So I took my car into Acura on Monday because my transmission was grinding going into 3rd gear when shifting above 7000k rpm (even with the clutch to the floor). They took the car in and actually replaced the entire transmission under warranty. I got the car back today and it feels light years better than it did before. I was so pleased with the way they handled the situation. I mean I am sure that I had a little something to do with the synchros being bad, this is the first car I have driven with a manual transmission, but they didnt ask a single question just took the car in and replaced the transmission. to Scottsdale Acura.

 

So, how did you ruin your 3rd gear Synchro?

 

any visual mods on the car they could've questioned??...if yes, this place is a rarity

 

AEM CAI is the only mod I have as of now.

 

I wouldnt say that I ruined it. I have miss-shifted it a few times (going up the gears, not down). But lately it was really hard to get the tranny to go into 3rd gear. I was wondering if this was a common problem because that would explain why they were so willing to replace it. Now that I have it back it is amazing how much easier it goes into gear.

 

Wow now you never do that around here. But how did they replace it under warranty as I'm going by your screen name that your ITR is 98'. Did it have some sortof extended warranty. My battery died on mine and I had to pay for it so have I paid for everything on my car which they say the warranty won't cover. Too bad our dealership isn't like yours ours use to until they change service dept managers and the owners could careless if you get what service you deserve as most only care if a care gets sold every week.

 

My friends 98 R wouldnt go into reverse, so they replaced the "5th gear/reverse syncro" free of charge.

 

Someone messed up there clutch I think from basically learning how to drive ITR stick and messed up syncros and seized up the clutch. I think it happened during a misshift from 3rd to 1st. They made him pay for it and Acura would not back up the claim because they said they didn't care if he didn't know any better and it was accident. They will tell everyone that comes in they been either racing the car or abusing it. If you got low mileage your accused of tampering with the odometer. I got accused of this and when my friend that works there tried to tell them I had two cars they told him he better stop lying or he maybe looking for somewhere else to work. I got accused for this and I told them do you think I bring this in here if I could fix it or do what you said I did to the car. I think they claimed I had atleast 12k on my car and they went on and on...about I have non Acura seats and what not not saying there all Honda OEM stuff but they don't care if it didn't come from Acura it's aftermarket. I was basically told if I wanted to take them to court I can..and whats bad the Acura places here are better then Honda places...in service dept. But samething has happen to friend of mine with S2K and he just got so fed up with it he sold his car. It's for sale at some used dealershop I think for 25K or something. He sold cheap because warranty work didn't mean anything to all the dealerships he went to. It was syncro problem something that was common in certain batch of S2k's he found out.

 

Thats bullshit man! Someone needs to put their foot down and stop taking **** from that dealership. If it was me, i wouldnt take that scrap, just ask for everyones boss until you get to someone who can do something.

 

I asked for the boss which is just 30 yr old guy that said what hells your problem when I talked to him. Even after I told him he said so you don't want to pay so I guess will just send the bill collectors after you and ruin your good credit and if you try to take swing at me I can have the police here to carry you off as they are only down the block from the dealership. So unless I took them the court I can't really do anything. According Acura customer service # I called they can do this and only dealerships that are willing to bear the expense does this for free. So I can say if I buy another Honda it will not be new one as I don't know of any dealership I can take it too unless it's outstate. I even talked to my sales guy since he even is the one that told me keep the miles low and he said I can't do much and right now I need to keep my job. He said I suggest you don't trade or sell your car to any honda or acura dealership on any of the cars just go buy Mercedes coupe they got better service and he said he thinking about leaving and going to work for his cousin.

I know for fact it's hurting there sells in this state beause I can only about name 5 new civics or rsx's I've even seen on the road around here. About the only cars I see that sell kinda well are the TL's and CL's and thats about it. But I have to say I have seen more and more kia's and daewoos and hyundai's and toyotas and mazdas and subarus which I guess they doing better customer service then Honda here. Whats bad if I had to compare my customer services in the warranty dept comparing the treatment I got with Ford Vz Acura I would say without a doubt Ford went out of there way to insure I was happy and even stated if the car had the same issue one more time on the rear windshield wiper they would give me brand new expedition xlt for replacement. I will say I had more bugs in my Ford then my ITR but when I did have problem Ford took care of it but Acura wouldn't.

