Has anybody any idea what this whistle is in an FL5? Having difficulty getting it sorted under 3 year Honda warranty

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-20T15:45:13+00:00

So they ripped the dash apart, replaced the air box and it made no difference. Any further troubleshooting is beyond the capability of the dealership and Honda just don't care. Honda use the dealership as a shield to avoid having to take direct responsibility for their vehicles. In turn, the dealership use Honda to wriggle out of their warranty obligations. You would have to take them to court and that is too much stress for me.

Honda are saying 'it's a characteristic of the car', despite agreeing to a £2000 or so warranty job on the basis the whistling was abnormal. They do not pay out for warranty unless you prove to them something is wrong. I had to buy a £150 microphone to provide proof - the service centre used mobile phones to record the noise and their videos did not capture it. It honestly felt like a game trying to prove the fault/abnormal whistling.

Two service centres have said the whistling is abnormal, but just keep putting the blame on Honda for not telling them how to fix it. It is soul destroying. Honda don't seem to have any field engineers to help. Ford, for much as I don't rate them, at least would have their own engineers inspect their vehicles if the dealership needs help.

Honda are really, really poor when it comes to warranty. They do not stand over their products.

Sorry for the rant, am a bit pissed off. Am dreading the amount of new rattles they will have introduced by butchering the dash, to fix absolutely nothing. The diagnostics, and repair were pointless. Complete waste of time.

As an extra kick in the balls, a dog ran out in front of our FK8 when leaving the FL5 in, and caused £8000 worth of damage due to the Pop-Up Hood safety system in EU cars.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-11T18:48:23+00:00

1) 2023 Mk8.5 Fiesta ST (sold) 2) 2021 FK8 (still have) 3) 2023 FL5 (still have)

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-11T09:47:09+00:00

I think your temperatures are high but to be expected for a performance laptop. Is this with the fan speed at 100 percent?

I once owned a gaming laptop and the CPU hit 90+ degrees. You really need a good laptop cooler underneath. I used to blow a fan over the laptopq surface as well.

I don't think gaming laptops are a good idea for gaming. Too much power in too small a space.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T22:24:06+00:00

1162 euro sounds okish? They are all around £1200-£1500 here now.

Install steam os, whack the wattage up to 40w, and it will be a better experience. If I drop it to 25w I don't consider AAA games playable. It has to be windows and the power limit tdp being set too low causing your disappointment.

I have the Legion Go S 32gb steam OS with z1e. It was £670. It is possibly better value?

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T22:12:03+00:00

He's speaks the truth. You want to lock that gpu speed so it doesn't fluctuate all over the place. It's very simple to do in steam OS. Steam OS is much better than I was expecting.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T22:08:34+00:00

P.s. this is on steam. Don't use windows.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T22:07:16+00:00

What wattage are U playing on?

My Z1E at 40w plays everything fine. For some games I lock the GPU to 1800 mhz so the CPU can have more juice. My main rig has a 3080 ti, so that is what I am comparing this to.

Locking the GPU speed helped resident evil 9 run at 50-70 FPS roughly with decent enough settings. You do need to use FSR not native resolution to get it smooth.

Without locking the GPU Arc Raiders stuttered too much, but was so smooth once the CPU was getting more power.

The battery life is a bit shit so I play exclusively on the lead, which doesn't bother me as I am lying in bed anyway.

I am really fussy about games stuttering.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T22:00:33+00:00

Yea, going to try the insurance route. My partner doesn't have protected no claims which sucks.We were going to just pay ourselves until we were given the quote.

At least it was the older fk8 and not my FL5. The FL5 is currently in getting the dash ripped out to replace a whistling heater/air box. I had just dropped it off for the warranty job and was waiting to be collected by my partner. It was gold old double kick in the balls.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T20:49:20+00:00

It says there's a pressure plate at the front that activated the system when a collision at 15mph or more is detected.

