I was quite impressed with your post on May 5, especially your awareness of the extra effort offered by the dealership mechanics, and your thank you notes. Bravo to you to for acknowledging. I’m also impressed by your desire to keep this car, so if you really like the car, it’s worth finding out the real problem before you decide to keep or sell, or especially try to fix something which may not be broken (transmission). I agree with others that it may be a simpler and less expensive repair than you might expect, which is why Keith suggested that you may be making a mistake to sell it. If you have to spend for a tow to get it to the dealer or whoever, but the proper repair is done efficiently and avoids an unnecessary transmission repair, you’ll probably save many times the cost of the tow.
I agree with Keith that if the dealer is giving you quality service, then in the absence of an excellent alternative, stick with the dealer. A big part of car repair is what I can only call “relationship” with the people at any given business. You seem to have found a dealership where the relationship is a good one, the employees are worthy, and you are treated well.
That said, since you asked about what to look for in a different mechanic, here’s a way you might begin, besides asking friends and using the “Mechanics Files” link on this page. Get a friend who can take you to a few repair shops which look promising, or have been mentioned by others. Go there in your friend’s car and tell them your situation and ask a bit about scheduling an appointment, getting the car towed, their basic rates, and if they detect an obvious explanation for your symptoms. But all that is “cover” for your research on whether this is a shop you’d like to do business with. Are they respectful, professional, capable, etc? Some places will feel good to you, others not so much. In my opinion, the relationship is just as important as the shop’s technical competance. A shop where you are respected, and which you trust, will reward your loyalty with better service. File that for future reference, even if you go with the dealer at this point.
Good luck, and please report back on your progress.
–Roadtripper
The fact that the D4 failed to light up does indicate an issue. There are several issues that can cause this, all appear to be electrical such as he mainshaft speed sensor or its wires or the lockup solenoid or its wires. It does not appear to be a mechanical problem.
If the D4 light fails to light up again in the future, first go to an car parts place like an AutoZone for a free code read. Get the actual code and post it here. This will be in a format of a P with 4 numbers after it, like P0740. This must be done either while the light is out, or within three drive cycles of the light coming back on, otherwise the code is erased.
There are some codes that the generic code reader can’t read so if they can’t find the code, then you need to go to the Honda dealer to get it read, which they may charge you a diagnostic fee for. But if they charge you a diagnostic fee, which is fair because they will follow all the trouble shooting procedures for that code to isolate and confirm the defective part, not just plug in the code reader and give you the code like AZ does.
If the transmission is working for you now, do get the ATF changed.
Squealing power steering on a cold morning could mean that you need a new serpentine belt or you are low on power steering fluid, which is a special fluid for Hondas.
The key in the door is a common problem with a worn key in Honda’s. My key is very difficult to use in the passenger side door but my wife’s key works perfectly. You can get a new key made at the dealer from the VIN number. A new key from a place like Walmart will just be a copy of the worn key and it won’t work any better. A new key from the dealer should only be about $7.
From your earlier posts, I got the impression that you have a pretty good dealer. I think that you should work with them. If you have a laptop, you could save this thread as an HTML file, take it to the dealer and let them read through it and see what they think, or maybe use a computer at the dealer if it has an internet access and show them the various opinions.
@Keith, Nicole mentioned on page 1 that the car had to be towed. I think when the first sign of transmission trouble occured changing the fluid may have cured the problem. It doesn’t take long for contaminants in the valve body to distroy a transmission. It seems as if the slipping has been going on for long enough to write this one off.
She said IF it had to be towed. If she drove it into AAMCO, then she should be able to drive it out, unless they did something to disable it. It is possible hat she drove it in and they gave her some BS about dire consequences if she tried to drive it out.