mauriceoduor

Hi Guys,

Sorry for this long post, but I need your help.

I own a CRV 1995 (Japan) with 150k miles on it. Gear selectors are 1-2-D4-N-R-P. Recently ATF leaked and topped up with Dextron-III couldn't find Honda ATF anywhere near here. That leaked as well and topped up as well. Somehow among the many topups my car lost power when it comes to acceleration from dead stop. I engage D4, i hear the gear engaging but the car moves slowly - i floor the pedal but RPM remains at aroung 2000-2300 and the car barely moves. Once it attains a speed of around 20-25kph it shifts into second gear and viola it has power and speed and all other gears (3 + torque lockup) shifts well. It can even reach speeds of 150KPH without any problems. Downshifting is fine, 4->3->2->1, and the cycle of painful acceleration starts once it reaches 1st gear. If it reaches 2nd gear power is there and it behaves normally.

Reverse is fine and has the power. When I shift the lever to 1, there is power increase and I can actually climb some minor hills, (D4 doesnt climb any hills from dead stop)

Recently took it on a 1400km journey and I noticed that if am doing 60-70kph and remove my foot off the gas pedal, the car jerks itself severally or until I press the gas pedal or until it slows down considerably.

Did RPM Stall test - it maxed out at 2500rpms and stayed there.

I also changed spark plugs and in two of the holes I found oil had leaked in there but no so much oil.

when i engage any gear (1-2-D4-R) my RPM drops to like 200-300 and when I put it on P the RPM rises to 1200 then falls to 800 and stays there. Put A/C on the RPM drops to 300. Apply brakes the RPM drops to almost zero and severally it stalls.

Any one with any idea why my car would not have enough power while on D4? Mechanics have taken car too are advising that I change the tranny that it could be damaged internally.

Before the problem, i found the bolt for timing belt cover near the alternator missing, so i used cable tie to put it place.

Much appreciated.

OneBadTurboCRV

Sounds like you have more than one problem going on here. I am not a Honda automatic transmission expert by any means, but I am well versed in the Honda world and GM auto transmissions.

1.) You can't trust the factory Honda tachometer. They are almost always off by a couple / few hundred RPM. I recommend checking with a pick-up (DMM) and going through the factory idle set procedure to verify that you don't have a idle issue. It wouldn't hurt to check the ignition timing while you are at it.

2.) When is the last time your valve lash has been set? If you don't do it often, these engines like to burn valves. You should verify mechanical timing while you have the valve cover off.

3.) Around the year of your vehicle, Honda switched over to their own specific transmission fluid. Previously they were using Dextron II in their transmissions. The newly designed formula had added lubricants to aid the internal seals throughout the transmission. If you aren't up on your ATF changes, you can run into issues when new fluid with fresh cleaning detergents start working on the system.

4.) To add to #3, your problem is very similar to that of a leaking forward apply piston or could even be a valve body issue. What leads me to that conclusion is your useful bit of information provided that the vehicle moves like normal when D1 is selected. The reason for this is different circuits are used when in D4 rather than "manually" forcing the transmission into 1st gear. (I could explain more in depth, but I think that wouldn't be productive here - K.I.S.S.)

5.) I don't believe you have a TCC issue due to the fact that you can go through the gears up to speed and go back to a stop without the engine stalling. So that would lead me to believe the "jerking" is caused by an engine issue rather than transmission, BUT it definitely could be the transmission. Unfortunately I am not there, so it's hard to gauge exactly what is going on by your description since it seems you have more than one issue even possible vacuum leaks.

6.) Please see the picture below out of my early (1997 production year but 1998 sale year) USDM Factory User Manual on what they have to say about using Dextron III in place of Honda ATF.

At this point, it sounds like you are in need of at least a repair or replacement of the transmission. Hope this helps, good luck!

(PS -.Sorry, I don't know why the picture is sideways, but it won't let me rotate it.)

mauriceoduor

OneBadTurboCRV,

Thanks for the eye-opener info. Carried out various tests my findings:

- shift control solenoid valve B is faulty, not clicking at all when voltage applied. plus it gets too hot when D4 is selected. shift control solenoid valve A is okay though and that explains why under D4 gears 2 onwards work fine as well as reverse. See attached image.
- IACV faulty.

Am going to replace them and report back.

Thanks

mauriceoduor

hi,

I replaced shift solenoid A&B and all is working fine now.

OneBadTurboCRV

Excellent, glad to hear!

Just elaborate, when I said valve body I lumped in solenoids due to most transmissions have them on the valve body. I had forgotten the Honda autos had external solenoids, so sorry about that.

Also, the IACV is in fact just a computer controlled vacuum leak.

xpenguin51

My 2001 does this exactly. I first changed fluid and then all the solenoids... and now I have replaced the transmission but I still have the same behavior! Could it be the transmission control module? is there one?