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Comments
Tranny flushes IMHO are not a good thing cause most of those systems run a solvent thru the tranny to dissolve gunk in the tranny-well I don't think they get all the solvent out and if they leave any in the tranny-problems. It is a low cost service which delivers pure profit. You can achieve the same thing by changing your ATF 3 times and not have to worry about leaving solvent in your tranny. ATF change is a snap-drive the car for at least 30 miles and then use a 3/8" socket drive to remove the atf drain plug which is the one that has the square hole-forgot which side think passenger. Be careful cause the fluid is really hot. Fill it using a tranny fill funnel with long clear pipe on it-can get at any parts store-think it is 2.5 quarts-fill thru tranny level check access-the yellow one.
Drive it another 30 miles-change again. You do this cause you only get about 1/3 of fluid out each time.
Used to live in Atlanta-did all my own service work-neighbor had a honda and asked me to show him how to change oil-showed him-he came over next weekend and said he could not get his oil filter off-went over with a filter wrench and he had been using the dealer in Buckhead to service his car for 2 years-bought it new there-the filter had never been changed. If it is the same crowd-stay away-incompetent is a kind description.
Oh I bet the dealer did not tell you this vehicle-have the same model/year has an extended emissions warranty-you get free of charge new plugs, rotor, ignition wires and a oil change and this is good up till 150K. ALso there is a recall on an starter switch mechanism. Good dealers point this out-the crooks don't cause they don't make any money on recall work.
I am new to the board. Glad to meet everyone here.
I bought a new honda accord LX 2003 last Oct. There are always some rattling sounds coming from the front. I don't know exactly the position. But it seems under the front table and windsheld and windows of two front door. The rattling is not a continuous one. It comes and goes. The dealer cannot find the problem.
The other question is the oil tank is supposed to be 17 gallon. But everytime i saw the oil level is very low, and fill the tank. It only fills about 12 gallon.
Anybody have the same problem? Thanks for your help.
Are you filling up when the gas light comes on or before? Once the light comes on you probably have 3-4 gallons left from my experience with our 03 EX.
Thanks.
If upon inspection your fluid has turned brownish, you might want to drain/refill drive a few days and repeat procedure again.
Is this tranny giving you any problems or is this just routine maintenance?
Thanks,
John
By the way if you have 75,000-150,000 and have not yet had an emissions extension tune up you can get one for free at your Honda dealer. It includes: oil change,cap, rotor,plugs and wires.Your dealer or I can run your VIN and tell you if you qualify....
I recently bought a 03 EXV6, and was silly enough to drive a 20_day_old car to brave some winter storm. Naturally, flying debris hit the left fender and created two needle size chip marks (no pain no gain, guess that's part of my learning process). When look closely enough, I also found half a dozen white spots along the side of the front bumper. Certainly I blame myself, but I must say I'm a bit disappointed by how easy it is to damage the paint.
Brought the car the dealership, after some discussion&debate, they are willing to cover the cost to repaint the bumper but I must pay for the fender piece (about $250). I talked to the dealership repair center, they claimed that they will be using the exact painting process and factory paint and since the car is new, the gross level should be identical and nobody should be able to tell which parts were part of the repaint job.
If possible, I will like to hear some expert opinion...if I actually let them repaint the pieces (bumper & left fender), will I be risking more than it is worth? Someone told me no matter what they say the paint job done by the factory for a new car is almost impossible to match and unless I have the entire car repaint, I can still spot some differences.
A bit too wordy. My apology.
Many thanks.
P.S. Will like to know some touch-up tips as well..
Repaint
Over the years have had a batch of cars repainted due to collisions of various types-none of them was worth a hoot. About 1 year ago a kid backed into me and had a local repair shop do the work-looks to be the best I have ever had done-1 out of maybe 10 that works. My advice is to have it touched up and let it go. I do my own touch up as I have to drive a lot and up here in snow country they dump tons of crap on the road-rock chips big time. Basically scrape off any loose rust-sand down the rough edges-touch the remaining rusty area with a commercial rust killer-can get it at body shop supply stores-then use an artists brush and apply one layer of silver rust oleum paint-car is silver and then use Honda touch up paint and put over rustoleum paint. The honda paint is just a very thin layer of "color" and no real protection without the clear coat-that is why I have found using it in combo with rustoleum really works best-is it visible-yeah but not as visible as rust. Last Honda was red-maybe that is a good strategy also.
