I'm going to take my car to the shop :(

[tbaleno]

Well, I went to make the appointment today and the service guy said they could look at it today. I'm like sure. Me and my friends are going to eat across the street so I can get a ride back to work with them. They call me up later and say "the tech found the problem. You needed a transmission flush. We flushed it twice and it is all better. There will be no charge." So I pick it up and all is good.

The only negative is it took them about 45 minutes to get me my car. There was a sign that said if you don't get your car in 5 minutes tell us immediately. My nature is to be very patient so I wait about 10 minutes and tell them I'm still waiting for my car. They get the paper work and page someone again. I twiddle my thumbs for about 30 minutes more and then I go up again and ask. They pull my paper work and look around and pull my keys out of this plastic container they use to hold keys in and hand them to me. I was a little annoyed about the fact that they had the keys for a while and didn't bother to let anyone know. But I guess these thinks happen around 5:00. They were probably changing shifts or something.

They also told me my transmission fluid was dirty. I had it changed I believe a month or so ago at a different dealership (the one that stole coins out of my ashtray). Now I'm wondering if they even changed it or just took my change, bought coke with my money and took a 30 minute break. I think I will stay away from O'hare Honda in Des Plains IL. Shaumburg Honda seems more reputable even if they wouldn't diagnose my EGR valve issue.

[Green&Blue]

The two best service depts I've seen are Pauly in Libertyville, and Community in Orland Park (been awhile since I've been there). Of course, the fact that I've decided to maintain the HCH-II myself tells you something about what I think of dealer service depts.

If that first drain / fill was near 45K, that was probably a bit longer than optimal to leave it in. Honda recommends about 30K on a drain/refill on the 1st-gen CVT, IIRC. That only replaces about half the fluid, as well. Draining it at 15K, or every second oil change, gives you a better measure of safety. Since your start clutch has been acting up, it's something to consider. Keep track of the mileage until it acts up again (and it will, sadly).

Also, there's a new CVT-specific fluid to use, instead of the Z1 ATF. Try to make sure they use that (there was a HondaNews bulletin sent to the dealerships last year on it). The only problem is - it retails for $11/qt around my neck of the woods. I nearly fell over when I picked up 4qts of it two weeks ago. You can mix it with the Z1, if that's what's in your CVT now.

[tbaleno]

I had the regular maintenance done on my car which I think was trany change every 15k. Maybe I should continue that up and then every 30K ask them to flush it a couple times. Humm $11x4 x2 = YIKES!