I had an interesting time at the dealership today...

Took my 09 Fit sport m/t in for regular maintenance today. Turns out the high pitch noise my reverse gear is making is not "normal".

Honda: "Transmission needs to be replaced"

Me: "Ok, my car only has 23,000 km's on it in two years, I assume it's under warranty."

Honda: "Well... we noticed your car has been lowered."

Me: then

I immediately see red. I tell him that if the strut had blown I would understand the warranty being void but the transmission has sounded like that from day one and did not change after being lowered.

Long story short, the manager sided with me after a "friendly exchange of ideas".

FYI: the tranny fluid they pulled out was black tar at 23k. It's recommended to be changed at 48k. Go figure.

 

They better take care of you that's bull my dealership said that as long as I don't open the motor our hasn't they would warrantee anything as long as its not heavily modified... Good luck

 

Wow, glad things worked out for you!! Way to stick to your guns....lots of people probably bend over when the Dealer makes outlandish claims like this.

Makes me want to change my tranny fluid after the winter

 

my tranny makes that noise too..i better take it in b4 i lower the car this summer

 

Um, why didn't you take the car to the dealer on day 1?

 

Mine makes a faint whining noise if I have it in first gear with the clutch kicked in. Soon as i take it out of first gear, with the clutch still down the noise goes away. I just figured it was a synchro making that noise.

 

Being my first Honda, I assumed all Honda's sounded like that. It was the dealer that actually said that something wasn't right.

 

First time I changed the ATF it at 15,000, the fluid was pretty black. Now I change the ATF every 10,000.

 

Black atf??? I changed mine before winter with 50k on it and it was dark red, no longer pink. Do you all have MT's?

Most hondas I've owned whine a bit in reverse but I thought it was due to the way the tranny was built.

I'll be checking mine more frequently regardless since this winter has been hard on the tranny (got stuck in the snow a few times!)

 

So, this is an additional sound to the normal whine that every manual transmission car makes in reverse? Does the Fit have a helical reverse gear or something?

 

Lol. Just fyi guys, the color of the fluid does not tell anything. it doesn't mean your oil is dead.

but yeah thanks for the info, i guess i'll take my car in too just to make sure everything is ok. just hit the 25,000mil point.

 

60k miles on my '09 MT, original fluid, shifts like the day I bought it. I'll change the fluid when the maintenance minder tells me to.

As said above, color of the fluid doesn't necessarily mean anything....though it's a pretty good indicator in an automatic transmission when the fluid is supposed to be nice and pink and it's black/brown and smells burnt :-)

 

For engine oil yes as it interacts with exhaust. But a transmission is a sealed unit that doesn't interact with other gases. If I had off-color Atf I would consider that it no longer in spec and change it.

 

I'm really, really disappointed in you guys. 11 or 12 posts and no comments about the OP "blowing a tranny".

 

My first thought was to suggest a cheaper alternative when blowing a tranny next time, but thought that was a bit much. Thank you sir for bringing this point to light.

 

every manual i know of has always wined in reverse and not my new '11 mt does when i but it in reverse but i hate backing up so i never do it. now i have a 2nd reason not to

 

reverse gear on k, b, and d series are strait cut, that's where the normal reverse whine comes from. I've never had an l series trans apart, but I'm sure its the same. that really bites about your trans. are they paying for everything or did they make a deal on the repair with you?

 

also, both color and smell of gear/hydraulic oil has everything to do with fluid life. if its brown/black, its needs replaced. engine oil is a different animal of course, it depends on oil type, engine maintenance, and overall health of the engine...

 

Let me reiterate, as others have. A manual transmission whines in reverse. All of them. Seriously, is there a car with helical cut reverse gears? Probably - but I've never drive one. I hope the mechanic isn't just trying to eek a job out of this.

 

Something is wrong with your transmission.

ATF should NOT be black at 15,000 miles. I'm not a Honda service tech, but I was the engineering manager for five years at the company that does AT remanufacturing for American Honda and I've learned a thing or two about their automatics.