honda quality questioned

for the past 2 years i have been experiencing what appears to be a problem associated with honda's quality control at the assembly line level. in 2003 i purchased 2 new ranchers. when i proceeded to install the warn 424 kit on the first, i found that the stock shaft seal had been improperly installed and was quite damaged. any time in the wet stuff might have resulted in problems. i blew it off until i installed the warn 424 on the other rancher. surprised i was to find the same problem. again, i chalked it up to good luck that i had found them.

this past july, i bought a new foreman. after getting home i forgot to ask the dealer about the tie rod recall. they told me that it needed to be done. they also could not provide me with a reason for selling it in the first place without doing the work. after a couple of weeks i noticed that there seemed to be a lean to the right on the foreman. i took it to the dealer who told me that there was nothing they would do and that he had a showroom full of "leaning" quads. after careful scrutiny, i found that it is the rear rack that is cockeyed. when i went to install my new skid plates, i found that the dealer had not properly installed one of the clutch cover bolts after doing that recall work. i also found the rear drive shaft boot almost completely torn off the engine. close examination indicates that it was probably done during original assembly.

when i first purchased the foreman, the engine ran poorly and i attributed this to the newness. 300 miles later it was running worse. oddly the problem was only with a closed throttle. inconsistent idle. bad backfiring on downhills, and a nasty dead spot off idle. back to the dealer who after about a 2 minute glance informed me that the idle jet was clogged and cleaning would be $169.00. warranty would not cover. being a mechanic, i declined a returned home and disassembled the carb. squeaky clean inside. upon reinstalling the carb, i thought it would be easier to remove the flange at the head. well when i removed the flange, i found that honda had not installed the o-ring upon assembly. to make matters worse. the honda shop charged me $39.00 for that 2 minute walk around.

i wrote honda a scathing letter. the foreman is running good now and i still love the little hondas. but it looks to me like they really need to do something with their quality control on the assembly line.