2007 Honda Ridgeline RTL

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

zannej

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2014
Messages
4,046
Reaction score
1,785
Since my brother gave up on his hunk of junk chevy that kept having problems, he ended up replacing it with a 2007 Honda Ridgeline RTL with navigation. It's nimbus grey metallic color and has many of the same features as the 2013 RTL we got last year.

The front grille is a bit different but the body is generally the same as the 2013.

Here's a picture of it from the dealership's website:
tumblr_ooz5zjMlCM1v67tnvo1_1280.jpg


The 2013 has more chrome on the grille/front than this one.
tumblr_ooz5zjMlCM1v67tnvo3_1280.jpg


tumblr_ooz5zjMlCM1v67tnvo5_1280.jpg


tumblr_ooz5zjMlCM1v67tnvo7_1280.jpg


The navigation feature wasn't advertised so it was a pleasant surprise that it has it.

My brother has already added some thing so that when he opens his doors in the dark, it projects the Punisher symbol on the ground. He wants to get a Punisher decal for the hood and put on Punisher valve caps and stuff.

He'll probably add the rear mud guards since it only came with front ones.

The RTL comes with leather seats, moon roof, and heated front seats. It's AWD so it handles the road well. My brother put heated seat covers on the back seat for his passengers. He also got custom fit Weathertech floor mats.

So far he's very happy with it.

Oops. I typod the title of this. It's supposed to be 2007. Any admins able to fix that for me?
 
Thats a nice looking car. Looks like a little Chevy Avalanche.
 
My bro really liked it when I first sent him the link. He liked it even more in person. The seats are very comfortable for him. He's already installed his floor mats and he's ordered LED headlights and some other accessories for it.

Got the airbag recall taken care of on it. Called up the dealership and they said "bring it in today" so we did. Although, for the first time they pulled the thing where they said it needed a ton of work. Like $4k worth of work. LOL. I believe them about the timing belt and stuff and we are scheduled for that. But we're going to have someone else check out the other stuff they claimed needed to be replaced. I told them I have someone who can do that stuff for us and they were like "make sure you buy the parts from us!" and I sort of chuckled. Nope. Buying the parts somewhere that won't charge up the wazoo. They said something about catalytic converter, struts, brakes, etc. I have a friend who knows where to get the parts at a decent price and who can install the stuff for free. The labor was like 3x the price of the parts.

This is what they said needed to be done and their prices.
tumblr_op3v5gFFL01qkwd9ao1_1280.jpg


Any idea WTF compliance bushings are?

They never pulled that with us with any other vehicles before though. I wonder if it actually needs all that work done.

When my bro went to look at the engine, a piece of plastic for the hood release broke off. The dealership was all "Oh, you NEED to get that replaced! It will be $21!" and my brother said "Nah, I can still pull the lever, I don't need it". LOL.
 
Compliance bushing is just control arm bushings. You need the bushing remover kit, but otherwise, seems pretty straight forward to install.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYjP9kYLdLQ[/ame]
 
That and they are the dealer so anything not in brand new condition they will call out. I needed new rear brakes for my diesel, they lasted three years from when they said they were toast.
 
This is what happens when the service writers work on commission.
 
How did they know the CAT was bad? does it have a check engine light on? Or did they pull the "I can smell it" routine?
 
How did they know the CAT was bad? does it have a check engine light on? Or did they pull the "I can smell it" routine?

Check engine light was on.

I talked to other ridgeline owners and they said the price for several of the items was massively inflated. like, the nearly $600 one is for a $13 part. I'm pretty sure my friends have the tool. They said the strut assembly needs to be done, but the truck isn't showing any symptoms. I think someone said there would be a clunking noise but we didn't hear anything.

I'm going to talk to the dealership on monday and get the specific part #s for all of the things needed so I know what they claim needs to be ordered and then find the parts online (after having my friends check out the vehicle to see whether or not the dealership is BSing).
 
I have never had the cat converter changed on a vehicle in my life. It is almost impossible for one to go bad.
 
I have but we also have crappy California fuel with a bunch of additives to make your car run horrible
 
I don't know what kind of fuel the previous owners were using, but my mechanic friend said to use about 2 bottles of SeaFoam to see if it clears it and makes the "check engine" light go away.

He also said that the bushings are a complete p.i.t.a. to install so it would be easier to just get the whole control arm assembly with the bushings already in them. Official parts store wanted like $324 for each arm. I found both arms with bushings for $168 on Amazon and my friend can install them for free.

Everyone I talked to recommended getting the water pump replaced while the timing belts were being done (since the pump hasn't been replaced and it's got nearly 186k miles on it). Said it will save on labor costs in the long run.

Other Ridgeline owners also called BS on the strut mounts and told me that unless the truck is showing symptoms of a problem (such as making a clunking noise) then they are probably fine. Although if they really do need to be replaced, another ridgeline owner found the KYB front strut mounting kit for me at carid for about $38. The Ridgeline owners on Facebook and the official forums are a helpful group.

Only other thing that the dealership didn't mention but that we noticed while driving is that it sounds like a wheelbearing on the front driver wheel is loose or something-- keeps making a high-pitched squealing sound that is almost a whistle that we only hear when the truck is moving and mostly when it is going faster.

I almost forgot about the brakes. But my friend said that will be easy for him to replace for us. I told him I'd let my brother handle finding and ordering the parts, but he's worse at procrastinating than I am and I'm a bit of a control freak so I can't help it and I've been looking stuff up to help him find the best prices and make sure he gets things ordered.
 
I have but we also have crappy California fuel with a bunch of additives to make your car run horrible

When I was a Toyota mechanic, many, many years ago, we carried a little hammer. When the new vehicles came in, they were set to California specs. First thing we did was smack the distributor and speed up the timing so they would run.
 
When I was a Toyota mechanic, many, many years ago, we carried a little hammer. When the new vehicles came in, they were set to California specs. First thing we did was smack the distributor and speed up the timing so they would run.

LOL. I can just imagine someone seeing that happening and not knowing WTF was going on.
 
Seafoam is used alot on old, non-electronic type of jeeps. With all the computer processing in that Honda, I personally would not use Seafoam, or would not expect any good results with it.
 
Once a CAT is toast it is usually toast. I always thought they were only put on for California to fail your test. It has gotten so bad you can not even buy an aftermarket CAT in CA, it has to be a factory original or you fail the visual test whether it works or not.
 
Once a CAT is toast it is usually toast. I always thought they were only put on for California to fail your test. It has gotten so bad you can not even buy an aftermarket CAT in CA, it has to be a factory original or you fail the visual test whether it works or not.

Here, if the exhaust doesn't leak, it all passes.
 
Chris, it really is a shame how California became so tightly regulated and expensive. At least you will be away from that now.

My brother went ahead and put some SeaFoam in the gas tank and will see if it does anything. Not sure if the catalytic converter is actually bad or if they are just BSing to try to get $. They don't do emissions tests here as far as I know. Louisiana is one of the states with the least restrictions and protections for the environment. Probably like what Rusty says-- if it's not leaking, it won't be considered a problem.

So far my bro has been enjoying it. I don't know if it was modified by one of the owners or if the 07s were just built higher-- but his sits about an inch higher than mine and we have the same size tires.

Anyway, this is mine next to his in sidebyside comparison.
tumblr_op7jxtPrl21v67tnvo1_1280.png
 
Are you sure it's not just a bad 02 sensor? What exact code was turning the engine light on?
 
Yep, go to a local Midas Muffler or Autozone Auto Parts (and many others). They will run the faulty codes, decipher for you, all for free.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top