It seems like a case of "too much information from reading the Internet", which is not as bad as it seems, other than the stress I've had for the past days fearing I would need a new transmission.

The good news is that my transmission is fine. Of course, on the invoice they wrote, "Transmission works as designed...". I'm not sure if this is normal verbiage, but from reading about problems with the automatics I thought to myself, "works as design, meaning it will break soon?"

The good news is that my check engine light was diagnosed to be the VTEC pressure valve switch (or something thereabouts), and that was fixed.

The good/bad news is that I asked for them to change my transmission fluid. The customer service rep piped in, "We can flush your transmission... which gets it cleaner." I politely declined that service, but was thinking, "What the hell!? How many cars are these dealers screwing up with by offering to flush the transmission!?!?!?!?".

I'm quite sure the dealer did a transmission flush at 30k although the independent shop only did a fluid replacement.

Driving home tonight my car felt much, much, much better. I wonder how far I've been driving with that VTEC pressure switch problem, but my car hasn't felt this good for awhile. There was also some vibration from the engine that got a lot better. I'll be replacing the fluid probably ~ 25k from now on.

Still a little weary and pissed these dealerships are flushing transmissions when it's not needed.