Follow up: American Honda called me on April 28, 2023 to report on my customer complaint. American Honda will not offer me a goodwill buy out. The possibility of a goodwill buy out was mentioned during the previous conversation. They said my VIN did not match up with other complaints. I am disappointed by this, for sure.

Mike Evenson
La Crosse, Wisconsin

 

Sorry to hear the bad news. Road salt is indeed an Element's worst enemy. Honda definitely should have done a much better job at rustproofing these cars at the factory.

And it's always the same spot: the driver's side rear control arm mounting point.

Otherwise, if kept out of the road salt, these cars would last for hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

I should probably register a complaint for the parts car I bought last year with the same problem. Maybe it will help increase the numbers of complaints so Honda takes some action. I have a bunch of ugly pictures I can send them.

 

This is a good reminder to take the hose to the mounts and get the last of the winter salt off of them.

 

Every year I spray fluid film into those sheet metal mounts. Very easy to get a spray wand in there.
Also pull up the sill plates on the rocker panel, and spray wand the entire rocker panel with fluid film.

 

Update on the original post: I contacted Senator Tammy Baldwin about the injustice of Elements not being recalled for rear trailing arm suspension corrosion when Elements in Canda were recalled for this problem. CRVs in the US and Canada were recalled for corrosion and those CRVs use the same faulty suspension parts and construction.

Senator Baldwin's office has opened a Congressional inquiry.

If anyone else has been affected by this defect please call the vehicle safety hot line at 888 327 4246.

The CRV recall in the US happened after 61 customer complaints. We can do this for Element owners!

 

Hey y'all, if ENOUGH PEOPLE submit claims they will move to include the elements - so I work in the auto industry selling only honda's and subaru's / pre-owned / and my longtime fav are the elements. the recalls for the CRV's were announced end of March - and that was the FIRST thing I thought of was, ok but what about the elements.....

 

Welcome to the EOC laMENTAL!

 

I just found this thread after posting about the imminent death by rust of my 03 Element as I found this exact problem. I assume this qualifies as rusted out:

I'm willing to call the hotline- what type of info will they need?

 

Rear trailing arm failure from corrosion. VIN #

 

FYI there is a hotline e-mail as well if you prefer that to phone calls (like me!): nhtsa.webmaster@dot.gov

I sent them my pictures and links to the Canada Element recall and US CR-V recall.

Edit- Even easier, there is an online form you can fill out: Report a Vehicle Safety Problem, Equipment Issue | NHTSA I just did that too, in addition to my e-mail.

 

From what I understand from what others have said with CRVs, and Canadian Element owners Honda is not really taking the best care if it’s customers through this, and they are not receiving enough money to facilitate a replacement vehicle.

It’s also, a sad situation as if cared for properly, and the underbody being sprayed off regularly in the winter this issue will not occur. Extra precautions like rust protection can also help. Honda really should have painted the underside better, and the problem would have been mitigated.

That being said, I’ve come up with a solution that would fix the problem, and improve the Element in many aspects. Removing the crossmembers front, and rear along with all of the suspension. All of the rusted areas would be removed, sections of the structure removed in preparation to be mated to a modified Suzuki Samurai frame that would have a Trail Tough Trail Slayer coil suspension system installed mating up with Toyota straight axles front, and rear matching up to the Element’s wheelbase, and providing lift, and support for 35” tires. The K24 would be longitudinal mounted to the Samurai frame, using an adapter to mate it to several transmission options that would adapt to a Toyota transfer case, that would then attach to driveshafts connecting to the axles. An exocage would be added to strengthen the body, and increase rollover protection.

I’m actually looking for a good candidate to build the first one of these. Not only would the modification save rusted Elements from certain death. It would truly transform them into an ultimate version of the Element. Depending on how crazy the customer wants to get with it, the conversion would start at $15,000.

 

I was looking for the April 1st date on your post...

 

American Honda responded to my inquiry on this problem and asked me to take it to a dealer for inspection which I did yesterday. The service manager I talked with at the dealer was very helpful. They took a bunch of photos, videos and measurements and submitted them in reference to my case number. I discussed the CR-V recall with him and found out that it is not exactly the same problem. The CR-V recall issue is with the front mounting bolt on the front mounting point of the rear control arm. My Element (and the other pictures I have seen) have more issues with the frame stiffener around the rear bolt on the front mounting point of the rear control arm. This seems to be more inline with the Element recall in Canada. Amazingly, the dealer let me drive the car home. I figured they would've called that a safety hazard and not let me drive it.

 

I have a bit more follow up- Honda America denied and closed my claim. No info given, and when I called to ask for more info, they would not discuss it and gave no further info other than to say a supervisor closed the case and it can't be reopened.

I called the vehicle safety hotline to discuss the claim I submitted to the NTHSA. I got some interesting info from the guy I talked to, but none of it looks good for those of us with this problem. He basically said that all recalls are voluntary by the manufacturer. NHTSA has no way to force a recall or anything like that. They can work with manufacturers, but have no power to compel them to do anything. He did look up complaints on the 03 Element and did see others relating to rear control arm corrosion but said they do not have an active investigation into the problem.

