My trip to a local stealership service dept...
04-05-2008, 12:38 AM
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My trip to a local stealership service dept...
So I took my car to the stealership t'day to get it checked out to see what shape it is in mechanically as the seller had NO service records. 'twas an interesting experience as I will recount for you below...
I consider myself a honda/acura enthusiast and have been for the past 8 years. As is obvious, I visit online forums that contain a WEALTH of information with first-hand accounts of issues with said marquee. So, before even getting a quote for anything, I told the service dude (read "commission sales guy") that I wanted the tranny inspected as I'm very aware auto trannys of this generation were known problematic. The dude writes it up to have it inspected. Later on, when the inspection has been completed, I get a call from another guy in service who tells me what they recommend getting done. They noticed a hesitation in shifting from 1-2 and 2-3, but attributed this to the tranny just needing a flush. Since the flush was cheaper than quotes from the independents, I told 'em to go ahead. First, I actually BELIEVED them. YES! They were NOT recommending out of the ordinary stuff guys! And to top it off, their prices were actually LOWER than ALL the independent shops I had called around to (yeah, I'm as shocked as YOU are
). This is DEFINITELY the exception and NOT the rule so still no all-out advocacy for stealerships, just a rather great impression 
Now here's the kicker... the service guy then proceeded to touch upon my concern for the tranny mechanically. He said, and I quote, "these transmission do not have problems like the TLs or later model CL's". Yeah, can you believe it?...
I called BS on that and asked him if he was certain of what he was saying as there are NUMEROUS stories of plagued auto trannys from 1st gen CL's. He still stuck by his guns and said that, no, he has NOT run into any problematic auto trannys on the 5 auto CL's he had serviced in his recollected experience. So I was glad to hear my tranny was ok, but unnerved that this guy was so oblivious to the obvious.
T'morrow morning I go to pickup my CL and hopefully it's healthier than when I brought it in. Still a laundry list of stuff to do, but I might end up taking it to an independent referred to me by a-spec from another thread. Tires/Wheels and radiator should be easy for an independent. Just thought I would share my experience
I consider myself a honda/acura enthusiast and have been for the past 8 years. As is obvious, I visit online forums that contain a WEALTH of information with first-hand accounts of issues with said marquee. So, before even getting a quote for anything, I told the service dude (read "commission sales guy") that I wanted the tranny inspected as I'm very aware auto trannys of this generation were known problematic. The dude writes it up to have it inspected. Later on, when the inspection has been completed, I get a call from another guy in service who tells me what they recommend getting done. They noticed a hesitation in shifting from 1-2 and 2-3, but attributed this to the tranny just needing a flush. Since the flush was cheaper than quotes from the independents, I told 'em to go ahead. First, I actually BELIEVED them. YES! They were NOT recommending out of the ordinary stuff guys! And to top it off, their prices were actually LOWER than ALL the independent shops I had called around to (yeah, I'm as shocked as YOU are
). This is DEFINITELY the exception and NOT the rule so still no all-out advocacy for stealerships, just a rather great impression Now here's the kicker... the service guy then proceeded to touch upon my concern for the tranny mechanically. He said, and I quote, "these transmission do not have problems like the TLs or later model CL's". Yeah, can you believe it?...
I called BS on that and asked him if he was certain of what he was saying as there are NUMEROUS stories of plagued auto trannys from 1st gen CL's. He still stuck by his guns and said that, no, he has NOT run into any problematic auto trannys on the 5 auto CL's he had serviced in his recollected experience. So I was glad to hear my tranny was ok, but unnerved that this guy was so oblivious to the obvious.T'morrow morning I go to pickup my CL and hopefully it's healthier than when I brought it in. Still a laundry list of stuff to do, but I might end up taking it to an independent referred to me by a-spec from another thread. Tires/Wheels and radiator should be easy for an independent. Just thought I would share my experience
04-05-2008, 01:09 AM
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Originally Posted by Akura CL
So I took my car to the stealership t'day to get it checked out to see what shape it is in mechanically as the seller had NO service records. 'twas an interesting experience as I will recount for you below...
