Question 1996 Honda Accord 2DR/4Cylinder/Automatic trans. Car starts out driving fine when Trans fluid is cold. After 2.5-3.0 Miles Tans starts to slip. When going 50-55 (in fourth) the trans will slip out, Rpm's will rev. When you let your foot off gas it will re-engage. Now at slower speeds like 30-35, it will slip in and out of 4th as above, but If I manually keep it on 3rd with rpms at 3000-3100 trans will not slip. Check engine light is on, came on when Trans started acting up. Car has 150k miles original trans. I took it to a local trans shop they hooked it up to the computer and got internal trans error codes. I did not get them, big mistake now. The Trans ground wire/line is completely missing. i am wondering is that would have any bearing on the slipping, since I do know that there are some electrical features to this Trans? Just trying to make sure that I do need a new Trans/rebuilt, before spending the money when it may be a cheap possible fix. I know you can not give a for sure answer without actually having the trans apart in front of you, but what does it sound like to you? Thanks in advance for you answer.
AnswerHi Ben,
Electronically, the trans is attached to the engine which has a bigger-than-needed ground strap so I'd rule-out elec. components. Also, electronically, if one gear slips, they will all slip so your issue is fourth gear. With 150+K on the trans, I don't need to ask anything else. Even with decent maintenance 150K is allot for an auto-trans. Since fourth gear is probably engaged more than ten times as long as pretty much all the other gears combine during it's life, you can see why only that gear would fail.
When the gear is slipping and you let your foot off of the accelerator, the engine is no longer powering the trans and since the two forces are then equal, the gear will lock-in. When the trans fluid is cold it has better friction properties and therefore won't slip as easily, but I'm sure it still will slip if enough force is applied.
We have used, tested, guaranteed units that may cost less than having yours rebuilt.
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Thanks for the question, I hope this information was helpful to you.
Fred
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