Honda Dealership Refuses to Honor Warranty On Manual Transmission Failure

Reader Question I am currently battling my Honda dealership because I am 1700 miles over my warrantee and my manual transmission went up. They are saying that they can’t help me because I did not use there dealership for routine maintenance and they are accusing the shop that I used of dumping the transmission fluid. I find this hard to believe because I had my oil changed a month before the transmission went up and the car was driving fine for 3 weeks.

However, the Honda dealership had my car for 2 weeks before they supposedly diagnosed the problem. My question is: is it possible to drive a Honda with a manual transmission for weeks without transmission fluid? People are telling me that the car would not have gone into gear without this fluid in place. Let me know.

Hi there,

Ouch! Have you talked to the general manager with the dealership yet? I would also ask to speak to the Honda district manager who is in charge of that area. You are out of warranty, and legally (although I am NOT a lawyer) they are not responsible for the repair. I do find it hard to believe that they would keep the vehicle for 2 weeks to get a diagnosis on something that really should have taken 20 minutes….the transmission either works or it doesn’t.

Could you drive the vehicle without fluid for weeks……no you could not. Could you drive the vehicle low on fluid and possibly do internal damage…maybe. I have seen many Ford Explorer manual transmissions burn up because the owner ran them completely out of fluid until the vehicle would not pull itself anymore. This could have happened to you, but you would have had to been towed into the dealership and the vehicle would NOT move once it was there…..thus a 20 minute inspection would have been all that was needed.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease…I think you should squeak a little louder and at the right person at the dealership. They might not cover all the repair under warranty, but they SHOULD at least work with you on the repair price. If you need a new transmission and they won’t work with you on the price…I would call a few junk yards in your area and get price quotes from them, and get your local mechanic to install it.

Blessings,

Austin Davis