2007 Honda Ridgeline RTL

I have absolutely no idea. I just know that the check engine light was on and the Honda dealership was eager to say it needed the new catalytic converter. The place that sold it didn't know what was wrong but they were willing to fix it without charge once they figured it out-- if we'd been able to bring it back another day-- but it's 4 hours away from us.

I think my bro took it to an Autozone before buying it but I don't know what the code said. Our friend moved from working at Autozone to O'Reilly's but they still have a computer checker thing there. Right now he's having a problem with the air conditioning. It wasn't working before he bought it but they fixed it at the sales place so it was working great but now it just went out again. It only blows hot air.

Yeah. I remember my friend complaining that they don't have any that read '95 and he has a '95 chevy. My bro still needs to sell that hunk of junk 95 chevy he has sitting in front of the car port. We still need to get that thing fixed (the car port).
I'd like to get another one closer to the house that covers the sidewalk but my mother thinks it would look too ugly-- quite frankly, the house isn't all that pretty to begin with so I don't see why it would matter. LOL.

 

They look very pretty. They have the front that looks more like the Gen2 (or are they gen3?) CR-Vs. They have a lot of features I like-- including the flatter sides on the pickup bed. But I don't like the center console & shift mechanism and the trunk has less capacity than the Gen1. Considering that the trunk was the main selling point (although safety and how they handled on the road was also high on the list), I wouldn't want a smaller one. There are more options for tonneau covers though. But they still did not come with a locking tailgate so you'd have to go out and buy a pop&lock or DIY your own tailgate lock for it.
They already have some recalls with some mechanical issues from what I've heard. Problems with the keyless start ones not turning off when the button is pushed and things from what I recall.
On the ridgeline owners' Facebook page I saw an amusing post from someone. Her husband wanted a hard tri-fold tonneau cover and the wife pretended not to realize how awesome it was. Her husband apparently spent a lot of money on accessories and was going to wait on the tonneau cover. So the wife went ahead and bought it-- only she decided to play a little trick on him. She made a card with a picture of what was essentially a tarp for a cover. She wrote in how excited she was that the tarp came with it's own bag for storage and how she had ordered it for him since she knew he wanted a cover. She also wrote a very nice note on the other side of the card. She said her husband was very gracious about it, but that he would read a few words of the card then flip it back over to look at the picture. When they got home she showed him the real cover and he was ecstatic-- although he couldn't get over how she had pretended to be excited about the other one because it came with it's own bag. LOL.

 

So, because the dumbass didn't ever get in touch with anyone in the town where he got an illegible traffic ticket, he found out his license was suspended. He never received any notice in the mail about it, but the DMV told him when he went to register his truck.
He had previously tried calling to find out the information on how much the ticket was, how to pay it, when the court date was, etc but nobody ever answered the phone. He called for 3 hours today getting busy signals until someone finally answered. They told him they don't have an answering machine or call waiting. The lady who answered said all she does is answer phones and to call back next week when someone will be in who *might* be able to answer his questions.

 

The instruction to call back on the next Monday turned out to not work because Monday was a holiday-- but Tuesday morning I called and got the info he needed and drove him there so he could pay his ticket and then off to the DMV so he could get his license reinstated. He had to hit the ATM because the little dinky station only took cash but the DMV only takes cards (and charges a 3% transaction fee) for reinstatement. But, he's got it taken care of. Good thing because he got pulled over the next day (well, at night) because his new headlight bulbs are too bright. Oncoming driver kept flashing highbeams and he flashed back but there was no visible difference to the driver-- who turned out to be a cop.
Turns out it was an old friend of my brother's from middle school so the guy was cool about it. Just said he needs to do something so the lights aren't that bright. Hoping there's a way he can adjust them.

But Honda did this weird thing where instead of having different bulbs or having bulbs that dim, they use the same bulbs for highbeam and lowbeam and there is some sort of deflector inside that moves to angle the light up more.

He's trying to figure out if adjusting the angle of the bulbs down more would help or if the deflector would nullify that.

These are the bulbs he got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JYC0NPG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

He got the Punisher decal on the hood and little Punisher thingies on the center of the wheels.

 

I bought a vinyl cutter to make decals like that one, I just need to learn how to use it.

 

That would be really cool. My bro had to buy the deal twice. I think it was $30 for it and the first time he was about to put it on and a huge gust of wind came through and made it fold up on itself and stick to itself so he couldn't get it untangled. Second one he had two friends help him with it and it still has some bubbles. It didn't turn out quite the way he'd hoped, but it still looks neat.

