Morning Scotty,
Love your work and have been following you for years.
My question is in regards to my wife’s 2017 Honda CRV. She purchased it used and has barely driven the vehicle (miles are still under 60,000 miles). In October, the Honda dealership flushed and filled the transmission fluid. Yesterday, as she was getting ready to leave Church, the vehicle was not moving at all. I noticed a large amount of fluid where her vehicle was parked. It was a yellowish fluid that had a burnt rubber smell to it. I noticed the same smell outside of our house the day prior, but thought it was coming from our neighbors house. After pushing it into a parking spot, I heard constant fluid sound from under the engine bay and found that it came from a drain hole where a plug use to be. It was towed back to the dealership where the maintenance was completed.
Here are my questions: Is the transmission screwed now? What options do you recommend? Should I sue the dealership?
Thank you for your help,
Orion
Here are my questions: Is the transmission screwed now? What options do you recommend? Should I sue the dealership?
It sounds like they put the drain plug back in finger-tight and it vibrated loose. The transmission has probably been ruined - they don't like being run without fluid. (That's the burning smell.) Looking up the specs that vehicle has a CVT which is probably why the fluid was that color, in a conventional automatic transmission it would be red. The belt is probably all chewed up from lack of lubrication.
At this point the car is in the dealer's hands and you don't know for certain what they will do. However it is pretty likely they'll disavow any responsibility and want you to pay for repairs. Or, if you're lucky, they'll fix it by installing a used transmission from a junkyard.
If that's the way it goes down, paying a lawyer would probably cost as much as a replacement transmission. Small claims court might be a possibility but their jurisdictional limit (usually $5000) would probably be insufficient to cover the cost of repairs.
