A co-worker told me that I should take my car in for a "dealership service." He said that sometimes there are updates, adjustments or tunes that Honda don't release to the public, but will adjust if they get a chance.

He based his opinion that sometimes his car feels or sounds a bit different than before he took it in. Could be mental, or there was some kind of adjustment that the dealer didn't tell him about.

He is not talking about TSB or recalls, which have to be made public.

Anyone work at a Honda service department can confirm this?

 

if by "secret" he means ECU reset, then you can have this secret as well.

 

Do they sometime have updates to ECU?

 

I dont know this secret stuff you are talking about.

when the battery gets unhooked for amount of time, it resets the ECU. the ECU learns your driving style, so if its reset the car will be very peppy until it learns your driving habit.

 

PEPPY..

 

 

Never heard of such a thing and I worked in a service department for a few months. Whatever updates they have are public knowledge and are applied to your car where they are applicable...

 

I've never heard of this.

 

I believe your co-worker is thinking of some TSBs, since they are typically performed when a car comes into service for other things or if a customer has a related issue.

As far as "secret" goes, remember that between a myriad of laws, authorities, information, forums, press releases, mechanic databases and everything else, there's not much chance of keeping a factory-directed repair or update secret.

Although I could have sworn I saw ninja mechanics running away from my car when I peeked out the window last night...

 

 

DUH.....That's because it's secret.

 

don't tellz him teh secretzz..

 

Your co-worker is an idiot.

 

They were not true ninjas because if they were you would've never seen them.

 

i've heard of secret updates plenty of times....the ones where the dealers pretend not to know anything about it until you show them the TSBs or recalls....hahhahaha! and then they say ....."oh, that one?" if you don't know about it, they won't tell you. that's secret!

 

One does not reveal such secrets!

 

Newer models probably have it since tech's have the ability to program some stuff on them, but companies like BMW, Audi and MB have had this "secret update" stuff for a while.

Basically you bring your car in for service and they hook it up to their system. When the car connects to it, the computer scans all the modules and see's their software version. If there is an update, it will ask the tech to perform it. I've had about 4-5 of these on my 7 series.

Things that have changed for me are such as enabling my DVD changer to also play Cd's so we can have 13 cd's in the car that work at all times, changing interface menus on the gauge cluster, changing the operation of soft close doors, etc.

They do exist but they are far from secret. Engineers do the work behind the scenes and dealers are to stupid to realize what exactly has changed.

 

These are the little things that separate companies who sell cars priced 6 figure range and beyond. Their customer base is much smaller so they have to do their best to keep customers happy. If they know of a potential software issue that may or may not arise on a car but they have an update, they'll do it without saying a thing.

They may have updates but companies that aren't selling extreme high end items aren't going to do service for free. Technicians get paid for their work and if the manufacturer didn't get it right the first time, you gotta pay the tech to fix it. If you bring your 09 Nissan GTR into the shop, you may get a "secret update" with your oil change/inspection. If you bring your Honda into the shop, your getting the oil change you paid for and they'll tell you that your air filter is kinda dirty and your wipers should be replaced.

 

Well with the # of computers increasing in cars as the years go by, it's probably going to become more common place besides these "six figure cars". FYI BMW also does it on 3 series, 5 series, etc. It's not limited to just the 7 series.

Granted Honda probably won't have secret updates because they don't have "comfort access" or any of those features that require the extra step on making sure everything works okay. Acura on the other hand may be starting it as the ZDX ages along with the rest of this new model line up with the blind spot detection and the push for acuralink.