diewX3

Long time no post....anyways I have had a few problems the past few days with my car. First off my car is an 01 EX auto with 66k miles. I've changed the oil every 3k miles and changed the tranny fluid at 40k miles. I've had a problem on cold starts the past few weeks where after starting the car the first 2-3 minutes there would be rattling which I can't seem to target where it's coming from. Just yesterday I started driving to school and had noticed that from 2nd to 3rd gear the engine would rev for a half a second before the tranny would transfer power to the wheels. I checked the tranny fluid and had noticed it is about 1/5 lower than the line it's supposed to be at. So the question is what color is the fluid supposed to be and is it supposed to have a rubber like smell to it? I think I will change the fluid out myself doesn't seem that hard of a job now that I have a Helms TIA guys!

00Red_SiR

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by diewX3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Long time no post....anyways I have had a few problems the past few days with my car. First off my car is an 01 EX auto with 66k miles. I've changed the oil every 3k miles and changed the tranny fluid at 40k miles. I've had a problem on cold starts the past few weeks where after starting the car the first 2-3 minutes there would be rattling which I can't seem to target where it's coming from. Just yesterday I started driving to school and had noticed that from 2nd to 3rd gear the engine would rev for a half a second before the tranny would transfer power to the wheels. I checked the tranny fluid and had noticed it is about 1/5 lower than the line it's supposed to be at. So the question is what color is the fluid supposed to be and is it supposed to have a rubber like smell to it? I think I will change the fluid out myself doesn't seem that hard of a job now that I have a Helms TIA guys! </TD></TR></TABLE>

Your tranny fluid should be a pinkish red color...as far as smell goes, as long as it doesn't smell burnt and the fluid's not grayish brown or black in color, you're tranny is probably fine. Your tranny fluid should also be checked when it's warm, while idling in park for an accurate reading. If you check it when the car is cold the fluid level will be lower on the stick. The rattling is probably a loose heat shield around your forward exhaust or cat-converter...happens on civics all the time.

You mentioned that the car seemed to hesitate a little between shifting from one gear to the next on cold mornings. First question would be what kind of fluid are you running? If it's not Honda ATF that could be your problem there since it has special additives in it that other off the shelf ATF's don't have. When it is cold out and the fluid is thick the tranny may hesitate between gear changes a little but that should go away when it warms up.