Hey guys, hoping you can help me out here. I brought my car into Honda last week because I got the letter about the water pump recall on my 07 Civic LX. After about 2 days I noticed my car now makes lots of grinding noises, more commonly after a cold start or when turning my steering wheel left. It's intermittent.

I brought it back to Honda because it seemed more than likely they screwed up when installing it; usually stuff like that is because a belt was on wrong (so I thought) and they were happy to take a look at it . Of course they didn't happily tell me that since they couldn't recreate the problem they were charing me $90. Luckily I managed to talk some sense into them and they waived it.

Anyway the guy tried telling me it's probably a break sensor making the noise. That doesn't make much sense to me because this noise ONLY happens when I'm driving, not when I'm breaking. I know some cars making scratching/grinding noises when the breaks need replacement but that's usually when you break, not only on cold starts when making left turns. Am I right??

The car is still making the noise so I don't think bringing it back to them is an option since it's going to be a huge pain and they're not going to find it and they're going to argue that I owe $90 again. Is there anything I should be looking for? The car only has about 1,000 miles left before it hits 30,000 and a majority of the warranty would then be expired.

Side note, the 30,000 mile maintenance says transmission fluid flush and change. That sounds awfully early to me. In fact a lot of people telling me changing transmission fluid can do more bad than good some times. If I *were* to do the transmission fluid, I can't find anything in the manual that says how many quarts the car takes. Anyone have an idea on that?

Thanks!

 

dunno about the grinding noise...but your car shouldnt be making that noise and honda should fix it for you immediately. tell them you'd like to speak to the "district service manager". that usually gets them moving.

as for the transmission fluid..30k is correct. that is how it is for all honda's. you need 1.8 quarts i think, but i have heard anything from 1.5-2 quarts.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DaddyLongLegs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Side note, the 30,000 mile maintenance says transmission fluid flush and change. That sounds awfully early to me. In fact a lot of people telling me changing transmission fluid can do more bad than good some times. If I *were* to do the transmission fluid, I can't find anything in the manual that says how many quarts the car takes. Anyone have an idea on that?

Thanks!</TD></TR></TABLE>

30k miles for a flush is about the standard for most automatics.

As far as more harm than good. That is sometimes true. For example on a car with 150k miles on its fluid. Flushing the fluid on that car could be a death wish. Google this subject and you will find allot of info.

If you wanted to do a drain and fill yourself. All you would be replacing is what is in the pan. That would probably be about 1/3 of the fluid in the tranny. All of the old fluid in the valve body and torque converter will still remain in the transmission.

 

So I don't need to flush the transmission? Just the fluid in the pan?

Honda doesn't seem to want to fix this for me, but is there any weight to them saying it's a break sensor? Do these break sensors make grinding noises when DRIVING not breaking?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DaddyLongLegs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So I don't need to flush the transmission? Just the fluid in the pan?
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Regular drain and fills can supplement flushes. You need to find out the intervals though because I don't know them.

If you just want to do drain and fills and you don't know what the intervals are for them just divide the flush interval in half. That is what I did for my toyota. So if your manual calls for a flush every 30k miles do a drain and fill every 15k miles.

 

you "flush" the transmission fluid every 30k, it part of a 30k scheduled service. i dont know where you heard that it is bad for the car, especially on our cars. EVERYONE has reported noticeably better shifting after doing a transmission fluid change.

make honda fix your car, your car shouldnt be going into the dealership fine and coming out making a horrible noise. if all else, file a complaint with honda or tell the dealership that if they dont get moving you will file a complaint against them. thats what i did and they helped me instantly

 

edit: multiple-post, sorry!


Modified by DaddyLongLegs at 5:51 AM 10/23/2008

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by DaddyLongLegs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">So I don't need to flush the transmission? Just the fluid in the pan?
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If you do drain and fills (Just the fluid in the pan) the transmission will be fine. If you decide to just do drain and fills only, you will have to do them more frequently than you would flushes though.

 

Sorry for the multiple replies, Google Chrome likes to repost my post when I simply refresh the page.

Honda at the dealership is being really stubborn, and I don't know if I want them doing the work anyway. They used to be next door to the dealership and they had all guys working their like in their 40's and up. Not to be a jerk, but now that they relocated all I see are 18 year olds working there. I know some of them know their stuff, but it's really suspect to me that they seemingly got rid of a lot of people.

Is there any merit to them saying the noise can come from the brakes? Even though I hear those noise not when I brake but only when I drive? It's very hard to get them to admit any wrongdoing when every time I bring the car to them the noise is gone.

I feel like I hear a LOT of vibration coming from under the hood too. It's a heavy vibration noise, but I don't feel it. It's weird so if anyone can give their opinions I'd appreciate it.


Modified by DaddyLongLegs at 3:24 AM 10/27/2008

 

is the car a manual or auto?? the auto trannies take 3 qts for a drain and fill. the manuals take about 2 qts.

there are 2 seperate waterpump recalls on those cars, one is a just a water pump pulley and bolts. the other one gets a new water pump, pulley, pulley bolts, and a drive belt. i work at a dealership in ohio and have done many of these recalls never had any troubles or problems. do you know which of the 2 recalls you had done??

 

Honda's recommended automatic transmission flush procedure involves draining trans, filling trans, shifting through gears in a specific pattern, draining trans, filling trans, shifting through gears in a specific pattern, draining trans, and then finally filling trans. Honda does not recommend any sort of aftermarket flush equipment to service their automatic transmissions.

 

wut if your car is a stick, does Honda still recomend flushing the tranny at 30k miles??