- Joined
- Jan 7, 2015
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- Western North Carolina
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- Multiple Mustangs!
I have worked on a few Japanese cars and as usual this 2009 Honda Pilot Touring was no different. This is for a friend in nursing that is going to help me when I have my surgery so I could not say no.
She text the other day and was all upset was at Firestone service center to get oil changed and front end aligned and they came back with this quote.
So they put enough fear in her that she let them do the rear brakes. She did not have the money to do all the work. I asked her if there was any clicking noise in the front end and if the brakes were making a noise and she said no. But I went ahead and ordered the parts at Advance and got new not rebuilt CV and better grade of brake pads and rotors. Was $334.96 and they were in the next day.
She works near Charlotte right now does contract nursing jobs where ever they pay the most. She is sort of amazing in that she owns the Honda Pilot and a newer Honda Civic and paid cash for both. She also owns her home that she bought on the court house steps at action and paid cash. Since she has remodeled most of it and paid as she went. She has never had a credit card either and get this she is only 27. How many women do you know that can say that.
So anyway I checked on the net and watched a couple videos and everyone was telling how difficult the L.H. CV shaft is to get out due to exhaust in the way. Also the nut on the spindle gets 180 ft. lbs. torque and heaviest torque wrench I have is 150. I did by chance have all the metric sockets up to 36 mm I think. Honda puts two angle head phillips head screws to hold the rotors on during shipping and assembly at the plant. Ford used the push nuts for years and last screws I saw was in 1950 Ford panel truck to hold the rear drums on. So it is #2 phillips and I quickly break two brand new bits and tried to use a punch to get them to trun but no luck so I drilled the heads off. They are not needed except for the assembly line.
The old rotors are perfect not warped and over an 1/8" of pad before you get to the squeaker so over 1/4" of pad left and they told her was dangerous to drive and needed done now. So I got the L.H. brakes on and went to the right side to get the 1/2 shaft out. Got the peened over safety tab out of the key way and attempted to turn the nut with 2' breaker bar, NO F%&*#$ WAY. So I get the 1/2" impact wrench out and put 120 lbs. pressure to it and nothing. So I go get a section of chain link fence post about 5' long to put on the 2' breaker bar and finally it breaks loose. The two bolts holding the struts are also a pain to get loose and back in with a bad neck. So I get the 1/2 shaft broke loose out of the front hub and start to try to pull from the transmission. One guy on line said he wrapped a piece of chain around it and jerked it so I did and the shaft pulled the end off and short section still in the transmission. They have an internal snap ring you have to over come. So I get a really big screw driver and find a like 1/2" hole I can get through and put on end next to transmission about four hits and it pops out.
So in with the new shaft and get the hub back on the strut and go to put the nut on the 1/2 shaft and it is odd mm size of 33 mm I have below and above so off to Advance and yep it is not standard he did have on so now I have a 33 mm I will probably never use again. Got the brakes back together on the R.H. side and one thing on them I had not seen was springs to pull the pads away from the disc when brakes not applied. Should help with gas mileage.
So on Friday when she came up we drove her car to go eat and in big empty K-Mart parking lot I did tight circles to the left and right. If a bad CV joint it will usually click but not a sound. The inner boot was oily and leaking was all that was wrong. On the way to eat she said that between 45 and 50 the transmission would to weird things and that Honda said she needed a new one. It did shutter several times on the trip to dinner and back.
So when we get back from Chinese I get on net and get on Honda Forum and boom is a common problem with about every Honda automatic transmission, shudder when shifting in the 45 - 50 mph range. Dozens of owner's with same issue and being told by Honda bad torque converter and transmission. Lots were saying that you need to change transmission fluid every 15,000 at most 20,000 miles. Also saying not to use the Honda fluids to use Valvoline Max Life instead and add something called Instant Shutter Fix in red tube. There is a little less than 4 quarts in the transmission so no wonder they do not last. There is like 10 or 12 in my truck which I never change at 307,000 but once.
So anyway when we went to get the 33 mm socket we got 4 quarts of the Max Life and tube of the Shudder Stop. The manager at Advance says he sells cases of the stuff to used car dealers. While there I forgot to get new crush washers for the fill plug and drain plug. First time for that also. They say not to reuse them to install new every time you take plug out. Everyone on the net says to remove the fill plug first that they are usually stuck and sure enough a 2' breaker bar to get out then up on the 2 post and drain the fluid what also took 2' breaker bar to get out. Fluid was dark not really red. So I put the old washer back on the drain plug and put back in and told her to watch for a leak. Dropped the car down and the fill plug is hidden under the firewall way down deep. I used hose with funnel up top to get the fluid in and then shot the shudder stop in and plug and old washer back in.
We go for a test drive maybe 6 miles and in grocery parking lot do some circles and no noise and the shifts do not have a shudder anymore so the Max Life and shudder stop might save the cost of transmission. She said she would sell before she did that. So not very impressed with this 160,000 mile Honda. She does drive 1 1/2 hours each way to work so lots of road miles which is much easier than stop and go.
So I told her if front brakes start going I will turn her old rotors maybe .005" and put them back on there was not need to change but since I had them we did. Here is link for the Shudder Stop it did work here but says not to use with Ford type F fluids.
https://www.lubegard.com/products/isf/
So now I am set for a nurse after my neck / surgery and she was happy that she did not pay Firestone $1,418.87. That is crazy If I was younger would open a shop and not rip customers off and make lots of money. There is only one good shop I trust here that does my inspections and checked out my trailer wiring couple weeks ago. He always has a waiting list and you never hear anything bad about their work.
