Hi I'm new here and need some advice please!...thanks in advance (warning: long story to follow)

I have a 2001 Accord EX 125,000 miles and I just took to a Honda dealer to get the transmission replaced. Before I took the car in for the transmission replacement, the only electrical issues it had were: 1) the SRS light stayed on (known warranty issue) and 2) occasionally the park brake light would go off and on while driving 3) the (driver side) rear passenger door would not lock when setting the car alarm with the key control (we manually locked & unlocked it when necessary) or from the main power lock switch on driver door. Regardless...the car alarm would cut on (indicator light in driver door blinked and the horn sounded) and off by the remote key control.

Once received (after a week of waiting for a new transmission) the dealership tried to return it to me and the following problems arose:

1) the key would not release from the ignition at all and when you turned they key (still in the ignition) towards the driver you could hear an electrical "clicking" that appeared to come from under the dash. They said they would have to adjust the linkage and that would take care of the key not relesing from the ignition

2) the next day I go to pick it up...fine...drove off the lot (immediately after shutting off and starting again...the gear shift lever was impossible to get out of Park and into Drive (the brake pedal also had a lot of tension on it when this happened) after numerous attempts to get it to start it finally went into gear (no specific pattern of why this was happening but it happened every time after we parked the car); also the alarm would not activate (no driver door indicator light blinking and no sound from horn although the power locks would engage & disengage when activated by remote); we also discovered the rear (center included) brake lights only occasionally worked when the brake pedal was pressed; the dealer took it back and then charged me almost $100 to replace a "bad brake switch"; switches go bad...I understand...but that's a hefty price. We paid it...drove the car of the lot again...assuming all was well. Unfortunately...

3) The same night I noticed the (front) passenger door power lock switch would activate the dome light when engaged...however...the dome light would not come on when the driver door switch was depressed (I physically depressed this switch and the side door lights would switch on and off but not the dome light); also noticed the driver side rear power window would not roll up or down and eventually the key got stuck in the ignition again and would not come out and we heard the clicking sound again from under the dash. I took it back to the dealer and will have to wait until Monday before they can reacess the issue(s).

Please...I need honest opinions and suggestions as to what is going on and how to remedy this(?)...the dealership is saying it's my problem and I will have to pay them to troubleshoot but I feel they screwed up a wiring harness(s) during the initial transmission installation...because as stated...I have electrical problems now that I didn't have before the transmission replacement.

Also, I'm in the Nashville, TN area...can anyone suggest a great mechanic that is Honda certified(?) or (regardless) capable of fixing this? Thanks again in advance for any suggestions.

 

There are way too many electrical problems for one wire harness to be bad. I doubt that replacing the tranny would have caused this many problems.

A bad/loose ground can cause a ton of problems. All I have is the wiring diagram for a 95 (my car) and there is a ground (G404) near the shifter that would screw up your interlock system, but G402 can cause some of the other electrical problems. You might have to get a shop manual to find the grounds on your car. My Haynes manual doesn't have the ground locations listed in it. You can try to download the 94 electrical suppliment from hondahookup.com/manuals to get a rough idea where the ground would be located, but the locations of each ground wire could definitely be different between generations.
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The key/shifter problem is a problem with your interlock system. I'm just not sure how it is screwing up.

Here is a general description of the interlock system:

When the shift lever is in any other position than P or is not securely locked in P (parking pin switch is ON), a solenoid is
activated, making it impossible to remove the ignition key from the ignition switch.
To be able to remove the key, the shift lever must be in P and must be securely locked in this position (parking pin switch
must be turned off by the lock pin).
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