Older-Honda-Something-is-Broke-Help Question

[Damaca]

Need a Honda related opinion here:

2003 V6 EX Accord 100k on it, the transmission is going out. The Stealership wants them to pay $4,500 for a transmission fix which is stratrospheric even by Honda standards IMO. Or they want to give her $4,500 trade on the car that they owe $7,500 on. I said go get a second opinon but the car was towed to the stealership in Indianapolis. I'm trying to help them (this is my LT and his wife) get this thing fixed at the most reasonable cost and NOT by Honda. It's an autotragic so I'm not familiar with what you do to fix those.

BTW, the stealership told them $172 for inspecting the trans. Honda is claiming all their gears are shot. I'm saying 2 hours (since most Honda dealerships are between $80 and $100 per hour) to insepct an auto transmission and come up with the diagnosis of "all your gears are shot" is fishy. I don't think Honda looked into it. I'm basing my opinion on Nissan telling me it would cost $3500 in labor to fix my car when it cost me $275 to fix it and the thing ran FINE after.

I don't trust dealerships.

Cliffnotes:

• 8 year old Accord V6 with 100k on autotranny
• tranny went *poof*
• Honda "inspected" it for two hours and said "all gears are shot"
• Wants to charge owners $4,500 to replace
• Honda offered $4,500 to trade owners owe $7,500
• Dealerships are evil

 

[k757]

I had a '99 V6 Accord. The trannys are crap. Back in the day, Honda replaced the first tranny (70k miles) with me paying labor which was a pretty fair deal since I had no warranty to speak of. When the car got to 100k miles, the 2nd Honda tranny was starting to go bad, so I traded it in at 109k miles. I still miss that car.

anyway.....
the car is theirs, they can have it towed to anyplace they want (I assume the car is not drivable at all). I would first call local places that do or specialize in tranny work and ask what it will cost for a junkyard replacement or rebuild. Specialized Tranny shops know WTF they are doing, not a Honda tech who has done maybe a handful over the years. I also suspect that their prices will be better than Honda by a lot

 

[KennyGS]

Yeah, find a local tranny shop - word of mouth, internet reviews, talk to them on the phone. Get an agreed deal/price, have it towed there.

 

[Damaca]

As it stands right now, they're having it taken to Aamco. I think thats what its called. Searching for a Honda specialist in Indy turned up nothing but dealerships. :-/

Am I wrong in believing that 2 hours isn't enough time to soundly determine that "all your gears are shot" ? I think dealerships are infamous at throwing parts at a problem and not properly diagnosing it.

 

[webby]

I just called honda heaven to see if he has any of them, or what they should cost to swap. I'm not 100% familiar with how the tranny comes out of that accord. I don't know how easy it is to access. In the previous SI they had to drop the subframe and was a decent amount of work to get in and access the clutch etc. If they really dropped the tranny, it may take more than 2hrs?

 

[webby]

just saw this - and other similar posts
http://cdonner.com/honda-accord-2003-ex-v6-transmission-failure.htm

looking around for more info

 

[webby]

Got a call from Mile High Honda today... they talked to American Honda corporate and Honda is replacing my transmission for the cost of labor, the parts and everything else will be free...


At 136,000 miles that's pretty impressive if you ask me... Definitely restores my faith in Honda... also really impresses me that Mile High Honda dealt with corporate for me and made it so easy...

http://honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1436534 the above post is lower in the thread... pming you

 

[Damaca]

Thanks, Webby. Wow. I thought about picking one of these up at one point as a daily driver. Glad I didn't. Glad I drive manual.

 

[bootyluvr]

Any updates Dawn? Where did they get it fixed at?

Just curious.