The saga of my Honda continues. (Hey, that sort of rhymes.) In the last episode, the nice woman from Honda USA told Fern she was sure that the Honda dealer service manager would be calling her to "work something out." That was 5 days go, he never called, so i started leaving messages for him and we finally connected today.

He explained the vibrating noise in the exhaust system was coming from the middle pipe, which is actually a pipe within a pipe. The inner pipe sometimes comes loose in older cars and rattles around. The only real way to fix it is to replace it, normally a $327 job.

Due to my overall aggravation at having made 3 trips there, my time and money spent (nearly $700 so far, but that includes a service and muffler replacement) and maybe just because, he offered to pay the $208 for the part if i paid the $118 for the labor, which was more than a halfway split. To be honest, Honda USA was so upbeat about it that i had been hoping they'd just fix the thing for FREE, but i guess that would be too much. So he is ordering the part and i'll bring the car in tomorrow afternoon and finally, the work on my car will be done.
At least both the muffler and the middle pipe have lifetime warranties, so at least for as long as i continue to hold onto this car, i won't have to worry about them (though there is still the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter).

Can't remember if i wrote this before, but i decided to drive down to Jersey one more time to visit my dad and K. for an overnight trip. It'll cost me about $30 in gas and tolls, but i don't see my dad often so it's very worth it to me. It's my last free week before i start the job.

My dad had said that if i couldn't work things out with the Honda dealer, that we could get my brother, who is a mechanic and manages a big service garage in NJ, to fix it for me. I told my dad i didn't think B. would want to spend his work time on my car and probably would not want to charge me for it. My dad's girlfriend had told me before that B. had worked on her car, didn't charge her for it, but then my dad paid B. on the sly. But i don't want my dad to have to pay for it either, so it's just as well the dealer finally will be able to fix it.