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Input Shaft Bearing - repair cost

22K views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  anthropolyte  
#1 ·
Just a quick check on some info given to me by Honda earlier...

I've chosen to get my input shaft bearing sorted, as it's getting rather louder recently. Given that I have no Honda specialists anywhere near me, I decided to give the dealer a call and see how much it would cost through them.

Upshot is, they've stated that if the ISB needs replacing, they would probably need to replace all the other bearings as well (seven in total, including the ISB). I've asked them to do the clutch at the same time (price matched to Cox), since the box will be out anyway.

Total cost, including fluid and sundries, has been given at ÂŁ1096 inc VAT and labour.

So, a couple of questions - firstly, do the other bearings actually need to be done? Is it a sensible precaution to take anyway, since the gearbox is out of the car?

And the obvious question - how does the price sound? I've called some other transmission specialists in the area, and they've all quoted above ÂŁ1200 for the same work using a mixture of Honda and OEM parts. Seems surprising that the dealer is cheaper, but I'm not complaining. But is that price over the odds anyway?
 
#2 ·
What is the price of the clutch alone, I think people have paid dealers ÂŁ700 plus but as he has a lot of the stuff stripped off anyway you are probably saving in labour.
Cant comment in the bearings but seems a reasonable precaution, no expert but the price seems good to me
 
#4 ·
A quick update on this. I originally agreed to the quoted price of ÂŁ1096, and got the car booked in for the work - but on the off-chance, I subsequently contacted Honda UK to see if they might be able to help me out.

My reasoning, as I put it to them, was that the input shaft bearing should be able to survive longer than 50k miles. Especially since the car was serviced by Honda every year, in which case there should be no chance of the gearbox running dry etc and damaging the bearing. Honda UK said they would raise a ticket, and come back to me within 48 hours. I felt fairly hopeful at this point, thinking I might get a couple of hours of labour knocked off the price.

Later the same day, I got a call from Bristol Honda. They'd had a call from Honda UK, who agreed to pay the full cost for all bearings, fluid and sundries. I would pay for labour and the clutch. That brought the total cost down to ÂŁ676 inc. What an absolute result!

Anyway, the work is now done - the difference is night and day. Feather-light clutch, smooth gearshift, no noise from the gearbox, and best of all, the engine seems to have a little more poke. The mechanic did mention that several of the other bearings were getting pretty stiff, so it's likely that a small amount of power was being sapped as a result.

The main thing I'm taking away from this is that it's always, always worth a call to Honda UK to see if they will offer a goodwill gesture, even if the car is out of warranty (like mine). I suspect they see reports of multiple failures on a specific part, and in order to avoid having to carry out a recall, if they're challenged they will actually help out the owner. FHSH is obviously useful to back you up.

Overall I'm pretty impressed with Honda on this one!