Posted on V6performance.net re: a response to a customer with a failed trans:
{I don't know how legitimate this is, but it sounds pretty real...}
Hi. I'm a Honda tech. I'm one of the dudes that works on your car. And I gotta say, I'm really unhappy at reading this.
First, every 5-speed automatic attached to a V6 has a recall on it if it was made up until about 4 months ago. 2nd gear has insufficiently sized bearings. It overheats, turns blue, breaks, and locks up at highway speeds. The tires lock up and you guessed it, you lose control. I'm not afraid of saying this because the recall is PUBLIC and this is not secret information.
Why am I unhappy? Well for one, changing transmissions on these cars (accords), trucks (pilots), and oddysey's sucks. It pays crap, and it makes the mechanics want to "not see the problem" ... Honda techs are paid flatrate. We get paid what the customer (or Honda) pays in labor/hours. Say we get $15/each labor hour we work. Well, the goal is to beat that time. To perform a 3 hour service in 2 hours, then move on to the next work. It's the only way you make money. Warranty pays 75% of what the customer pays for a given job. All recalls are warranty work. Obviously we like customer pay vs. warranty.
Well, sometimes warranty is unfair. It's never been this grossly unfair though. It's got a lot of techs having trouble paying their bills, even.
For a warranty trans inspection/recall, this translates to Honda paying a tech 8.2 hours of labor to:
Test drive the trans.
Take it partially apart.
Take pictures of 2nd gear.
Send those pictures to honda, and PRAY that they come back and say the teeth look fine. quite often, Honda says OH! Time to replace the trans.
Take trans out.
Put in new trans.
Perform an alignment.
Test drive car.
... takes about 10 hours for an expert ASE Master tech such as myself to do it.
... takes about 16 hours for a normal tech.
You get paid 8.2. Period. No if's, and's, or but's. Hondas view is "We're losing our ass on these transmissions, so, sorry- so do you."
Many techs who have been working for Honda 15-18 hours are starting to quit over this. You wouldn't begin to believe the building rage on this problem. The anger towards honda for crapping on their techs when the problem is so severe. The anger that the customers cars, hundreds of thousands of them, have received such poorly designed transmissions. (The running joke is the maker of the dodge caravan transmissions built these all for honda) .. and there is the frustration and severe concern over what is to happen in the future. It takes 1-2 days for a tech to change a transmission. A given dealership, if converted into a transmission replacement only service station (something impossible), could replace 10-15 transmissions per day in a theoretical world. That's less than 3000 transmissions per year. Each dealership services far more than that many vehicles in it's own area. At this rate, it would take 4-5 years to do this to do every transmission. But that's impossible. And I would/could never do it.
So instead we install this jet kit that squirts oil onto 2nd gear, and we hope that it doesn't overheat. Nevermind the fact that the new transmissions as of 4 months ago don't have that. They have bigger bearings. Nevermind that the transmissions we're installing jetkits onto are STILL failing.
So... this really, really pisses me off. Because we KNOW about the trans problem. That every day we FEAR having a trans come into our bay... to have a customer complain about a whining sound- which is the absolute worst case before impending gear lock up, and say that it's only TIRE noise ... tells me something about that dealership.
I know the techs don't want to change the transmissions. I don't want to. But it's my job, it's what I'm paid (barely) to do, and until I see fit to find other work, I will not endanger my customers with lies to increase my paycheck.
That, my friend, is exactly what has happened.
So ... get your butt to the dealership, ream the service manager a new one ... and threaten legal litigation if necessary.
Anonymous unhappy Honda Tech.