I had bad cell in my Ford's battery they replaced it under warranty. Samething happens 2 yrs into owning my ITR and they would not. I believe I paid 100 bucks for it plus installing fee!?

 

Dealer service departments vary. Some of them are very good. Some of them are not good at all. Apparently, Racer-X's dealership is one of the latter.

Those who are living in major metropolitan areas have a choice of dealerships, and if they don't like one, there's another one close by. Those who live in smaller cities don't have that luxury.

If I were in Racer-X's situation, I would find a good independent mechanic to take care of my oil changes and brake work, and I would go out of town (to Montgomery or Atlanta) for major service and for warranty work. Yeah, it's not easy and it sucks, but I'd rather do that instead of letting the d*cks at the local dealership keep me from owning the car I really want to own.

 

Sometimes 1 bad apple will spoil the bunch. Warranties are a joke. Service is what counts. Some honda/acura dealers cant spell service. Im sorry to say that service after the sale is very important to me. I will never buy another.

 

RacerX-i dont understant your dealership, its not like they have to pay. American Honda reimburses them for any warranty work. They are just BSing you. Call up Mike K and ask him who you need to talk to, probably some regional manager or someone like that. Trust me, if you try hard enough you will get to the bottom of this. Good luck!

 

That seems a little excessive...

When my clutch separated at 41k, I took it into Acura of Riverside for service under warranty. They gave me a bit of crap about it, but ultimately warrantied the parts and a portion of the labor.

When I got it back after this fiasco, I had grindage going into 3rd at high RPM. I took it back to o'Riverside and they didn't bat an eye about replacing ALL the synchros and the 3rd gear. Now, I don't doubt when the clutch came apart and I was kinda rev-matching / kinda powershifting on my way home that some if not all of the damage occured and I hinted at such (after I got the car back of course) with the Service Advisor. He just shook his head and said it still shouldn't fail and there was no question about the coverage under warranty... okey-dokey.

So, I have a pretty much rebuilt transmission in my R at 41k, which for me works just as good as a new one in your case.

My warranty experience

I think the trick to it is building a relationship with the SAs at the dealership and they'll be less inclined to think you're some punk-*** kid who beats his car to Hell and back. Unless, of course... you are a punk-*** kid who beats his car to Hell and back and cops an attitiude with anyone that doesn't give you the Fing moon when you ask for it... That never works, in my experience.

 

Had a bad experience in the parts dept. @ (Gilman Acura) here in Houston. I asked about ITR interior parts....(just CF trim parts/panels) and they said it wont fit in my 96 DC2! They also said, they cant print up a "few" part #'s I requested, just in case I want to order them for future preferences! Haggle....Haggle......after aprox. 30 min's of argueing and the part's man is being a bitc!@#, he says quote "my system is down, just call back tomm!".

I left w/ a GRIN

Gilman Acura Parts people

 

Well I have been taken it to local shop and the fellow that works on my car is Honda and Acura certified and ASE certfied. But he told me since the service manager changed they say anything I do on car is wrong and whatever they do is right even though I have all the certifications and all the Honda/Acura dianostic tools. He's also Toyota/Lexus Certified and anything he does on Toyota the dealers around here say if it's not something other then TRD items it's all warranty stuff. But I have to take it to dealership to get warranty work done without fitting the bill. Whats bad to fix my TPS sensor settings on my ITR they charged me 150 bucks after he told me it would never be no more then $141 for the fix at the dealership. Whats bad I took it too my shop I goto and checked it and the TPS was never changed from when it left the my guys shop a few days later. The reason for all the mis reading the battery had two back d cells in it and was really causeing false or bad readings. It made my radio, clock, ABS, Engine lights just go on and off depending on what mood it was in I guess. But my shop could not do warranty work and replace the battery for free I would have to goto the dealership to get that done.