He wanted a black truck but he ended up with the grey but he loves it. He's very happy with how it handles the road. Too bad the headlights they have in it aren't like the new Gen2 Ridgeline headlights. Gen2 was the only truck that had headlights that passed muster on some test.

His tastes in decorations are different from mine. I fully admit I'm tacky enough to want to deck things out in chrome. LOL.

 

The pot holes on the road have gotten really bad and with the shadows from the trees and lack of lighting on the road at night it is hard to see them an some of them can't be avoided.

Almost every time my bro hits a large pot hole, his transmission slips and shifts from Drive to Neutral. He has to shift back and it really pisses him off. Other Ridgeline owners say it doesn't happen to them (and it doesn't happen to the one I drive).

Any idea what the problem is?

 

Your brother driving to fast?

Does the shifter itself come out of drive or is it just the transmission shifting on its own?

 

That makes sense especially if they have linkage for the shifter.

 

He's going speed limit and sometimes slower when it happens. The lever actually shifts to neutral when he hits the pot holes. So, it's not just the transmission, the whole thing just shifts.

I know he needs new control bushings (and he got the whole control arms because its easier to change out the arms than just the bushings). But he hasn't gotten them replaced yet. That might help with stabilizing the vehicle a bit more. But I don't know if it would affect the transmission.

He wasted his money on decorative stuff for the vehicle and hasn't sold his old truck and now he doesn't have $ to get some things fixed that need to be fixed.

 

It's still running fine, but it needs a few repairs. Some jackhole ripped some of the trim off the top of the vehicle for no apparent reason. So, he needs to get it replaced. He wants to plasti-dip some of the trim pieces in white and get white side molding.

Also, he thought the front reveal trim was missing because there is tape over it, but found out it's there but not in right. So, he might be able to just get it re-attached.

 

So, the Honda dealership failed to look at his transmission fluid (or did and just didn't mention it). It was black and ashy. His transmission went out while he was driving in to town. We conveniently found a transmission shop where a car dealership used to be while taking my friend around to find a "new" truck. Tow truck guy from town said he'd heard it was a good place. We got an estimate, they don't touch anything without confirming price and they honor their quotes-- even if it costs them more $ to do.
They noticed his brakes and rotors needed to be replaced. His AC compressor had gone out (he asked them to check it and they inspected it for no extra $). They even put in the new control arms and bushings at a discounted price since they were already taking stuff apart. So they rebuilt the tranny and did the other work for a good price. They said that he really needs the front struts replaced (honda dealership had noted that as well) and offered to do it at a discounted price because we reminded them they forgot to add in the charges for the AC, brakes, & rotors and made sure they got paid the right amount.
They told him he could find the strut assemblies on rockauto and have them pricematched by autozone. So my bro got a huge discount and ordered left and right front strut assemblies, picked them up from autozone, and brought them over. Mechanic got the old ones out quickly and then discovered that the new ones wouldn't line up. I've since been told by other people who have worked on their own trucks that the top of the strut can be turned to line up (they said to bolt it in from the top first and then turn it to attach it at the bottom). But we found that out after my brother returned them and found less expensive ones on Amazon.

I really suck at the whole car parts things bc I get confused at things having different part numbers (due to different manufacturers). Carparts website listed two different categories for the struts: Replacement and Performance. Under "replacement" the part numbers were 51601-SJC-A06 and 51602-SJC-A06 (left and right). On the hondaparts website those were under "shock absorber" but I read that vehicles have either shocks OR struts and never both. So, Ridgeline has struts but for some reason they were calling it shocks. Anyway, under the "performance" tab they had part numbers 11505 and 11506 (left and right). So it confused me further.

Not sure if "performance" is just a fancy term or if they are better struts or what. Found some Oredy brand ones on amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQQ73EU/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
But I don't know anything about the brand. The ones at Autozone are a lot more expensive. I'm not even sure which brand my brother got from Autozone though-- since he returned them. They thought that maybe the parts might be defective so they ordered another set for him just in case. If those don't work he's thinking of getting the Oredy ones.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

Id go with the oredy ones I bought some last summer fit like a dream rides good too.

 

Testing for admin.

 

I had a Mazda 6 Sportwagen, a friend had one just like it. His check engine light came on and it needed $3500 worth of new catalytic converters (it had 2 of them). I got rid of mine before I hit the same mileage as he had on his. The cats on those are good for 120-140K miles.

I like the new Ridgeline, not a fan of the older ones. The new one is a very capable truck and will meet the needs of most suburban truck owners with a much better ride and mileage. I wouldn't get one if I was going to tow a lot though. I'm torn when I replace my 1999 F-150, I'd love a new Lariet but their $50K - 65k a fully loaded 4AWD Ridgeline caps out at about $42K.