Transmission Being Replaced on my '03 V6 Accord Due to Leaking Case

I wonder how common this problem is ?????

The automatic transmission on my '03 V6 Accord has had repeated small
leaks since shortly after I purchased it. The first several times the
dealer sealed the leaks with JB Weld and the like, yet more continued to
appear. Today I was informed that they will be replacing the entire
transmission under warranty. I'm at 35,000 miles now and only weeks
away from the end of the warranty. Hopefully the rebuilt transmission
they install will be a good one.

The number of problems Honda has been having with it's automatic
transmissions is a real concern. Oddly enough, my relative is
visiting with her new '05 Civic Hybrid and it also has a leaking
automatic transmission. The same dealer is having a look at it for her.
5,000 miles on a new Civic and it is leaking ATF.

Sure makes a person wonder about the "bulletproof" reputation Honda has.

John

 

I remember back in 1991 when my cousin purchased a Honda Accord
Hatchback, and had nothing but problems with the automatic. In 1993 he
was fed up and converted his auto to a manual at great costs.

As early as 1998, I remember reading Car & Driver articles that stated
if you were going to buy a Japanese vehicle, make sure you get a
standard transmission, because the automatic transmissions were not
perfected at that time. Hard to believe it is 2005, and they are still
having "issues" with automatic transmissions.

 

As much as I like and respect the 'Asian Big Three' and many of their
vehicle offerings throughout their history, I will openly admit that they
haven't been immune to automatic transmissions problems. But neither have
the American automobile manufacturers. Part of the problem is the nature of
the beast itself. An automatic transmission is an extremely complex
assemblage of parts and it is actually a miracle that many of them perform
as well as they do. Manual trannys are indeed more robust, and most cars do
get a little better gas mileage that contain them. A while back the
difference was more significant than it is today in a lot of cases.

I've seen Nissans, Hondas, Chevys and Chryslers all four give transmission
problems. It can happen with any automatic transmission--regardless of the
manufacturer. And it is true that Hondas aren't bulletproof. But they're
still good cars when compared to many of the other makes out there. A
co-worker of mine could tell you LOTS of horror stories about the 2002 BMW
325i that he just traded in on a used Infiniti. It's totally unbelievable
how many problems that he encountered with that car! So much for the
"Ultimate Driving Machine" b.s. ....

Ron M.

 

I just took over driving my wife's 97 Civic due to her becoming disabled and
she took over driving my '00 Accord EX V6 coupe. The funny thing is my '00
has 80,000 miles and her '97 only has 62,000 miles.

I love the manual transmission in her '97 Civic. I am getting over 30 MPG
in the City, and about 37 MPG on the highway. Except for faded paint on
the spoiler and a dry-rotted driver's side visor, there is absolutely
nothing mechanically wrong with the '97 Civic.

I just hope the transmission holds up in the '00 Accord. I think I am going
to have it checked out soon because the SRS light is on, and I want to make
sure that the transmission is technically sound.

I was really considering getting a '05 or '06 Accord V6 coupe with a manual
transmission within the next year, but, I think I want to wait until the
'97 Civic starts giving me problems. I might be waiting a while!

Chris B

 

oooh, i could tell you stories about that... when i was at metallurgy
school, one of our professors was a fatigue god. as in /really/. one
day, a certain bavarian car manufacturer came to him with a problem -
their transmissions were lasting too long.

long story short, money changed hands & they got their solution. it
costs them 20% to 30% more to make that transmission, but it more than
pays off in taking "old" cars off the road - their objective in all
this. next time you're on a road trip with the kids, have them keep
score on 10+ year old cars and plot the distribution by manufacturer.
you'll quickly see that this certain company's plan is /very/ effective.

read their advertising literature too. when someone refers to their
transmission as "maintenance free" and doesn't even bother with a drain
plug so you can't change transmission oil, you can be assured that
longevity is not on the agenda.

 

True enough, but on my recent problem the failure mode is a casting
defects in the main case which allow fluid to leak through. I would
expect Honda to at least get the basic case casting right.

John

 

Sure that wasn't 1968?

J.

 

Did they fix this problem with the 05 Accords?? I am thinking of
getting a 05 Accord LX or EX V6 and I wanted to know if the
transmission problem was fixed on the 05's. Also, Is there a site that
I can research the problem with the honda transmissions.

 

Honda has put in place lots of transmission fixes over the years ... but
do they have it right yet??? We will not know until we see at least 5
years of new history.

I don't know of a specific one, but it is discussed in many places.
Just search for "Honda Transmission Failure" and you will find plenty to
read.

John

 

no kidding. casting porosity is not new, but allowing it to suddenly be
present after decades of doing it right indicates a *serious* management
problem.

i /love/ hondas, but i can't see myself buying anything post 2000 until
they fire their current "bean counters make all the decisions"
management team & get some engineering/quality back into the equation.
seriously. honda will /never/ compete with toyota on price, so they
should get back to competing on product offering & product quality.
that was a highly successful strategy before.

trying to "out toyota" toyota has cost them:

1. significant share of the family sedan market that was the accord
thanks to significant reliability issues.

2. significant alienation the cheaper sport/enthusiast market that used
to be civic thanks to CRAP suspension design. the econo crowd also used
to buy the civic, but that brand loyalty is now fading in favor of the
prius.

3. complete anihilation the "mid range" sport/entusiast market that used
to be integra with the abysmal rsx and given it to subaru. or even mazda!

honda are in serious trouble. such a shame. /used/ to be fantastic cars.

