Honda, the gauntlet has been thrown part 2

And so the saga continues... (I feel like this is something out of Star Wars!)

I'm not going to drone on and on about the various issues we've had with the van.  Needless to say the power doors have never worked properly.  I know, I know - you're wondering why we just don't turn the power off, and open and close them manually like any normal person would.  Well, any normal person would do this if they were the Incredible Hulk, or some totally ripped body-builder; because frankly, that's how strong you'd have to be to open and close these damn doors yourself.  B/c they're 'motorized' (and I say that loosely b/c our 'motors' have never worked properly), they're extra heavy.  Which means that most mere mortals would have their arms ripped off when trying to pry open those behemoths!  Let's not focus on the fact that these doors have been looked-at, re-lubricated, had motors replaced, and pretty much been replaced entirely and they... still... don't....work.

And I'm not going to harp on the recall, or the replaced torque converter which happened about a year and a half ago because of said recall.

Nope.  I'm going to focus on the almost here and now.  Almost meaning rewind a touch to about a month ago.

I was driving the van, and noticed a vibrating sound.  The next time Chris was in the car I pointed it out to him and we drove around until we figured out what was going on.  At our next service appointment, which was about a week ago, we mentioned that when the car was going at about 1600 rpms the vibrating sound kicked in.  Our awesome Honda service guys said they would look into it (and I say awesome not in the least bit sarcastically.  Those guys have been so patient with me - I'm surprised they don't run away screaming: "Here comes the crazy van lady!" whenever they see me.)

So they called me back a few hours later and said that the noise was within acceptable limits (how can something that wasn't there before, but is now making a noise be acceptable?!?!) but they were going to replace the torque converter free of charge.

To which I asked: "why on earth does a car that's not even four years old need to have the torque converter replaced, not once but twice?!?!"

But whatever.  I then made the appointment to have said converter replaced. During my conversation with the service department, the unknowing service tech asked: "is there anything else you'd like us to look at while it's here."

Oh dear - have they learned nothing from crazy van lady?!?  Of COURSE there's going to be something else!

"Well, the doors still don't work, but whatever." I replied.  "I've noticed that the power steering seems to be pretty sluggish when I'm trying to turn at low speeds.  Can you check it out?"

So Chris drops the car off this morning.  An hour later Honda calls and says: "Houston, we have a problem." (well, that's not EXACTLY what they said, but it may as well have been!).

Turns out when looking at the car they noticed that an engine mount bracket thingy (I don't know - I'm not a bloody mechanic!) is coming off and needs to be replaced - which will cost a couple hundred, gazillion dollars.  They also noticed that the power steering pump on our three and a half year old van is just about done. This will also need to be replaced, for another couple gazillion, bazillion dollars.

Yep - that's when my head exploded.

to be continued.....