We recently took our 2020 RDX into our dealer for a drain and fill service on these components. The actual work seems to be okay as the car drives and shifts normally. The invoice raised questions for me though. We were charged for 1 quart of ATF instead of 5, 1 quart of HGO-1 and 1 quart of 80/90 gear oil. The HGO-1 for the transfer case is the only charge that appears correct.

I called to ask about this yesterday and the explanation I got was that the tech had used the correct 4-5 quarts to fill the transmission but parts had made a mistake and only billed for 1. Regarding the 80/90 gear oil the service writer blamed that on the software, she said it was for an older model RDX and she had forgotten to remove that item. It was a good thing we were on the phone so she couldn't see me rolling my eyes.😀 Oddly enough the out the door charge exactly matched the estimate even with these "mistakes".

 

Honda HGO is 75W85 so pretty much the same thing as 80W90. I use generic (usually Valvoline or Mobil 1) gear oil in my RDX - anything that's a hypoid gear oil will work.

They charged you an arm and a leg for that ATF drain-n-fill so I wouldn't complain about the billing mistake on parts cost. But hopefully they refunded you for the HGO because a quart of it does not cost $27, that price is wayyy too high.

They also didn't charge you for new crush washers on the ATF drain-n-fill. Did they reuse the old ones? If so that's lazy and sloppy work. I would ask about that.

I'm guessing you had the car serviced on a Friday.

Edit: I'm also guessing they didn't do a 3x drain-n-fill for the ATF. I can't believe they charged you that much for ONE drain-n-fill which leaves most of the old fluid in the transmission.

This invoice looks worse and worse the longer you look at it.

 

When dealer is sloppy making accurate invoices, makes you wonder what else they did wrong ?!

Even if parts cost $100, agree that $250 for labor is a bit steep, but probably average for Acura dealers.

 

$341 just for labor on the drain and fill is criminal!

 

The 1 quart of HGO was the only fluid charge that I thought was correct and the crush washers are listed further down. The markup on parts is horrendous of coarse.
I wasn't expecting a 3x drain and fill, that would have been over $250 just for the ATF. I'm not sure what the dealer labor rate is here but it's probably around $250. We had the car in this past Tuesday.

I might have thrown a monkey wrench into their system by requesting that they only use Acura branded fluids. I think they would have used BG Chemical fluids otherwise.

 

For ATF, the manual requires ATF2.0. I dont think any Acura dealer can use something other than Honda ATF 2.0? That would be a serious issue

 

Stealerships always trip me out, they place the 'eyewash' of a 5% discount on the one, already marked up, 08200-901A fluid charge of $27.24 (over suggested 'retail' (red arrow)) for a whopping net of $25.88, lol.

 

Labor time for trans drain-n-fill is 0.5, so with $250 in labor costs you just paid Acura $500/hr for that service.

Nah they get their fluids from the parts dept. At least that part you don't need to worry about.

ATF 2.0 is like $12 per bottle at the parts counter at my local dealership. They marked that up too.

It's rather ironic that you get a better deal on the fluid buying it at the parts counter and not giving them any money for labor, vs the price they charge you for that same fluid when you bring the car in.

 

Some parts departments charge above MSRP, I picked up HGO fluid once from local dealer because did not feel like ordering online, I was charged $5 above MSRP, its outrageous they do this.

 

^Because they know you need it same day and/or would have to pay for shipping. Same reason RockAuto is cheaper than Autozone I figure.

Honda-branded dealership might be cheaper but I haven't compared. Valvoline and M1 both have hypoid gear oils that meet GL5 spec for <$10/qt at the local parts store. I haven't used Honda-branded HGO in my RDX in a loooong time.

 

I agree, HGO is overpriced and is not even synthetic. Valvoline sells decent synthetic transfer fluid that is cheaper and better

 

Yeah, I would only use Honda transmission fluid and rear differential fluid. The HGO-1 is nothing special, but takes less than a quart at ~$16 so I went with that last time.

Don't feel too bad about the ATF 2.0 fluid price, and even the markup above MSRP. For my VW, the retail price is $47.13 per quart, the good online price is $38.60 per quart, and my local dealer has it online for $92.37 per quart. That VW has an Aisin transmission, so I plan to use the correct Aisin fluid at $7/qt.

 

Maybe so but I wanted to make sure so I specified Acura only fluids and no supplements.

Just a few months after taking delivery of our car in 2019 we had to have the windshield replaced. Our dealer used an independent shop to install it and then had their techs calibrate whatever needed calibrating.
When I went to pick it up there was a lady next to me picking up her car after an oil change and I overheard her service writer explaining the charges on the invoice. They charged her for an engine flush, an oil and filter change using premium synthetic oil and an engine oil conditioner. I've been leery of what fluids and supplements they might try to use ever since.

 

I just remembered something else.
When the service writer was making up the estimate she got on the phone to the parts dept. and told them her customer only wanted Acura fluids and no supplements on this work order. I have no idea if that was all for show or they really would have used different fluids.

 

I bet they also charged her $100 to replace the cabin air filter.

Engine flush is not part of any official maintenance procedure that I'm aware of. Sounds like they're taking advantage of someone who doesn't know any better.

 

At the time I was thinking why would you need to add an oil conditioner to premium synthetic oil?

 

You generally don't. The oil already has everything it needs mixed in with it.

I've done piston soaks with MMO on oil-burning K24s before, but that was to address the oil burning and not part of regular maintenance.

 

BG sells a kit to do engine flush and then change oil and add their conditioner.

It works pretty good if you have dirty/slugged engine.
I may do one when car hits 100-150k miles, it really cleans all the crap.