Let me preface this by saying both of these instances occurred at nearby Richmond area Honda dealerships, and not local mom & pop garages or national chain garages.

Back in December 2015, I finally had the power door lock actuator problem fixed in my 2011 Accord EX sedan at a nearby Honda dealership. The service department said it was the rear-driver's side door that was causing the problem with the front driver's-side door not arming the security system when I tried to lock the door with the key fob and then not unlocking, even though the rear-passenger's side door had been intermittently not unlocking either. "If one of them is bad, it can send a faulty signal to another one." At this time, they also recommended I have the 60K mile service done, which included several items which would have cost several hundred more dollars. I only told them to do the transmission fluid change (manual transmission), and when it was all tallied up, the total was over $530, which included the parts & labor for the lock actuator replacement. That's fine; I had fresh transmission fluid and the power door locks were finally fixed.

So I thought.

Fast forward to early February, and the power door locks were behaving the same way they were before I had the problem "fixed." When I try to lock the car with the key fob from outside, it only locks and arms the security system about half of the time, and it almost never unlocks the driver's side door with the fob. If I'm by myself, I have to climb over the passenger seat to unlock the door. I'm going to readdress the issue when I have money saved up to have them looked at again.

Today, I had the state inspection done for my car, required by the state of Virginia making sure my car is safe & legal to drive on the roads. The car passed, but the service department at this Honda dealership, a different Honda service department/dealership than where I had the car serviced back in December, again recommended the 60K mile service, which included the transmission fluid change. I informed the tech that I had already had the transmission fluid changed back in December, but apparently there was no record of this being done? I thought that car dealerships, especially those within the same brand of car, could see which service was done at which dealership even if it's in a different location (a Honda service department seeing you had services done at a different Honda service department)?

Two questions: was the service tech I deal with today just trying to scam me? I get it they're trying to make money, but don't sell me something I have already had completed -- or so I thought (the transmission fluid change). I wouldn't be so upset about it, but he was trying to upsell me on over $1700 worth of services! Granted, $820 of that was for new tires, which I never purchase at a dealership anyway, but I was completely dumbfounded that I came in for a $16 service, and they tried to upsell me with THAT many items.

Second, how can I now be sure that any services were actually done back in December?? With the locks now not working again, and with having the transmission fluid being attempted to be sold to me again, even though that was also supposedly done back in December, what's my next step? I hate being taken advantage of when paying for car service, and I felt like that's what the guy was (unsuccessfully) attempting to do to me this morning. Again, I understand they are trying to make money, and my little $16 state inspection charge wasn't going to cut it with them.

Any help/insight anyone could provide would be appreciated.

 

Call the 1st dealership and ask them what services are due on your car and see if they recommend a trans fluid change. If they do, ask them when the last time you had the trans fluid changed? You should also ask about the door lock problem, since it has returned to see if the "repair" is under warranty?

What services were the 2nd dealership asking to do on your car?

 

Thank you, I will do that!

The 2nd dealership wasn't specific about what was all included in the 60K mile service, but they did bring up the transmission fluid change, and that's when I told them that I just had that changed in December, and that's when I also thought the guy was trying to snowball me.

 

Even if a dealer "CAN" look up what services were done to that car at another dealership, that doesn't mean they automatically look for it. It doesn't hurt anything (other than your wallet) to change the fluid again, so they're not motivated to look for stuff that's already done.