I consider myself a honda/acura enthusiast and have been for the past 8 years. As is obvious, I visit online forums that contain a WEALTH of information with first-hand accounts of issues with said marquee. So, before even getting a quote for anything, I told the service dude (read "commission sales guy") that I wanted the tranny inspected as I'm very aware auto trannys of this generation were known problematic. The dude writes it up to have it inspected. Later on, when the inspection has been completed, I get a call from another guy in service who tells me what they recommend getting done. They noticed a hesitation in shifting from 1-2 and 2-3, but attributed this to the tranny just needing a flush. Since the flush was cheaper than quotes from the independents, I told 'em to go ahead. First, I actually BELIEVED them. YES! They were NOT recommending out of the ordinary stuff guys! And to top it off, their prices were actually LOWER than ALL the independent shops I had called around to (yeah, I'm as shocked as YOU are ). This is DEFINITELY the exception and NOT the rule so still no all-out advocacy for stealerships, just a rather great impression
Now here's the kicker... the service guy then proceeded to touch upon my concern for the tranny mechanically. He said, and I quote, "these transmission do not have problems like the TLs or later model CL's". Yeah, can you believe it?... I called BS on that and asked him if he was certain of what he was saying as there are NUMEROUS stories of plagued auto trannys from 1st gen CL's. He still stuck by his guns and said that, no, he has NOT run into any problematic auto trannys on the 5 auto CL's he had serviced in his recollected experience. So I was glad to hear my tranny was ok, but unnerved that this guy was so oblivious to the obvious.
T'morrow morning I go to pickup my CL and hopefully it's healthier than when I brought it in. Still a laundry list of stuff to do, but I might end up taking it to an independent referred to me by a-spec from another thread. Tires/Wheels and radiator should be easy for an independent. Just thought I would share my experience
I consider myself a honda/acura enthusiast and have been for the past 8 years. As is obvious, I visit online forums that contain a WEALTH of information with first-hand accounts of issues with said marquee. So, before even getting a quote for anything, I told the service dude (read "commission sales guy") that I wanted the tranny inspected as I'm very aware auto trannys of this generation were known problematic. The dude writes it up to have it inspected. Later on, when the inspection has been completed, I get a call from another guy in service who tells me what they recommend getting done. They noticed a hesitation in shifting from 1-2 and 2-3, but attributed this to the tranny just needing a flush. Since the flush was cheaper than quotes from the independents, I told 'em to go ahead. First, I actually BELIEVED them. YES! They were NOT recommending out of the ordinary stuff guys! And to top it off, their prices were actually LOWER than ALL the independent shops I had called around to (yeah, I'm as shocked as YOU are
). This is DEFINITELY the exception and NOT the rule so still no all-out advocacy for stealerships, just a rather great impression Now here's the kicker... the service guy then proceeded to touch upon my concern for the tranny mechanically. He said, and I quote, "these transmission do not have problems like the TLs or later model CL's". Yeah, can you believe it?...
I called BS on that and asked him if he was certain of what he was saying as there are NUMEROUS stories of plagued auto trannys from 1st gen CL's. He still stuck by his guns and said that, no, he has NOT run into any problematic auto trannys on the 5 auto CL's he had serviced in his recollected experience. So I was glad to hear my tranny was ok, but unnerved that this guy was so oblivious to the obvious.T'morrow morning I go to pickup my CL and hopefully it's healthier than when I brought it in. Still a laundry list of stuff to do, but I might end up taking it to an independent referred to me by a-spec from another thread. Tires/Wheels and radiator should be easy for an independent. Just thought I would share my experience
04-05-2008, 01:36 AM
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uhh i don't know about doing that transmission flush man...
i've never heard one good thing about transmission flushes on trannies that have never had them..
if you have a new tranny and are regularly flushing it, then it's all good..
but if you take an old tranny and flush it, you're clearing out all the debris that has gathered and allowed your tranny to hang onto something..
when i was looking around at prices for transmission drain and fills, 9/10 places would just try to push their flush on me..
i eventually took it to one place and when i got their they were like "oh no we wont drain and fill, just flush" and then the bitch tried to explain to me why flushing is so great and then told me they just bought the machine.. i think they just wanted to try it out
i finally decided to call this place that my parents and a good friend of theres who has a few $100k+ cars go to.. (a little expensive so i tried to look around first)
i asked him if he does drain and fills
"yep sure do.. what kind of car do you have?"
"97 cl 3.0"
"yep you will want a drain and fill"
"so a drain and fill right, not a flush?"
"no not for that car, you wont be drivin long after a flush on that"
"Thank you!! that's what I've been trying to get at for the past hour! everyone wants to flush it and wont do a drain and fill"
"yep, it costs a lot more for a flush. you definitely want a drain and fill though, i wouldnt even flush it if you wanted"
..something along those lines
i hope your dude really knew that your tranny is in great shape.. otherwise
i've never heard one good thing about transmission flushes on trannies that have never had them..
if you have a new tranny and are regularly flushing it, then it's all good..
but if you take an old tranny and flush it, you're clearing out all the debris that has gathered and allowed your tranny to hang onto something..
when i was looking around at prices for transmission drain and fills, 9/10 places would just try to push their flush on me..
i eventually took it to one place and when i got their they were like "oh no we wont drain and fill, just flush" and then the bitch tried to explain to me why flushing is so great and then told me they just bought the machine.. i think they just wanted to try it out
i finally decided to call this place that my parents and a good friend of theres who has a few $100k+ cars go to.. (a little expensive so i tried to look around first)
i asked him if he does drain and fills
"yep sure do.. what kind of car do you have?"
