in California and Illinois - what about the other 48 states? Or those who are not the original owners? (I received this car in 2017 when my uncle, the original owner, passed). The VTC actuator failure is not a mild inconvenience. It can have catastrophic consequences and Honda uses it to charge customers thousands of dollars. The entire experience of myself and many have truly made me lose faith in whatever the NHTSA is supposed to do in order to ensure the safety of drivers.