my_acura_tsx

Hi -

I recently moved and the nearest acura dealer is 1 hour away from me. I have nearly 70,000 miles on my 2004 acura tsx (Have extended warranty till 100 K miiles). I have a honda dealer near by, thinking if I can start going to the honda dealer for regular maintenance like oil change, other fluid changes, tire rotation etc.

Do you think technicians at honda dealer will be familiar with acura. Do you think this will cause issues if I need to get any service under warranty?

Thanks.

Nitin

iTrader: (1)

There shouldn't be any problem at all with getting that work done at a Honda dealership. From what I've heard in the past, Honda even tends to sell parts cheaper than Acura dealers even though they're the exact same things!

MMsTSX

where I live you cannot do that.
no Honda dealer in my area will touch an Acura car.
nor do they sell any Acura parts.
they say you must go to Acura for your service work, period.

it may be different where you are, you have to call to find out.

nj2pa2nc

the two acura dealers I take my tsx for service also sell and service honda's. I think your best bet is to call the honda dealer and ask. When we were on our roadtrip last May we had our car serviced by a honda dealer in Topeka, Ks. (no problem)

nj2pa2nc

additional info-my avator pictures shows Stevenson Honda (left) and Acura (right) service reception. The cars are then driven to the back service area where they both are serviced. The acura side is closed on Saturday so if you need service you take it the the honda side.

odannyboi

I had a local Honda dealer (3 miles away) change my oil/rotate tires... I plan on having them change my tranny fluid as well... nearest acura dealer is 35 miles away.. eff that.

They just didn't know how to reset the service light... do it yourself.

nj2pa2nc

Why wouldn't the honda dealer know how to reset the service light- it is the same on honda's and acura's. When I took my 06 tsx to the honda dealer they reset the oil life and stamped the maintenance book.

sortudo7

Honda's service Acura's in my area without a prob. One of the main reasons I liked their warranty. Just call the dealership and verify with them, if they try to give you a run around tell them the Acura dealer said they would and see what they say lol. Sometimes they don't wanna mess with Acura because they don't want the liability hanging over them but it shouldn't be a problem in my experience.

DemonPoofball

Like has been said, just give them a call and see if they regularly service Acuras. My Acura dealer is about 2.5hrs away, which is a bit of a pain to just swing by... There's a Honda dealer about 1/4 mile away. I talked w/ them when I got my car and got all the info I needed on them. The Honda dealer here gets the Acura service bulletins and even has the oil requested for my car-- costs a bit more since they don't have the huge vats they use for the Hondas, but it's nice to know they know the little differences.

So far I haven't been back to Acura yet... Worked out really well for my 10k service as half of the checks recommended are already included in all of their services-- so it was quite cheap!

tsxmike

I work at a honda dealer and we can service acuras but not for warratny repairs. ask the dealer if they perform acura warranty repairs.

musty hustla

Good info.

JeffTSX021

I go to Honda all of the time for service on my 07 TSX. There is a new Honda dealership that is right up the road from me. The closest Acura dealer (that I use to go to) is 45 miles away.

Anyway, HONDA is much much cheaper than Acura. For example, I had a B1 service done last visit. It was $79 at Honda. Acura, wanted $180...

Since I'm out of warranty, I am going to stick with Honda. I mean, it's the same company really..

calisoulsurfer

Yeah getting your TSX serviced at Honda is perfectly fine. Most Acura parts are Honda parts. Heck, they even come in Honda labeled boxes/bags. Acura fluids are just repackaged Honda fluids.

As for whether techs would know Acura or not, well there's not really anything they need to know to do regular maintenance. An oil change, air/cabin filter change and so on is basic stuff.

More involved stuff like timing are all looked up by techs with programs like Mitchell or Alldata anyway since it would be crazy for people to expect techs to know all the specs for every Honda that comes through the door.

Finally, Honda parts and labor prices are significantly cheaper than Acura for the exact same stuff. I had my oil changed at Hoehn Honda in Carlsbad, CA and it was $14 cheaper than what it would have been two doors down at Hoehn Acura... same parts, same oil, same time to do the job.

*** One major upside to taking your car to Acura for service is most dealers will have a loaner for you for a lower dollar amount service than Honda. Usually I can get a loaner for something that's a couple hundred at Acura and it takes over $1000 usually at Honda.

EL_PIC

Total up to dealer if they will do it - some have done and some say no.
Some say they get good service at less $$.
FWIW - My friend w a Lexus says Toyo dealers have an unwritten rule of not touching Lexus.

jchan2

My local Honda dealer will do basic maintenance work on Acuras but does not sell Acura parts (though I get around this sometimes by requesting parts for an '07 Accord on stuff that I know is identical, like filters or bolts) and will not do warranty repairs on Acuras.

I still go to the Acura dealer (35 miles away) because their prices are actually reasonable (oil changes cost less there than the Honda dealer) and it's a good excuse to go to that side of town.

