At about 111K my Honda Odyssey (2000) began shifting late on occasion. A few weeks later I got the transmission fluid changed and received an estimate of 2100$ to fix the problem: the torque converter clutch.
I’m now at 116K and the car is driving okay (slightly better after the fluid change), although still shifts late once in a while, and once or twice in the last 8 weeks it didn’t go immediately into first from a full stop.
My question is this: by continuing to drive, am I making the eventual repair problem worse (e.g.: more costly to repair?)
To put it simply? Yes.
When the vehicle doesn’t move in gear from a stop, and the engine RPM’s increase, it means the transmission is slipping. And this is the death of any automatic transmission.
Now the question I ask is, did you have the tranny serviced only after the problem arose? Or did you perform regular tranny service to this point?
Tester
I’ve been taking the car to the Honda dealer (or for oil changes only to another garage) since I got it (every 4000-5000 miles). Although I admit I always depended on them to do the recommended service…I have all the records and can look through them to see how often the fluid was changed, but that doesn’t really matter now, (does it?) as I’m out of the warranty period.
Whoa there… $2100 to replace a torque converter is way out of line. Are you sure they are not rebuilding the trans??? Was this a dealer that gave you this estimate??? What exactly did they state you were going to get for your $2100 ???
transman
There are extended warranty’s on this issue to 100k/7yrs. Maybe ask the dealer to try and work for some goodwill from Honda and have them cover (hopefully most) of the tranny. You are a great case since you bring your car for regular service at the dealer.
It wasn’t the dealer, but rather a business that specializes in transmissions. While I am pretty ignorant on the issue, I did understand that they would be doing extensive repairs for the 2100$. The technician told me there was “metal on the drain plug”, and I was shown gears and told how the metal could be worn off of them and how that probably caused the problem with the TCC. (The code I got was PO740).
Thanks for that tip. Since I haven’t been to the dealer yet (just assumed they wouldn’t help) I’ll reconsider and show them the info I got from the transmission business (the PO740 code) and see if they are willing to split the cost or something.
Go to a Honda dealer. Honda Corp is standing behind transmissions here in the Pittsburgh, Pa area. Make an argument about being disappointed in Honda’s workmanship, reliability, yada yada. It’s worth a try.
I know of several folks who have had Honda transmissions replaced in circumstances similar to yours. You may need to talk to a district manager (or whatever); someone above the local dealer.
Following up:
I did go to my local Honda dealer, and long story short: they offered me a 75% reduction in the warranty price, so my cost to get a new transmission will be 700$ plus tax. I’m pretty happy with that. And it comes with a 3 year/36K warranty.