[Paul Ramdial]

Just paid about $200 for a coolant leak repair. 2000 ody 44000 miles. Dealer "goodwilled" the parts ...1 "O" ring and 2gaskets.This leak is located (facing the vehicle) from the upper right side of ENGINE
just below and behind ...I believe the EGR valve...Please correct me here ! It is a slow leak and in my case just a streak which dries on the engine block. There is a TSB for this
and perhaps it started even while the vehicle was in warranty...who knows?...So you ODY owners save yourself some bucks and check for this leak..I was told also that it may seal
itself.

 

[adam1991]

This is one reason I go ahead and have my (admittedly wonderful) dealership service department handle the service on my cars.

I call it cheap insurance. The result is that my mechanic (OK, he's become my friend) has his eyeball on things as he does something as simple as an oil change. As TSBs come up and my car comes in, he eyeballs the situation and keeps me on top of it.

In a case like this, if the problem started under warranty, they may or may not have fixed it then--but it would have been noted and the result would have been a warranty repair, even at 44K miles.

You won't get that by changing your own oil every time.

Life's full of tradeoffs, and this is one example of that.

 

[back2earth]

Not sure how many dealerships are like yours. But I did take my 01LX in at 29k for its first visit to the service dept and the dealer dutifully noted a number of things in case I needed to make a claim later. Otherwise, I won't see the dealer again for a long, long time. I can change oil, rotate tires, and check things over in half the time it takes to drive to the dealer. Nevermind leaving it and having to pick it up later. Also like the convenience of parts shipped to my house at internet prices. Different strokes for different Ody folks.



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Ben
2001 LX, GG, mud guards, cargo tray, keyless remote, CD player, Blaupunkt speakers

 

[rg]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by adam1991:
You won't get that by changing your own oil every time.
</font>

I completely disagree.

Every time I change the oil (actually every time I *check* the oil) I make a point to look at various things in the car. (Of course when I'm underneath the car during an oil change this process is more thorough than if I am just looking under the hood.) In any case I find things wrong with the car WAAAY before any dealer mechanic who is not familiar with how the car drives every day possibly can.

And when I fix these problems or do other maintenance jobs I do a much more thorough ("loving") job than any mechanic would.

If one is changing their own oil to save bucks, this may or may not be the case. However if you're like me and you change your own oil because of the pleasure of working on your own car, you WILL have a better idea of what's going on than a stranger mechanic.

 

[Jerry O1]

Adam's points are well taken. I, too, do everything I can myself, but, I know that a dealer tech will be aware of things I would not think of, nor see. Those guys work on these vehicles every day and they know what is going wrong with them and can sometimes alert the owner when a problem is just beginning and save him from taking a "walk", when he does not want to. When I had my Chevy Citation I got to know my dealer techs VERY well and it was a very comfortable thing, to go there and be treated as if I knew something. Whatever the problem, they always treated me well, since they knew I took the best possible care of the car. I would like to have such a relationship with my Honda dealer, but, the shop is just far enough away that it is inconvenient to go there often. I will continue to do my own work and be as vigilant as possible.

Jerry O.

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2001 Odyssey GG LX