clint98v6at, if you can change your own motor oil and oil filter, you can easily handle an ATF changeout on a Honda. I have mixed feelings about a machine flush. They pump some sort of solvent through the tranny and cooling lines to flush all the old fluid and gunk out. So far, so good. However, I've also read horror stories (that I can't substantiate) that residual solvent can remain behind that may be detrimental to the long term viability of the tranny's clutch facings. Since Honda ATs don't have a filter, as such (just a screen that requires tranny tear down to access), you're only going to be dealing with the fluid. If the current fluid is not darkened and burnt smelling, you're good to go with a simple drain and refill. Honda's recommended procedure for the 2003s (and probably applicable to earlier models, too) is to remove the drain plug on the bottom of the tranny case. Once all fluid that's going to drains out, refill with a like amount. Start and drive the car about ten or fifteen miles to fully warm and dilute the remaining old fluid with the fresh fluid and then drain again and refill. Another drive and a final drain and refill. If the initally drained fluid is cloudy/murky, it would probably be a good idea to go with one additional drain, drive, and refill. At this point you should have about 90 - 95% of the old fluid out. Your tranny and the cooling lines should be pretty clean by this time, too. The cost of Honda genuine ATF is low enough (around $3.00/qt. I think I read in an unrelated post) that the nine or so quarts you use with this sequence will still come in well under the $110.00 the dealer quoted you, and you have the peace of mind knowing nothing but ATF ever went into that box. Oh, buy a new transmission drain plug washer before you start. Honda says you HAVE to replace the washer when the plug is removed. When I changed the fluid on my '96 Accord, I used the original washer with the initial refill. I wiped the area dry with a clean rag. After I returned from the initial run, there was no sign of leakage. I took a chance on reusing the original washer for the final refill, too. It never developed a leak, and since I change oil every 3,000 miles, I'd be in a perfect position to notice one. But, to be safe, have a new one on hand in case. Also, the drain plug probably has a rare-earth ceramic magnet permanently attached. (There was on mine, anyway.) Clean the fine ferrous metal particles adhering to it with a paper towel moistened with a little solvent each time you remove it. Common paint thinner is fine and will have air dried by the time you're ready to reinstall it. There'll be more metal particles with the initial drain than the subsequent drain.
Symptoms: hard shifting.. jerking movement observed most often after slowing down and then re-accelerating.. not observed that frequently.. have to test drive for a bit before one notices it.. kind of a subtle problem.. It started about a year ago after 50K miles.. now have 60K.
Honda has admitted to some problems with the 2000+ models and has extended warranty. Also, I didnt have extended warranty. So I was at the mercy of my dealer and American Honda.
I had the Honda dealer look at it last week. Initially, the service advisor test drove it and said he didnt see any problem with the car!! Then after I put up a big fuss, they finally had their senior mechanic check it out more closely. Alas, they called me back saying there was a problem with the transmission! I showed them all my car service records and then they checked with American Honda. The car had been well maintained and had no other problems with the car. One additional worry I had was that I was not getting my car serviced at the dealer.
Anyway.. the service dept called me back today saying that Honda has approved changing out the transmission ($5,000 value) on their nickel!! Wow! I cant believe it. Hats off to Honda! I guess I will continue to stay Honda fan for some time to come.
Since this happened right after they changed the belt-if the balance shaft is not the problem-it is something else they did. IF the valves are not lined up correctly-the engine will have no power.
Anybody else got any ideas.
Good to hear that there is another person out there with tyranny problems with their 98 Accord. I have only 38,000 miles on the car and the tyranny does everything that your tranny was doing. Which dealership did you take your accord to? Did they give you a reference number from American Honda? Any information would be helpful. I plan on taking my accord in next week to the dealership.
Pretty much decided to take the touch-up route. Sure there will be marks left behind, but hopefully they will remind me to take better care for the vehicle.
Since the debris did not penetrate the primer (mine is a nighthawk black EX, the marks show white spots and I assume that's the primer) my plan is to clean the surface throughly, apply Honda touchup paint, let it dry off and form a slight mound, and (as suggested by carcareonline.com and since I don't feel comfortable sanding the surface myself) use Meguiar Finesse Sanding Block 2000 grit
to "flatten" the mound. If anyone tried that product, please let me know how it turned out.
Many thanks again.
I would suggest going to a dealer in a small to medium size town and if they have their act together, betcha they can fix it for a couple of hundred bucks. I would not go back to the people who did the job in the first place-spending a few hundred bucks with some dealer who knows what they are doing would be money well spent.
As for the exhaust noise if it does it at idle it most likely is a loose heat shield, if it only does it at 1800 rpms and sounds like a buzzing then it is probably the short pipe noise..Hard to diag noises on the net...Good luck
It is a good idea to get the balance shaft seals fixed-they can let go and oil out and bye bye engine. A very simple metal plate was added to make the seal stiffer.
The last dealer you were at did the 50,000-75,000 mile inspection in june. Some other open recalls were also done in the past including the balancer seal holder. So they maybe the ones to go back to since they were aware of the Service Bulletin. Good luck