Oh BTW the Advance manager told me that if I bought $800 in parts a month he would give 40% discount and deliver the parts. Just lets you know the mark up in parts.
She text the other day and was all upset was at Firestone service center to get oil changed and front end aligned and they came back with this quote.
So they put enough fear in her that she let them do the rear brakes. She did not have the money to do all the work. I asked her if there was any clicking noise in the front end and if the brakes were making a noise and she said no. But I went ahead and ordered the parts at Advance and got new not rebuilt CV and better grade of brake pads and rotors. Was $334.96 and they were in the next day.
She works near Charlotte right now does contract nursing jobs where ever they pay the most. She is sort of amazing in that she owns the Honda Pilot and a newer Honda Civic and paid cash for both. She also owns her home that she bought on the court house steps at action and paid cash. Since she has remodeled most of it and paid as she went. She has never had a credit card either and get this she is only 27. How many women do you know that can say that.
So anyway I checked on the net and watched a couple videos and everyone was telling how difficult the L.H. CV shaft is to get out due to exhaust in the way. Also the nut on the spindle gets 180 ft. lbs. torque and heaviest torque wrench I have is 150. I did by chance have all the metric sockets up to 36 mm I think. Honda puts two angle head phillips head screws to hold the rotors on during shipping and assembly at the plant. Ford used the push nuts for years and last screws I saw was in 1950 Ford panel truck to hold the rear drums on. So it is #2 phillips and I quickly break two brand new bits and tried to use a punch to get them to trun but no luck so I drilled the heads off. They are not needed except for the assembly line.
The old rotors are perfect not warped and over an 1/8" of pad before you get to the squeaker so over 1/4" of pad left and they told her was dangerous to drive and needed done now. So I got the L.H. brakes on and went to the right side to get the 1/2 shaft out. Got the peened over safety tab out of the key way and attempted to turn the nut with 2' breaker bar, NO F%&*#$ WAY. So I get the 1/2" impact wrench out and put 120 lbs. pressure to it and nothing. So I go get a section of chain link fence post about 5' long to put on the 2' breaker bar and finally it breaks loose. The two bolts holding the struts are also a pain to get loose and back in with a bad neck. So I get the 1/2 shaft broke loose out of the front hub and start to try to pull from the transmission. One guy on line said he wrapped a piece of chain around it and jerked it so I did and the shaft pulled the end off and short section still in the transmission. They have an internal snap ring you have to over come. So I get a really big screw driver and find a like 1/2" hole I can get through and put on end next to transmission about four hits and it pops out.
So in with the new shaft and get the hub back on the strut and go to put the nut on the 1/2 shaft and it is odd mm size of 33 mm I have below and above so off to Advance and yep it is not standard he did have on so now I have a 33 mm I will probably never use again. Got the brakes back together on the R.H. side and one thing on them I had not seen was springs to pull the pads away from the disc when brakes not applied. Should help with gas mileage.
So on Friday when she came up we drove her car to go eat and in big empty K-Mart parking lot I did tight circles to the left and right. If a bad CV joint it will usually click but not a sound. The inner boot was oily and leaking was all that was wrong. On the way to eat she said that between 45 and 50 the transmission would to weird things and that Honda said she needed a new one. It did shutter several times on the trip to dinner and back.
So when we get back from Chinese I get on net and get on Honda Forum and boom is a common problem with about every Honda automatic transmission, shudder when shifting in the 45 - 50 mph range. Dozens of owner's with same issue and being told by Honda bad torque converter and transmission. Lots were saying that you need to change transmission fluid every 15,000 at most 20,000 miles. Also saying not to use the Honda fluids to use Valvoline Max Life instead and add something called Instant Shutter Fix in red tube. There is a little less than 4 quarts in the transmission so no wonder they do not last. There is like 10 or 12 in my truck which I never change at 307,000 but once.
So anyway when we went to get the 33 mm socket we got 4 quarts of the Max Life and tube of the Shudder Stop. The manager at Advance says he sells cases of the stuff to used car dealers. While there I forgot to get new crush washers for the fill plug and drain plug. First time for that also. They say not to reuse them to install new every time you take plug out. Everyone on the net says to remove the fill plug first that they are usually stuck and sure enough a 2' breaker bar to get out then up on the 2 post and drain the fluid what also took 2' breaker bar to get out. Fluid was dark not really red. So I put the old washer back on the drain plug and put back in and told her to watch for a leak. Dropped the car down and the fill plug is hidden under the firewall way down deep. I used hose with funnel up top to get the fluid in and then shot the shudder stop in and plug and old washer back in.
We go for a test drive maybe 6 miles and in grocery parking lot do some circles and no noise and the shifts do not have a shudder anymore so the Max Life and shudder stop might save the cost of transmission. She said she would sell before she did that. So not very impressed with this 160,000 mile Honda. She does drive 1 1/2 hours each way to work so lots of road miles which is much easier than stop and go.
So I told her if front brakes start going I will turn her old rotors maybe .005" and put them back on there was not need to change but since I had them we did. Here is link for the Shudder Stop it did work here but says not to use with Ford type F fluids.
https://www.lubegard.com/products/isf/
So now I am set for a nurse after my neck / surgery and she was happy that she did not pay Firestone $1,418.87. That is crazy If I was younger would open a shop and not rip customers off and make lots of money. There is only one good shop I trust here that does my inspections and checked out my trailer wiring couple weeks ago. He always has a waiting list and you never hear anything bad about their work.
Oh BTW the Advance manager told me that if I bought $800 in parts a month he would give 40% discount and deliver the parts. Just lets you know the mark up in parts.
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