"97 cl 3.0"
"yep you will want a drain and fill"
"so a drain and fill right, not a flush?"
"no not for that car, you wont be drivin long after a flush on that"
"Thank you!! that's what I've been trying to get at for the past hour! everyone wants to flush it and wont do a drain and fill"
"yep, it costs a lot more for a flush. you definitely want a drain and fill though, i wouldnt even flush it if you wanted"
..something along those lines
i hope your dude really knew that your tranny is in great shape.. otherwise
04-05-2008, 01:52 AM
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Originally Posted by shnee420
...i hope your dude really knew that your tranny is in great shape.. otherwise
OH man, I already had them do the flush >_< I sure hope my tranny is in great shape too 
04-05-2008, 10:13 AM
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Flushing on a flush machine is bad news for our trannies, hopefully they're just draining and filling the fluid
04-05-2008, 11:36 AM
#6
Your mechanic is semi right, compared to the second gen CL's and the 2001-2003 TL's, our trannys are not problematic at all to the point where you need to worry about it dropping from third to first while your driving, I hear the 3.0 had a couple problems but nothing to the extent of the seond gen CL's, if you don't beat on your car you shouldn't worry about your transmission, it all depends on how you drive, if you beat on your CL then its obviously going to hurt you in the long run.
04-05-2008, 01:01 PM
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2nd gen trannies are way more problematic
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04-05-2008, 01:53 PM
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I'm with ya guys on the tranny being worse in the 2nd gen autos. Unfortunately for me, I am the 5th owner of this car and bought it at 145k miles so there's NO telling what the previous 4 owners did or did NOT do to it or how they drove 
If it's any consolation, I think that a couple of those owners may have just been title transfers to one-person "dealerships" that bought the car to resell as I purchased it form some dude who bought it from an auction for just that purpose. Here's to hoping! I go to pick up the car in a couple hours 
If it's any consolation, I think that a couple of those owners may have just been title transfers to one-person "dealerships" that bought the car to resell as I purchased it form some dude who bought it from an auction for just that purpose. Here's to hoping! I go to pick up the car in a couple hours
04-05-2008, 06:52 PM
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Originally Posted by shnee420
uhh i don't know about doing that transmission flush man...
i've never heard one good thing about transmission flushes on trannies that have never had them..
if you have a new tranny and are regularly flushing it, then it's all good..
but if you take an old tranny and flush it, you're clearing out all the debris that has gathered and allowed your tranny to hang onto something..
when i was looking around at prices for transmission drain and fills, 9/10 places would just try to push their flush on me..
i eventually took it to one place and when i got their they were like "oh no we wont drain and fill, just flush" and then the bitch tried to explain to me why flushing is so great and then told me they just bought the machine.. i think they just wanted to try it out
i finally decided to call this place that my parents and a good friend of theres who has a few $100k+ cars go to.. (a little expensive so i tried to look around first)
i asked him if he does drain and fills
"yep sure do.. what kind of car do you have?"
"97 cl 3.0"
"yep you will want a drain and fill"
"so a drain and fill right, not a flush?"
"no not for that car, you wont be drivin long after a flush on that"
"Thank you!! that's what I've been trying to get at for the past hour! everyone wants to flush it and wont do a drain and fill"
"yep, it costs a lot more for a flush. you definitely want a drain and fill though, i wouldnt even flush it if you wanted"
..something along those lines
i hope your dude really knew that your tranny is in great shape.. otherwise
i've never heard one good thing about transmission flushes on trannies that have never had them..
if you have a new tranny and are regularly flushing it, then it's all good..
but if you take an old tranny and flush it, you're clearing out all the debris that has gathered and allowed your tranny to hang onto something..
when i was looking around at prices for transmission drain and fills, 9/10 places would just try to push their flush on me..
i eventually took it to one place and when i got their they were like "oh no we wont drain and fill, just flush" and then the bitch tried to explain to me why flushing is so great and then told me they just bought the machine.. i think they just wanted to try it out
i finally decided to call this place that my parents and a good friend of theres who has a few $100k+ cars go to.. (a little expensive so i tried to look around first)
i asked him if he does drain and fills
"yep sure do.. what kind of car do you have?"
"97 cl 3.0"
"yep you will want a drain and fill"
"so a drain and fill right, not a flush?"
"no not for that car, you wont be drivin long after a flush on that"
"Thank you!! that's what I've been trying to get at for the past hour! everyone wants to flush it and wont do a drain and fill"
"yep, it costs a lot more for a flush. you definitely want a drain and fill though, i wouldnt even flush it if you wanted"
..something along those lines
i hope your dude really knew that your tranny is in great shape.. otherwise
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