I'm a long time accord owner. Bought our first in 1989. Now have a 2000 EX v-6. I was satisfied witht the dealer service up until about the 36K. At that point, I noticed a lack of attention to detail by the techs (forgetting to reset the service light, spraying grease on the door hinges, but not wiping the excess that was running down the jamb off, mistakenly performing the 45,000 service when I brought it in for the 36K service, taking two times to fix the steering wheel radio volume control, not being able to perform the front end allignment during a scheduled maintenance where we drove an hour to the dealer). OK, enough grumbling about the service. I also noticed they seemed to be very good at charging for things, that were not called for by the manual. If the folks are not getting the regular service done 100%, I doubted they were doing the extra stuff they were charging me for. After that service, I started doing my own stuff.

Fast forward to today. Our 2000 Accord now has 95K on it. I thought it should be taken in to do the timing belt and service the tranny. I scheduled these, and asked the service guy to check the brakes, and please tell me what's making so much noise in the rear end area. I told him I just put new tires on it, and they didn't stop the noise. My wife took the car in to have the work done.


Here's the rub: They called while the car was apart, and said it needed a new air conditioner tensioner (there's been no problem noted by us with this to date - not even and belt chirp). Said it needed brakes (pads and turn rotors), said it needed both rear wheel bearings. Unfortunately, they didn't have the wheel bearings or the airconditioning tensioner in stock. If I left the car for the weekend, they could possibly get it done on Monday. Cost: Brakes $400.00, Wheel bearings $420.00, Belt tensioner $78.00. I was a bit miffed that they didn't have the parts in stock - remember, the dealer is an hour away. I wonder if the prices are a bit on the high side. I can't help wondering if there wasn't a problem with the tensioner, because it so happens that if I left the car there through the weekend, they would put the tensioner on for only the cost of the part. If I brought it back, it would be $300.00 because they would have to take it apart again. How do they test the tensioner????? We brought the car home and will do the work later.

For the final rub: They charged me 1 hour ($85.00) to tell me I needed new wheel bearings. I'm thinking this is about a 10 minute task??? They charged me 1/2 hour ($42.00) to tell me I needed new brakes. Again, It's 4 wheel disc - I'm thinking another 10 minutes.

Is it just my poor attitude and mistrust of the dealer's service department making me feel like they're stealing from me, or are they porking the puppy, and my name's fido????

This is a story that your local TV station would just love to get ahold of>>
why not get them involved in this?

WheelBrokerAng....[sm=americanasmiley.gif]

if its not too late........dont get the bearings done. your front bearings will go out well before the rear ones do, and they should last about 200000+ miles, unless you have hit something or done some ungodly driving your bearings should be perfectly fine. sounds like you need to change dealerships..

WOW what a RIP OFF..........

first off to test the wheel bearing for noise they can just trest drive the car or raise the car on the lift, spin the wheels and hear the noise ,, i guarantee you that if it needs wheel bearings they will be able to hear the noise just by spinning the wheel

secondly .. if you got all disc brakes which you do,, they do not even have to remove the wheels to chk the brakes they can do so using a flash lite and looking inside the wheel into the caliper/////////
also did they remove the wheels to chk for wheel bearing noise ?? you should ask them because if they did checking the brakes with the wheels off my 10 yr old son can do so in less that 1 minute all a tech has to do is look at the pads ........WOW WOW WOW........

I would call the dealer and ask to speak to the serive depart manager , if you get nowhere with hin ( her ) speak to the general manager or the owner..

if still going nowhere, talk to the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU ,,,,,,,,,OR as suggested go to the local paper or radio or tv station or all 3 of them..

the sad part is that that some dealers do this to a lot of customers ,,,,,,,,
I sincerely hope you do not let them get away with this .....ROBBERY ..

Oh and by the way Welcome to HAF........

Sorry to hear about your frustration with their "service". I think you need to make a little noise. Some shops assume the customer knows nothing about cars at all and they can pretty much have their way with you.

I'm also inclined to think that your wheel bearings aren't the problem. And you're right, it doesn't really take an hour to check either of those things for a shop that has everything it needs. Seriously, a disc brake pad check involves looking at the brake and checking the amount of pad left.

deserthonda mentioned the word robbery and I think you should keep that in mind. You're are essentially being robbed by this place and if the managers can't make you happy (and I don't think a free oil change will do the trick), by all means go to the local news channel and see if they'll help out.