I use to have good relationship with parts and service manager there but not since they apparently found other jobs because they left for unknown reasons except maybe for better money. The service there has went to hell my friend a tech there says it has and getting worse. He said he needs to find another place to work or new line of work.

But I have decided I doubt I will be buying another Honda as I doubt I will ever take it in for warranty service...as it means nothing here. My friend there said only thing they will give pissed off customer and this was from the regional manager was freaking coupon for free oil and fuilds change or checkup. I'm think yeah that pays for 100 dallor battery and installing fees and environmental fees and paper work fees. I mean hell how many things do I have to pay to put in battery..I was thinking I could have just bought battery and put it in myself if I knew it was going to cost me this much. My shop guy could got me the battery and included being installed and everything checked out would only cost me 85 bucks!

All I can say is there is couple group of dealerships here that where owned by good owners but since there children took over the business they been driving customer service down into the ground like it wasn't even nothing.

I would go to another dealership but when your getting all the lights coming on like I did I find it unwise to travel that far when your not sure whats the root of the problem plus most places are atleast 2hrs or more away from me. I simple don't trust Honda and Acura dealerships within 1 and half radius from here. I can see why folks are buying there Honda and Acuras out of Atlanta and TN now.

I don't think I can go into a dealerships without them knowing what I do because alot folks know me either through my parents or just from track. Plus, since there is only 2-3 black ITR's in this part of town its pretty easy to know who's who. Though whats odd before all this change in management they where big time pushers of Motorsports and even sposours some dealer cars..now that none existent so I don't know whats happened with them.

This is the main reason I'll be owning a Subaru next time around or I may replace both my Hondas with Scoobies as I'm just tired of the service around here. Subaru tends to not even car if you track your car or not heck last I was told there actuallying selling race tyres now and putting there names on selected cars to promote Subarus image and there dealerships image.

 

Sorry to hear.

I bet there are towns with a bad Subaru dealership and a good Acura dealership, where people are sorry they got the WRX and are promising to buy Acura next time instead...

 

Yeah so I guess it's just the luck of the draw sometimes.

 

i've dealt with a warranty issue only once and that was on my gsr. i went in because my brakes were vibrating even after i changed the rotors. turned out my driver's side front caliper was non-functional. the dealer replaced the caliper and both front rotors & pads at no charge. later, i bought my r from them just because of the service department.
good luck, in your case, unfortunately i think only bitching will get their asses moving.

 

i remember readering a statment saying that by law they can't void your warrent if you have aftermarket parts on the car unless they can prove that, thats what cuase the problem. anyone know what i'm talking about? know where i can find it and get a copy of it? would cutting wires void the warrenty?

 

Absolutely untrue that they have to prove it.

It won't void the warranty, but coverage under the warranty will exclude any problem caused by cutting the wires.



[Modified by nsxtcjr, 6:54 AM 3/1/2002]

 

are you should about that? that they don't have to prove it, cuz i have a few friends thats been menchanic for about 7+ years and they told me the same thing i post up. and if i can find that article i'll prove it to you. what i meant when i said cutting the wires is because i have a vafc and shift light hook up and they both invole splitting the wires.

 

HOLY FAWKING ****, SCOTTSDALE ACURA ACURA FIXED THE TRANSMISSION!?!?!!?!?

I DON'T BELIEVE IT, NO WAY. IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!

 

Yeah, they actually did. They asked not a single question, just went ahead and fixed it. I havent had any trouble with Scottsdale Acura and I have dealt with them on this occation and two others one that had to do with the AC, and the other had to do with a damaged distributer cap and rotor. Both claims were fixed free of charge, eventhough my air still seems to cut out on the hottest of days, when it is 110+. I still need to get them to fix that. However, they seem to be good to me. Have you some bad experiences with them?

 

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act (15 U.S.C. 2302(C))

“No warrantor of a consumer product may condition his written or implied warranty of such product on the consumers using, in connection with such product, any article or service (other than article or service provided without charge under the terms of the warranty) which is identified by brand, trade or corporate name....” (15 U.S.C. 2302(C)).