HIPPA for cars and "Oops" rant
 

So I ended up buying a 63K mles '13 Honda Pilot for my daughter from a private party. No service records but in good shape overall. Obviously, I now have another car with an ICE to maintain. So, I change the engine oil over the weekend because the maintenance minder light came on and the oil life indicator showed 10% oil service life remaining. A little internet digging shows that these things need other fluids changed more regularly (trans, diffs, transfer case) than I'm accustomed to and I'm wondering when that last happened. I call the dealer in Green Bay and ask if I can get that info. Nope. The service rep tells me "It's like hospital HIPPA." WTH?? I tell her "we're talking about a car, not a person." "I don't make the rules. If you bring it in we can look at it." How about 'No'?


Similarly, I go to look at a nice, private party Walker riding mower over the weekend. Brand new, never used, 0.7 hours on the meter. For sale now because of a long story involving a fire, insurance, an elderly father and some questionable reasoning. None-the-less, there it is--brand new. I google a little and notice that the 2 options that the owner's son cited (power bin dump and fine cut height adjustment) are absent from the mower. He calls the mower dealer today and gets "Oops, I guess we forgot to put those on." Really?

I don't know why I bothered writing this out other than both seem a long way toward absurd.

I have a Honda and the code tells me the required service.


Code A: Oil change is needed.
Code B: Check front and rear brakes and parking brake adjustment and replace oil and oil filter.
Subcode 1: Rotate tires.
Subcode 2: Replace cabin air filters and inspect the drive belt.
Subcode 3: Change transmission fluid.
Subcode 4: Replace spark plugs and timing belt. Inspect water pump and valve clearance.
Subcode 5: Replace engine coolant.

Try going by a local Honda dealership, and drive the car. Ask if what they charge to hook it up to the computer to get the service history as if that is something they just should do. If they will even do it, I bet they charge $100 or more.

One of my wife's former cars was a Mercedes E class. The battery just died, and I replaced it. The battery had less that 6 volts when I checked the power. I replaced the battery, but the car had to be reprogrammed to raise up the windows to the right height, and to close the sunroof and reset the radio. The dealership charged $150 or so to for the honor of doing it, and I bought the battery from them.

My 2010 Honda shows codes for all that s/or/l mentioned.
If they aren't showing..I would assume they have been done.
If not confident of that...do them and reset the mm.

I went a long time without buying a car.

Have not had success getting service history in recent years.

Used to be I'd get the records for my 944's with the personal info blanked out.

I have no records on my XK or Corvette.

Hahhah, ROFLMAO. WTF. That's hilarious. I think I'd be tempted to stop by the service area just so I could laugh at them and make a big hairy deal out of that being the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard and how it sounds like a scam to get more money out of people.

Sure. Honestly these fluids changes would appear to be pretty easy to accomplish but if they had recently been replaced and a phone call could confirm it, I'd be fine with it. I ordered Honda trans, diff and transfer case fluids from Amazon on Sat. night in preparation for non-assuring or bad news. It all arrived 30 minutes ago. Amazon has restored some of my faith. :)

Suspect the Honda you have does not have a pan or a replaceable filter for the trans.

If this is the case do a couple/few iterations of the drain and re-fill. I am certain you have read this. Then re-do religiously every 30k or so.

I have a mid-2000's Odyssey pushing 200k miles and the PO, my shop landlord, says "eff-no" to ever changing the fluid. Level is fine and fluid does not stink and looks good but I get a tiny bit of shudder on cold mornings for about three minutes.

You know the drill "If you change old-ass fluid you will clean the band mating surfaces and your trans will be toast"

Not sure if it's an old wives tale but steer clear of this potential predicament by getting your anal retentive on. Your car is still a pup.

I've heard that about auto-trannies. I've also heard the guess that maybe they gunk up and the new fluid dislodges crud that ends up clogging things in the valve body.

I've also heard about folks that took their car to a tranny place because they were having issues. Tranny place says "you need a full rebuild." Cousin/brother/boyfriend/neighbor says, "I can fix it." A filter, gasket and few quarts of oil later and their trans is purring like a kitten.

Ya, no filter just a magnetic drain plug. Honda changed their ATF in about 2011 so this Pilot should be on a drain and fill routine as you indicated. At least it looks user friendly under there. Just need to verify the fill plug is willing to be removed prior to draining things.

Fwiw, I'd still drop the old fluid out of your trans but I'm not superstitious...at all...as in tell me I can't do something and that makes it 10x more likely to happen. :)

Are you sure?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/1044330-counterfeit-stuff-amazon.html

When my wife's 2003 Odyssey got to 200K, I pretty much stopped doing any routine maintenance other than an oil change every 10-15K. Not that I did much before that anyway. It was going strong at near 300K until the 3rd rear end hit took it out because repair was more than it's value. The van still drove fine but it was pretty ugly by then. We have 3 Hondas now. They just run and run. There are certainly higher end cars out there but it's nice to have vehicles that just do what they are supposed to, get you from place to place without drama. Especially when it's my kids that are driving them.

If only people had not run Lubey off this site...

I guess I missed that whole thing. Then again, I tend to get bored with threads that have pivoted away from the original topic and degrade into personal insults. I met Mike when I lived in Atlanta and he was the consummate salesman. I have noticed his absence.

Having previously owned a small dealership there is a concern about disclosing personal information from prior owners without their consent. With that said, you can still provide records with personal information removed, but at that point you are bumping up against laziness of dealerships.

Double, double check. I am pretty sure these actually do have a replaceable external transmission filter . It is either a cartridge, or canister type depending on which motor you have . I think all the pilots have the cartridge .
I've been driving an Accord that I got for free with a bad trans. The external filter blew apart and sent junk all through the trans.
I've been changing filters and fluids regularly , and it's been working pretty good lately
All the years I have been servicing them, I never really knew of this . I do not remember ever seeing it in any service write ups , or intervals .

I've taken the easy way out on our Honda's. To change the trans fluid, I just suck it out with a MightyVac. Put in as much as I take out, good to go, no getting under the cars and takes about 15 minutes total time. A lot less mess too.

I hope you are right but I am betting no.

The only filter I've been able to identify is contained within the transmission and requires the whole unit to be removed and opened for replacement. I'd be happy to be wrong and would change it if accessible.

I get your points but I don't see how basic maintenance of a car is personal information or somehow more personal than a name and address appearing on the title of a car purchased from a dealership.

In the end and to me, people dislike dealerships for reasons exactly like this and more.