asianthug_ak47

Honda has done an excellent job at keeping this crappy tranny news under the rug because noone knows about it. Dealerships refuse to fix it and most owners just think they got a bad luck Honda. I got a 2002 Accord EX V6. Everything is fine now and I expect Honda legendary reliability to 300k miles. If anything major breaks before that, then I'll buy a Kia and switch car every 10 years.

hondatech

Quit stereotyping us into one group. If you have bad service at a dealer, it doesn't mean every dealer is like that. I really don't know how we, "make your car fail after warrenty is up". Statements like that are false and you shouldn't make them on here because a dealer makes you mad.
If you really think about it we want customer's to keep their hondas for years, that means more work for us to do in the future. That doesn't mean we are trying to scam people, it just means as the vehicle ages it will require more attention to keep it on the road. I like seeing a 2nd gen integra come into the drive. With the new Honda's longer maintance intervals it's not like we sell anything until 105k.

AcuraOwner

It sounds to me like you've been around Honda/Acura vehicles for some time and have some brand loyalty. I own a 2001 Acura CL type S that I bought new in June 2000. The vehicle currently has 130,000 miles and 2 transmissions have failed. The first at 30,000 miles and the second last week. You mentioned that Acura made desing changes to the 3rd gear clutch. Do you know when those changes would have made it into replacement transmissions? I really like my car and the whole Acura eperience has been good until last week. The dealer and Acura are not willing to replace this under warranty, but as an owner I don't think I should have to pay to have a transmission with a known defect replaced. The car isn't even scheduled for it's first tune up until 100,000 miles. It doesn't seem reasonable to me to have to replace two transmissions by 130,000 miles.

hondatech

It's been upgraded for awhile, I'm thinking at least a year or so off the top of my head. Who denied you warrenty? The dealer's service manager? The district manager?
You can go over these ppl and get it covered if you call the 800 number for Acura and tell them what you just posted. People get denied by the dealer or the district manager and think that that's it but it's not the case. I had a RSX with a bad tranny this kid drag raced to death. I swear when i pulled the tranny every single gear was missing teeth, a couple gears had no teeth. It was the worse case of abuse I've ever seen. The dealership told him flat out no, the district manager said "NO", then he towed it out of the shop and we figured he was gone. He called Acura's 800 number and gave them a B.S. story and they called the service manager and told him they didn't care if the tranny was abused it was in the best interests of Acura to fix it and then they sent us a tranny from Japan for the guy. It amazes me to see this type of stuff day to day and then when I come on here and everyone is bitching. All I can say is not to give up. Call and call and write letters and I guarantee if you get the right person that tranny will be free.

A higher up person within Honda told me that at some meeting the guy who is in charge of Honda/Acura in north america said this about the tranny situation, "we will fix the transmissions, you fix the customers".
They do care about the problem are they are trying to make it right.

AcuraOwner

Thank you for the advice. I have called the Acura customer service number and they refused to help because I had not had the scheduled maintenance performed by an Acura dealer. I'm not giving up, I'm sure I haven't talked to the right person yet. Thats a great quote from the head of Honda.

hondatech

Yeah, I thought so to. Keep trying, ask for someone else on the phone. Write a letter to the Head of Honda's north american headquarters. Don't give up, if it was in my control I would be putting a tranny in your car.

asianthug_ak47

What's Honda/Acura 27-points inspection? I got a coupon for this free inspection, which last 20 second or less. I had no clue what they did or didn't do. I just know the car parked there for 30 minutes or so, and as soon as I went to pay for a Honda hat, the work was done.

What years and models of Honda/Acura affected by the bad transmission problem? 2003 Accord is made with 25% Japan parts. Is this for the transmission since the 2002 and earlier are 100% American made?

It seems to me that dealership like to replace parts for people instead of fixing because it is more profitable to replace things. If the work is within warranty, they just want to fix it good enough to get rid of customers until warranties expire. This is dealership shops I am refering to.

asianthug_ak47

alldata.com, car.com, and dmv.gov states that 2002 Accord have waterpump and timing belt recall, but I can't find no dealers around here excepting that fact. They always claim that their internet is down so they can't verify the fact with Honda North America Center. Even the 800 Customer Service claims that there are no recalls while many legitimate sites insists that there are many recalls.

All I know is that we have an Acura with 360k and a Honda with 430k miles and they're both pretty old. With my new 2002 Accord, I expect the same or much better performance since technology advanced a lot since the 80s.

hondatech

It's a free inspection for your car. It gives you a chance to bring your car into the dealership for free to see if it needs anything. It also gives the dealership a little more business if it's slow. You end up not paying for a diag.
It's a really basic inspection, we don't pull wheels off. Just a visual of most of the car. If we see something visually wrong we note it. Honestly, they should have caught and low fluid levels, if they are low. I've had plenty of customers tell me something is low when they didn't know what was actually low and what was actually full.


As far as the Japan parts, American parts. I don't think one was better or had more problems then others. It was a bad design regredless. I didn't matter where it came from. I think most engines and trannys come from japan anyways. They are then installed in factorys over here.

There was a recall on t-belt tensioners, and at the same time you are suppose to check the waterpump casing number and VIN to see if it needed to be replaced as well.
In the begining it was just the tensioners, if it fell under the VIN. Then if the belt looked damaged you replace it. I never found a belt that needed to be replaced.
Then it was revised to include the water pump at the same time. The whole update was short and not that many were even affected. It wasn't like the tranny problem or anything. Cars don't even come in anymore for those updates. PM me your VIN number if you want to know if you have any updates. Many of the sites who say it's a recall are actually refering to an "update" or "service bulletin". A recall is totally different and a little more serious.

BruceF

I purchased my 2000 TL new and it has been the best car Ive ever owned. At 94,000 miles I began to notice symptoms and after making an appointment my TL limed into the dealership one week latter. They gave me a new Acura (500 miles on it) to use while they replaced my tranny, PCM etc.


This is the first instance of trouble with my Acura except for an annoying air bag warnting light for the passenger side which it took severla times to get a fix in that worked.

My car and my dealship are great (Buerkle Acura). Always curteous and they seem to go out of ther way to keep me happy even though I dont spend a lot for sheducled maint except for the big items (I do oil changes, brake pads, plugs, lights etc myself and let them do the tranny and major engine work (just had them do the belts and water pump etc)

I once told them that I refilled the tank to the top on their loaner (where it was when i picked it up). I was told that this was never expected and to leave it empty next time if i liked.

lll go back to acura and the dealership again. Besides being the most reliable car ive ever owned the thing just drives like its glued to the road. I never drive agressively since its stupid to push any mechanical device to its operational limits unnecessarily.

I bought my wife a toyota highlander and im sure its a fine car but frankly the road handling scares me after getting out of my acura.


Will I get 94,000 miles out of the new tranny as well?