I've just finished looking at 'all & latest' Honda Element's TSBs and there are somethings you may or may not know but I think they are rather important and should be posted in the TSB Sections.I beleive I counted something like 40 TSB's in total.

First, and foremost, are you aware that Honda has instructed its technicians to replace the transmission of the vehicle with a "REFURBISHED or REMANUFACTURED" one when any internal transmission problems happens?

Well, what happens if you have a month old E and some tragedy happens to the tranny. When you take it in to get repaired (with a 1 month old tranny, you expect repaired with new parts), "viola" it is now a replacement part, a remanu-refurb part a that - from who knows where, and what scares me, is who knows WHO REBUILT it.

Also, there is a TSB about the Air/Fuel sensor malfunction for the early production models, I think it affects those with the VIN, last digits, 0006500 and earlier. I'll get all the details, as soon as tonight/tommorrow.

Regarding the transmission, this is not just Honda. Pretty much all transmission servicing these days is a subassembly swap, usually of a "rebuilt part".

Having rebuilt several transmissions, let me tell you that this is a smarter solution, with a much better end result for the customer.

For starters, transmissions are extremely complicated. You do not want your typical line mechanic at the dealership messing with the innards of your transmission. They do not have the skills... nor the time. And given the general reliability of transmissions these days, an individual dealership will see so few jobs like this that odds are even that they would be learning on your vehicle.

The person or persons rebuilding the replacement transmissions does this full-time, every day, and has the resources and tools at his/her disposal to do the job right, and thoroughly. It is also in the manufacturers' interests to make sure that it absolutely will not fail, even moreso than a new one. Any parts that would wear are replaced in the rebuild, and everything else gets a lot more scrutiny than it ever would on the new-product assembly line. The parts that count are all new, but they legally have to call it a rebuild if any component comes from a previously-used assembly.

I've not messed with transmissions for years, but knowing the nuts and bolts of it (nyuk nyuk), I'll take a factory-rebuilt trans any day.