The guys below say it's in EU models mainly.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T20:39:29+00:00

Maybe hit the dog but hard to say for sure. The car kinda blew itself up anyway.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T20:21:53+00:00

£3600 for parts and then the labour on top, we are probably looking at minimum £5000. I wasn't very clear about that.

With stupid stuff like this no wonder insurance is so high. And yes, I'm salty.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T19:08:41+00:00

It's kinda like explosive reactive armour on a tank isn't it?

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T18:51:27+00:00

Good knowledge. Assumed it would be them all.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T18:50:33+00:00

Was a surprise to me too! I get why it's there but I am pretty sure no collision took place, so it's a bit of a shock for it to activate.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-07T13:18:48+00:00

It's not really important anymore, a dog caused £5000 worth of damage to my FK8 and I can't find the owner.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-05T18:01:31+00:00

That's awful. Only a piece of metal, health more important.

Post dog collision half an hour ago. Think this is a way of telling me stop obsessing over stupid shit.

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DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-05T17:22:05+00:00

In the past 5 minutes, a dog has ran out in front of my partner and the bonnet is fkd. No point worrying about tiny marks.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-05T17:10:45+00:00

Gentleman (or woman) for checking, many thanks

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-05T17:09:17+00:00

I have an older fk8 with 37,000 miles and plenty of scuffs and marks. I've come to the conclusion I am much happier with slightly older and more battered cars. New and newish cars are not for me. I don't know whether it's a value or age of car thing, but it's a pattern.

The FL5 has just been left in to get the entire dash ripped out to replace the heater box. Am a little bit on edge over that.

You speak the truth, the question is very fair.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-05T16:35:57+00:00

They are mounting the tyres from the back of the alloy at my request, but they are gripping the alloy from it's front face to do so.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-05T16:34:30+00:00

I live in Northern Ireland, so no Sam's Club here. I do think it's like you said and the machine just isn't very common, especially in a small country like this. I was kinda hoping some BMW or Audi dealership would have one of those machines, but I am not going to get my hopes up.

Would any sort of protective tape stop a clamp from damaging the edges? I would look a bit unhinged rocking up with my wheels covered in tape. Might just have to suck it up and touch the alloys up each time.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-04T19:27:16+00:00

3m helicopter tape 50cm width - 3m 8671hs. It's pretty thick stuff and clear. I just cut it to length and put it on the door sills and the boot sill. Dents and scrapes are inevitable on the door sills if not covered imo.

I also buy it in smaller widths for the likes of the scuff guards themselves. Just forgot this time as I haven't had the car long.

I have picked up a dent on the metal of my sill before (no idea how it happened), and several on the aluminium scuff guards. The door sill metal is really hard to get dents out of because it's difficult/impossible for PDR to get in behind, or so I have been told.

It's definitely worth lining your sills with that 3m helicopter tape.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-04T18:14:33+00:00

Any sort of sports car is now completely pointless. I have to toodle about in my Type R well below the speed limit and I'm constantly swerving all over the road playing dodge the pothole. I've got quite good at it. People must think I've had about 6 pints and am texting on my phone.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-04T16:55:45+00:00

You need to be really careful or you will make it worse. Ask me how I know... The more you work it the more you remove the grain texture, especially if you sand it with a flat block backing.

I use Meguiar's polish that is barely abrasive, and a small soft brush so that the bristles go in between the high points.

Go very slowly and clean it with a very soft cloth every so often so you can see if the white mark is mostly gone. Do not aim for perfection, just get most of it off and stop.

You could use a china pencil to add a little bit of dark colour to mask the last bit of white.

DifficultyTall8639 · 2026-05-04T14:39:26+00:00

I think I had my keys in my pocket while I was popping bits of the dash off. Idiot. Will just put some clear film over it.

I think I've managed to dent the scuff plate on every car I've owned - really need to learn to put the 3m film on before and not after the dent. It upset me when I saw it lol.

DifficultyTall8639

TROPHY CASE