 

Actually, I meant 1988. That was the time my uncle went with a Mazda
626 sedan, but chose to go standard over automatic due to numerous
reviews on problems with Japanese automobiles. He kept that 626 for
over 12 years, and it was still running like a champ when he traded it
in on a Accord for my aunt.

 

Truer words were never spoken.

 

Hi John,

I agree with you 100%. At this point in time casting defects shouldn't be an
issue. Believe me, I wasn't defending the manufacturer against your
complaint. I was just
stating how several different manufacturers continue to struggle with
automatic
trannys after all these years--and how it's not really that uncommon to have
some
sort of problem with them. The one that surprises me the most is GM's issues
with
the 4L60E transmission which has been used in several different cars, SUVs
and
pickup trucks over the years. Admittedly, they have sold a whole lot of
vehicles with
this particular transmission. So yes, there are going to be some defective
ones. But
you can also view this from another perspective and say that this tranny
should be
100% bulletproof by now. I had a 4L60E to fail in a 2002 Chevy TrailBlazer
LTZ
with only 9,000 miles on the odometer. That's pretty sad! :-(

Ron M.

 

Hi John,

I agree with you 100%. At this point in time casting defects shouldn't be an
issue.[/QUOTE]

The 02 Odyssey, at least, had some porosity issues with the engine block.

Let me tell you, Honda has stopped being an engineering company.
Non-engineers are running things, and they're running Honda's
hard-earned reputation into the ground.

Once lost, it's lost (GM, anyone?). Hyundai doesn't have a particularly
difficult job ahead of them; all they have to do is make rock-solid cars
and service their customers well, and they'll capture those who came to
expect that kind of service back when Honda did that.

 

Indeed, problems like that seem to keep coming back in the automotive
industry. Volvo had problems with it's aluminum block straight-6
engines when that design was released in the mid-1990s.

Sure seems that way.

Indeed. There was a time in the post-WWII where GM was one of the best
engineering and manufacturing companies in the world.

Hyundai is on the right track with long standard warranties. By taking
on a long warranty they take on the costs associated with engineering
and manufacturing problems. That way the costs are born by the people
who were responsible for the problems in the first place.

Most of the repairs (excepting normal wear items) which are needed by
any modern properly maintained vehicle in the 37k-100k mile time frame
are a result of poor engineering and/or poor manufacturing controls.
Honda and most auto makers sidesteps this basic fact by putting those
costs onto the customer. The customer didn't make the mistakes.
Managers, engineers and/or factory workers caused most of the problems,
yet the customer is one stuck paying the bill. Of course customers get
very angry about this.

GM lost it's way first and foremost by getting arrogant; and secondarily
by letting the finance people have the upper hand on most internal
decisions. Honda is in great danger of making that same kind of
long-term mistakes.

One of the crazy things in the modern world is that most companies spend
massive fortunes on advertising to gain customers, but then treat the
customers like dog-doo once said same customer have put their money on
the table. I would love to see an automobile company have the guts to
cut it's advertising budget as needed to fund an immediate increase of
the warranty period for all customers, INCLUDING THOSE WHO HAD ALREADY
BOUGHT A CAR. Imagine the positive buzz if Honda announced tomorrow
that effectively immediately all Honda car purchases would be covered by
a five year, 75k mile comprehensive warranty and that in order to fund
the slight increase in costs to Honda from this change they would be
reducing television advertising buys slightly to cover the potential costs.

If one is to believe Honda's hype/image, this increased warranty period
should cost the company almost nothing.


John

 

Yup.

At 35K miles and 42 months of age (right outside the warranty by time),
the idle air control on my Odyssey went bad. That's a $300 repair.
Fortunately, my dealership stepped up to the plate (it's good to have a
good relationship with those folks) and just replaced it for me, and in
the background made Honda pay for it.

And they were right--it wasn't right for me to have suffered something
like that. I'm glad they took care of it, and Honda does indeed take
care of their customers who know to ask, but there are plenty who don't
know to ask--and they're buying some big ticket items like transmissions.

And that's just plain wrong.

 

The 02 Odyssey, at least, had some porosity issues with the engine block.

Let me tell you, Honda has stopped being an engineering company.
Non-engineers are running things, and they're running Honda's
hard-earned reputation into the ground.

Once lost, it's lost (GM, anyone?). Hyundai doesn't have a particularly
difficult job ahead of them; all they have to do is make rock-solid cars
and service their customers well, and they'll capture those who came to
expect that kind of service back when Honda did that.[/QUOTE]

Since I work as a mechanical engineer myself, I can tell you from first hand
experience that the majority of the quality problems with *our* products are
indeed due to our accountants preventing us from spending the appropriate
amount of funds for better materials and tooling. It is VERY difficult to
deal with this on a daily basis as an engineer. Just this week I did some
extensive analysis on a product of ours and clearly demonstrated that it is
HIGHLY likely to fail in the real-world application. Mainly due to the fact
that my superiors insist on using a "cheap material" to help increase the
profit margin on the product. So when customers start returning these parts
I am DEFINITELY going to say 'I told you so!!!' Funny how we don't have the
money to do things right the first time, but we've somehow got the money to
do things over, and over and OVER in order to straighten out the screw ups
that COULD have been prevented up front. It's just insanity the way that a
lot of companies operate.

It's true that Honda is on course to become another GM if they don't wake up
and change their business model in a very timely fashion.

Ron M.