I guess we just have to wait for accidents to happen so the threat of lawsuits encourages Honda to take action.

 

I have a bit more follow up- Honda America denied and closed my claim. No info given, and when I called to ask for more info, they would not discuss it and gave no further info other than to say a supervisor closed the case and it can't be reopened.

I called the vehicle safety hotline to discuss the claim I submitted to the NTHSA. I got some interesting info from the guy I talked to, but none of it looks good for those of us with this problem. He basically said that all recalls are voluntary by the manufacturer. NHTSA has no way to force a recall or anything like that. They can work with manufacturers, but have no power to compel them to do anything. He did look up complaints on the 03 Element and did see others relating to rear control arm corrosion but said they do not have an active investigation into the problem.

I guess we just have to wait for accidents to happen so the threat of lawsuits encourages Honda to take action.

Sorry to hear.

 

I’ll have to check to see how bad the rust is on my 2005 when the rain breaks. I know it’s rusty but I haven’t examined it closely since learning about this problem. I wonder how much life I have left on it.
I’ll take some pictures and file a complaint with the gov and corporate too assuming it’s in bad shape.

Sounds like they’re not eager to give out buybacks but when they do how do they determine the value?

 

My 08 trailing arm just detached yesterday. Prior to that I was doing 55mph and got to a parking lot and went hiking, upon returning I pulled out of parking space and drove 50 feet and boom, trailing arm falls off. A few minutes more and I would have been going 60mph, avoided death for sure.

 

My 08 trailing arm just detached yesterday. Prior to that I was doing 55mph and got to a parking lot and went hiking, upon returning I pulled out of parking space and drove 50 feet and boom, trailing arm falls off. A few minutes more and I would have been going 60mph, avoided death for sure.

That’s scary, glad it happened at low speed. Hopefully you weren’t too far from home.
Did you foresee it happening from the visible rust?

 

no, was just coming up on inspection too

 

Praise God you are ok!!

 

This happened to mine yesterday after going over a pothole. What has everyone else done? Scrapped it? Other than that the car is basically pristine and runs great. Somehow passed inspection in Nov even when I asked about undercarriage rust.

 

What is really messed up is...Somebody inspected this and passed it. We don't do state inspections here, but if that was on my lift for any type of work, I would refuse the job. I'm not getting myself into a lawsuit.

 

Currently dealing with this and Honda is doing nothing, in fact ignoring all issues. Would love to start a large class action law suit. And would like to further this conversation with you via email.

 

When someone states that you need to contact the NTSB for an automotive issue, that person loses any credibility.

 

I just fixed mine.

 

Thanks for posting.

It is a bit hard to follow the progression. Could you explain each step in further detail?

A Video would be great too!

This is a repair needed by many here.

Thanks again!

 

Somebody should make those parts as a kit for everybody. I do understand you have to cut till you find solid metal to weld to but it could be made oversized to trim to fit

 

Problem with rust, it's everywhere. Doubtful that a patch kit would be one size fits all. The pics of the ones on here, the rest of the body is rusty crusty, not worth the expense.

 

I will attempt to put together a better write up, or maybe a video, of my step by step. That'll take me some time though so please be patient. I've never been great at documenting what I'm working on (or I'd probably have been a YouTube sensation by now, lol) but I did end up taking quite a few photos of this project. As for the expense, I used about $8 in steel on this. I'm not great at welding but I do own a welder (which I actually bought a couple years ago when my Element's cat was stolen), a grinder, a band saw, a drill press and a hammer. I've got more moxie than money, so this was my solution.

 

Did you ever create a step by step? Mine is hanging on by a thread.

 

I just found this thread after posting a question about the possibility to buy a part to replace the rusted portion where the control arm attaches to the frame. @coolcat, these pictures are super helpful and it certainly seems like the answer to my question is "no, there is no part" and we'll have to make it and build it up ourselves. Thank you for posting them, and if you ever have a chance to make a video I too am in line to view it.

 

He did make a video! Here it is

 

Looks exactly like what happened to my 2009 Element, I was approaching a red light about 50ft away and heard a noise, thinking it was a flat tire I opened my door at a red light and looked back at my driver's rear tire... at that very moment my rear tire went sideways.

Thank goodness I wasn't on the highway or driving fast. Confused I thought maybe it was my rear hub or wheel bearing... surprise surprise, it's my trailing arm!

Called Honda corporate and was told to tow vehicle into their dealership, was later told there's nothing can can do for me, not even discount on another vehicle.

I also filed complaint with NHTSA and Honda corporate but alas, answer was still no. How many complaints must they receive to finally issue a recall, people can obviously get hurt.

 

This happened exactly two weeks ago. Disappointing that Honda US will not issue recalls for this known issue and put their customers at risk.