I picked up this '03 CRV AWD a few months ago. It has had a P1457 CEL that has been there since I purchased it and I am looking into getting it taken care of, because having a CEL bothers me. Otherwise it runs great 165K on it. Most of the info that I can find points to one of the vent solenoids being bad, and there is a good youtube on how to replace it but the rear diff on the AWD makes it pretty in accessible, and of course it could be leaking from somewhere else. (In the video it was a FWD) There is also a TSB on it. https://f01.justanswer.com/amedee/00e22c62-284b-4be6-aa6d-fd0e3af464ce_2009-06-22_221339_vent_solenoid.pdf
Anyhow I have called Honda and they said it would cost $75 for them to look at it before they could give me an estimate, and the local garage said it would cost $160 to smoke test it before they could give me a repair estimate. $160 seemed about $80 too high to me, so I was leaning towards the Honda dealer, but I am not sure if that $75 was just going to be them hooking it up to a code reader then giving me another quote for a smoke test. If they charge $75 to read a code that I already know, I am going to be quite unhappy.
I was wondering if anyone had this repair done at the dealer, or just in general knew Honda dealer policies for this type of work. OR even better can offer a trick to gain better access to that area.
Anyhow I have called Honda and they said it would cost $75 for them to look at it before they could give me an estimate, and the local garage said it would cost $160 to smoke test it before they could give me a repair estimate. $160 seemed about $80 too high to me, so I was leaning towards the Honda dealer, but I am not sure if that $75 was just going to be them hooking it up to a code reader then giving me another quote for a smoke test. If they charge $75 to read a code that I already know, I am going to be quite unhappy.
I was wondering if anyone had this repair done at the dealer, or just in general knew Honda dealer policies for this type of work. OR even better can offer a trick to gain better access to that area.