Thanks for the responses folks, Thanks for the welcome to the forum. Forums such as this one are increasingly becoming a valued tool in dealing with the many different parts of life that can be so complicated, and have not yet been experienced by your neighbor. Your neighbor may not know which gasket faces which direction, and in what order on a bathroom shower pan drain, but there's a reasonable guy in Akron Ohio who just did that job, and is glad to share what he (or she) learned. I appreciate forums like this one, and will glean and contribute as both are appropriate. Thanks to the moderators for .... well, moderating to ensure it's not a free-for-all, and that the quality of information is reasonable without stiffling free speach.

OK, So far it's 3 out of 3 think my name is Fido, and the dealer is "porking the puppy". Yes, I am going to speak with someone at the dealership, and possibly beyond. Doubt I'll go to the newspaper or tv, but you never know what could happen if I get a smart a** service manager or counter guy try to blow smoke up my skirt. Not that I wear a skirt... It's interesting that we have the term "go postal", but I've never heard the term "go dealer service". Not that I'm advocating violence, and no, I don't even own a gun....but do believe the second amendment says I can.

One thing I've noticed in the past when dealing with these folks, is that they're big on paperwork that tries to justify the careful hours the mechanic devotes to your car's loving attention. In reality, I believe it's all smoke and mirrors, while the mech's wiz through tasks committing such sins as using air tools where a torque wrench is called for, performing two second "inspections" of entire systems with a mere glance, and filling out maintenance step-by-step check off sheets with one big line down through all the checks while standing at the scheduler's desk fifty feet away and fifteen minutes after the service is performed. Am I far off here???

What I'd like from you kind folks is any info on any maintenance guidelines, policies or procedures that come from Honda about the work I had done. This is because I've found that when working within a paperwork driven mechanical maintenance system, the way to prove or disprove the appropriate steps were taken, is to find the paperwork that tells the mechanic what to do, and use that ALONG with the basic fact of overcharging to show they're porking you. Fifteen years of working in and around nuclear reactor plant maintenance on a submarine and in the civilian sector has taught me that. It's also why I'm a custom woodworker now, and leave the atom splitting to those more interested in getting the paperwork to look good than getting the valve to seat properly. I did the timing belt change on my first Accord, and it appears as though I'm going to have to start doing most all of my maintenance if I don't want to get screwed.

So, where do I find the testing procedure for the Air Conditioner tensioning pulley, if there is one? Is the mech supposed to put a torque wrench on the pulley, and determine the torque required to remove the tension from the belt? Where do I find the guidelines for checking wheel bearings and brakes? Are there guidelines for the retention of documents for these tasks? For instance, is there a sheet where the mech is supposed to mic the pads and rotors and record the readings when doing an inspection? I know this is all really **** retentive and way into the B/S category. However, when I complain to the dealer about them charging me 1.5 hours labor to check the brakes and rear wheel bearings, he's probably going to go on, and on about all the steps they have to do to perform these checks, and the time it takes to do these steps. I've seen maintenance checklists at the dealership before, and know they use these "paper tools" supposedly to ensure they're doing a good job. I think it's actually part of the smoke and mirrors. In reality, I think the mechanic took the car for a one mile test drive, then put it on the lift, (which I imagine he had to do anyway to change the timing belt) spun the rear wheels to confirm the bearings were going bad, and pointed a light into the brake pad area so he could guestimate the wear - maybe fifteen minutes total. If they had charged me for fifteen minutes, I would have felt they were not stealing from me, only getting paid for time they spent on my behalf on my car - fair enough. I imagine that as big as the Honda company is, they've got to have procedures to do this stuff, and as much as management likes to cover their a** as well as justify their hourly shop rate, there may very well be a document trail for this stuff. One more thing. Well, maybe more than one. Are there any internal guidelines concerning what parts the dealer should have on hand when they do the timing belt? What I'm looking for is if they should have reasonably expected to have an Air conditioner belt tensioner in stock when they performed the timing belt job. Yes, I know they should by common sense, but have they been told by Honda in a service bulletin, or some other internal document that this is a probable wear item and be sure to have it on hand for scheduled timing belt replacements?


Again, Thanks for the welcome. I'll leave now and go check if my torque wrenches have been calibrated within their required time period...............

heres the unofficial testing procedure for checking your tensioner......in the morning when the car is cold, make sure the air conditioner is turned on before you start up the car. crank it over, if you hear a loud squeele coming from under the hood, then you need a new one, if you dont hear anything, your good. yea its just a spring that holds the belt tight.