i bought an extended warranty from Gillman Honda through API Protection. there was a thread about this company going out of business before. anyhow, Gillman still honors the warranty if it's still valid. here's my issue. while driving, i've been experience slipping and jerking when getting out of first gear. not only that, the gears aren't changing as smooth as they should. there seems be about a 1-2 second delay before the car realizes it's in anohter gear. so i take it in this morning, they do a diagnosis, and tell me the computer didn't find anything wrong with it. if the computer doesn't find anything, it can't give a "code" so there's nothing to fix. the warranty is for 80,000 miles bumper to bumper and i've got 78,400 miles on it. i feel they might be tellign me this just to get out of having to do any repairs. their "suggestion" is that i may just need a trasmission flush. i don't really know what to believe. just looking for opinions. i'll be leaving in 15 minutes so i may not respond.
Seems to me that you have brought the issue to their attention previous to the warranty expiring. While they could be delaying hoping you will just assume they won't fix it after 80K, if you are persistent and tell them you had the same issue previous to 80K they can't really get out of it...
Go to a different dealer. I drive halfway across town in Austin to go to a particular Honda dealer because I trust them to be on the up and up. The other one in South Austin always seemed a bit sleazy to me. There's no law that requires you to be diddled by these people.
the thing is, i did take it to another dealer first but they wouldn't honor my warranty b/c the company is out of business. thus, i had to take it to where i originally bought the car.
While it's possible, their explanation isn't out of the realm of possibility. Check the transmission fluid level. If you're low, it could cause slipping. If you've never had it flushed, it wouldn't hurt to do so and to have someone check the hoses as well.
Have you tried contacting Honda directly? This sounds fishy to me. It should be honored anywhere and the dealer who sold it to you was a Honda dealer, which Honda is responsible for. It shouldn't matter what happened to the original company. It's like the mortgage on my house. I'm going with about the 5th mortgage company in 13 years. It's changed nothing.
i thought that it could just be low fluid, but i've checked that and it was fine. i may just get it flushed anyway. thanks for the responses. i'll definitely hold them up to it if there's a problem in the future.
i had the extended warranty from Gillman (not sure if it was API or some other company, cause out here in the DC area, they still accepted it). I had the same problem as you. There's a known transmission problem with the '00-'02 (or whatever years that model ran) Accord...mine's an '01, so it fell in there. The first time I took it in, they told me that I had transmission fluid that was way too dark considering the mileage on the car. However, at that time, I wasn't really experiencing the gear slippage and all. I let them change out the entire tank of fluid instead of the 3 quart flush/fill that I was gonna have done. Once the real problem started about 2 months later, I eventually took it back in. They said there was a problem. To get the exact problem, they'd have to take the transmission apart...so they just gave me a new one under the revised warranty due to the known transmission problem. (Otherwise, transmission wasn't under warranty anymore since that isn't covered past 3 or 5 years or something.) I tried to get my money back for the initial transmission fluid flush/fill saying that clearly, this was a precursor to the problem...and them flushing it only delayed the inevitable. They said it couldn't be proven, so they couldn't refund my money. I wrote a long ass letter to Honda including the details about the court settlement with the transmission problem and how the warranty got extended and all and still got nothing. Point being, I wouldn't trust them to give you anything once you pass your 80k limit.. it'd take a crapton of work. One other thing of note for you.. I made sure they drove my car around to experience the gear slipping. I don't know if they can use that as a diagnosis, but they sure as hell should.
Raise a stink and you will get your way. They are going to try and do whatever they can not to work on it becuase right now it's coming out of their pocket. It definitely sounds like something transmission related and i would push them hard to check if something is wrong. I guarantee if this was not a warranty issue as you say they would do further testing on the transmission and not just plug it up to a computer. That's a BS excuse they are giving you in my opinion to save them self the hassle of eating the cost of repair.
i would still try another dealer. don't tell them you have already been somewhere, just see if they will find a problem. if they do, then get a written estimate. now you have something to show your original dealer. just a thought..
I thought of something else. My '98 Toyota Camry clunker (looks like hell, runs great, going to my son in about a year, thank god!) had its engine suddenly freeze up. I had it towed to a dealer and they said it needed a complete overhaul. A new shortblock. Anyway, I surf the internet for any similar problems and it turns out to be a design flaw Toyota owns up to, but only if you ask them. There were loads of blogs and posts about it. I printed some and took it to the dealer. Within half an hour they were saying Toyota would completely cover all repairs and they gave me a rent car for free. Didn't cost me a dime. As a matter of fact, it's why I still have the car. It was like getting a new engine on a car with 60K miles. (that's what happened!) Check the web for something like this.
Always get warranties from the manufacturer. 2nd party ones always seem to give people trouble. Just be persistent. Good luck.
is your car an AUTO or MANUAL? if it's an manual, your clutch is going out. a clutch is a normal wear item like brake pads, rotors, master/slave cylinders, tires, fluids, o2 sensors, etc. what this means is, unless it's specified under your extended warranty, it's not covered. if it's an auto...your tranny might need a flush or it needs to be repaired. same crap happened to my old mans TL and the tranny eventually went out.
most people don't know this, but you should change your brake/tranny fluid every 3-4 years. if the fluid is dark, that means you NEED to change it.
that sounds exactly like my problem. i have an 02 4 cylinder accord, automatic. i went ahead and ok'ed the trasmission flush as i figured i needed it anyways. although it does seem to run smoother, like you said, it could just be masking the problem. if that's the case, i've got jsut over 1500 miles to get any repairs done under warranty. i'll do more research on the "known" trasmission problem.
My Civic is having similar troubles and upon searching the internet a few weeks ago I found some message boards and blogs that were discussing faulty Honda transmissions. I don't have time to find any of that info for you at the moment, but it's out there.
If you can't get them to fix it at no cost, you can put in some Lucas transmission fluid - but don't overfill. That stuff is magic.
