OT - Help for a friend with a Honda CR-V

[Jenn D]

I know, I know....there is no helping someone with a CR-V (personally I think they look like a giant roller skate....but.....it's a friend).



Here's the deal. My friend needs help becuase she may need to take legal action against an express oil/lube place. She doesn't know anything about Honda and neither do I. She took her 1998 CR-V to get a full service about a month ago. She had 110K miles on it and had the oil changed, filter changed, complete flush, the works. The thing is that when they flushed her tranny, the fluid was nasty apparantly. Assuming all was fine, she left the shop happy. A few days later her vehicle started jumping RPMs between 2nd and 3rd gears. I told her it was her transmission and that she needed to get it looked at. To make a long story short, she went to the honda dealer yesterday and they confirmed it was her transmission. They told her that when they flushed her tranny at the other place, they subsequently pushed the dirt and sludge all throughout the engine because Hondas don't have filters, but instead are self contained and should not be power flushed (which is what the other place did). She called a different dealer today and they told her that hondas DO have a transmission filter. Someone is really screwed up, but the bottom line is that she now needs a new transmission and wants this other place that did the flush to pay for it. I agree that if a power flush is not reccommended, then the other shop should know this and not have done the work that way.



I know this site is a WEALTH of information, so i wanted to reach out to help a friend. Does anyone here know anything about Hondas? If not, does anyone here have any advice that might help her with dealing with this other shop?



Any information would be greatly appreciated!!



Thanks in advance!

Jenn

 

[Kevin Palmer]

First, if it is an automatic tranny then YES it DOES have a filter.



Second, you say it pushed the dirt through the engine. I assume you meant the tranny. There is no connection from the engine and the tranny with that model of Honda other than the cooling lines passing through the radiator for cooling purposes.



Third. We own a shop. If a person wants a tranny flushed and it is and Automatic Overdrive and has more that 50,000 mile we have then sign a statement that states the tranny may fail as a result of the flush. We will not even flush the GM 700R4 no matter how few miles or how much the customer begs. Some trannys just don't do well with being flushed.



We have never had a tranny fail after being flushed other than 1 700R4. We learn by others mistakes.



If you flush your tranny at 30,000 or so miles and continue to do so every 30,000 or so miles for some reason they are good to go. It has something to do with flushing high mileage trannys, (from my experience of running a shop for 21 years).

 

[Jenn D]

Coastie,

Thank you very much. Your post was very helpful and I will pass the information along to my friend. However, do you think that this shop is at fault? They did not have her sign any paperwork that this might happen so can they be held liable that it did? I have told her already that her Honda may have just reached its "time" and that any change in it's overall performance may have made it happen. But she is hell-bent on blaming someone because in her thought process "Hondas NEVER die". Personally, I think she needs to start dealing with the fact that most cars DON'T last forever. (this thought scares me because my warranty is up in 50 miles....AHHH! And that's just today's ride home from work)....



Thanks again!

Jenn

 

[Kevin Palmer]

I have customers sign the paper due to other shops that have had many issues. It is not a requirement as far as our city or state is concerned. Just good business on my behalf. I would say about 35% of the people decide not to do it once the read the form.



That is fine with me. I'd rather keep them as a happy customer than one out there telling everyone how bad we screwed them or cheated them out of money.



I seriously doubt that the shop is a fault. You would have to prove that they did something negligent. Like too much pressure or ran it through back-wards or something like that. I can think on no way for you to do so.



If you end up needing a tranny send me the specs on the car, (Year, Model, etc) and your zip code and I will send you a list of yards that have the tranny by distance away from you as well as a price vs. mileage.



Good luck to you....

 

[Matt Day]

One thing to keep in mind, even if they did screw it up, they only owe for the value of the tranny with 110k on it. Even if they admit fault, she still looking at footing the majority of the bill herself.

 

[Shawn Hennessy]

There are no mysteries around Hondas. I wonder if your friend had performed the regularly scheduled maintenance as directed by the manufacturer. I have owned and maintained Hondas since 1989. All of them have gone well past 150k miles with NO problems. This sounds to me like she was doing her first service on the tranny and got dinged.



My problem with these speedy shops is that they seem to lack care and precision. Twice, I have used them...twice burned. One used pneumatic tool to tighten the oil pan drain bolt...requiring a new oil pan after all was said and done. The second left the oil fill cap off. Sorry, no attention to detail. No methodical approach to their service.



Drain, fill, pay the bill, and go.

 

[Tom Schindler]

IMO. 110,000 miles was too long on the tranny fluid and the new fluid destroyed the tranny. I have heard that from more then one source that it can happen.



Another thought is that they MIGHT have used the wrong fluid. She might want to check into that too. Maybe buying some Honda tranny fluid could fix the problem, but to be honest, I don't think it will fix it. I think she will be stuck getting a new tranny.



I am truly sorry to hear about her problem. Nothing sucks more then doing what you think is right and getting burned doing it.





Tom