For what it's worth, I've been taking my parent's Infiniti I35 to the local Nissan dealer for several years now with no problems. Haven't seen the inside of an Infiniti dealer in a long time...

calisoulsurfer

Yeah I think people need to realize that. NO dealer sells another company's parts. Now, any dealer can get parts from another dealer to do a service though. How else would ... say a Honda dealer... get parts for all the cars traded in on Hondas like Ford, Nissan or Mini's for instance?

People will just have to remember that it might take a little longer for the service to get done as the dealer they took their car to will have to wait for the parts to be delivered from Acura. Now, in this case, a TSX can have a Honda oil filter put on with Honda oil. No problem.

*** Everyone be careful though. If the Honda dealer doesn't know, or doesn't care to cross reference, what oil filter and so on goes on your Acura you can end up with an aftermarket filter/parts.

For instance, I am a parts advisor for a KIA dealer, and we also own the Hyundai store next door. We have a Hyundai coming in here for a 15K service today which includes a LOF. I have no idea what the Hyundai oil filter is, and they are closed today so I can't ask them. I can put a KIA filter on their car as KIA and Hyundai are the same company now and our KIA parts are coming in now in Hyundai boxes/bags. Anyway, I'm going to have to give out a PartsMaster oil filter which isn't as good, or seal as well as the Hyundai one would.

So, you can get your service done at a Honda, and nine times out of ten they are going to do you right (because Honda/Acura are very reputable companies), but some dealers are going to be shady or lazy.

John Hoover

im a tech at one of the many honda dealers we have in our area. we work on acuras all the time. inspection emmission, diagnostics are all the same. hds works on all acura and honda cars. the only thing we dont do is anything factory warrently related. honda care or warrrenty solutions i dont see a problem since its an usally an aftermarket warrenty add on. parts are the same on most cars, example the front brakes on our tsx's are the same as the current generation accord v6 and 4 cylinder ex and ex-l models. we have access the the acura half of honda interactive network for all etm's and service bulletins etc. and the maintence minder system on the cars is identical. the share the same codes and sub codes. a1 on a honda is the same on acura. oil chance and rotate tires. so yes by all means go visit your honda dealer for service. we get any acuras in because we are cheaper.

Old Skule

That is good to know. My local Honda dealer is less than 15 minutes away opposed to 40 minutes for my local Acura dealer

ctu5204

I am trying to figure it out for my area too! I am just going to call my local dealer. AAA only gives me 5 miles of free towing

NBP04TL4ME

Guessing you Acura is not driveable??

Bring back a thread from nearly 19 months ago

We have a Honda and an Acura. Honda dealer wants my Acura service business, but have stuck with Acura. It's a little further away but they treat me well. If I was in a jam, I would use a more local indie shop, but seeing I'm under extended warranty, I use the Acura dealer.

ChknWingKing

the Honda oil filters are the same as the acura - check the part numbers. i bought my filter for my 2102 TL at the honda dealer right up the street. they also had the proper semi-syn weight oil, but I chose to get the fully syn valvoline since I had a coupon at walmart.

I plan on doing the same for the 2nd oil change, and replacing my own cabin and air filters on the 3rd service. This should take less than 2.5 hours of my time total, and keep my car out of the dealer which is 30 miles away from me. all while saving me the amount of money that equates to another car payment.

I love these cars, so easy to work on and get parts for, but nothing ever breaks!

mickey513

Any Honda dealership can service Acuras. They however cannot do Acura warranty work and seek reimbursement from Honda.

chris432

shouldnt be any problem

Ryoko

My local honda dealer services Acura's.

I'm in a situation now where my warranty expired a couple months ago, but I know my engine problem was starting before it expired. Since I don't know if I can 'fight' for warranty work or not, I'm not sure if I can take it to the Honda dealer.

Like many others, the closest Acura dealer is 45 minutes away. Its extremely inconvenient, very expensive and I'm not impressed with their staff. I had to take it in 3 times for them to find and fix rattle noises.

Simba91102

Technically, Acura and Honda are two separate companies in America, and though they share virtually all mechanical components, I'm pretty sure it stops there. Though the Honda dealer may be local, and even provide better service, it seems there's no way on paper (so to speak) for them to perform and/or provide warranty service on an Acura.

If you think that a problem you have began pre-warranty expiration, you'd better not waste any time. And unless you made Acura aware of it prior to your warranty expiration, you're at the mercy of their good will. Since it sounds like you don't have any kind of a relationship with an Acura dealer, I would suggest not holding your breath for satisfaction. I've recommended a couple of things here for years, one being to foster a service relationship with a dealer while the car is under warranty. It may cost a little more to have them service the car, but it can grease the skid if there's warranty work to be done. The second thing (more to your point) is to not buy a car that doesn't have a dealer presence near by. The reasons for this are many, and they should be obvious.

tegraphile

I thought about doing a B1 service at the local Honda dealership, but I'm hoping to forge a relationship from the dealership I bought the RDX from. Also, the B1 service is only $97 from Acura of Concord (cheapest in the Bay Area I've seen so far), and only $20 more than Honda. Maybe the car wash covers the cost difference? And since the CPO warranty is still active, will give them little excuse if anything happens.