This morning, I merged onto the freeway from a dead stop and noticed that my car wasn't shifting into gears progressively. I can normally feel the automatic transmission shift/change gears at 15, 30, 45mph and so forth. As the car got up to 60mph, it felt like it was still in first gear with the rpm's running at 4000. After 60mph, I pressed on the accelerator and nothing happened, the rpm's continued to increase but the car began to decelerate slowly. I pressed again on the accelerator, nothing happened but the rpm's increased, the car continued to decelerate. Fortunately, I was near an exit and the car came to a halt at a parkng lot. I turned off the car, waited 5 minutes, and it started right up again, put it into drive and off it went fine for about 5 seconds until I got to 15mph and then nothing--when I pressed on the accelerator, it felt like the car was in neutral. Shut it off and called for a tow truck and had it towed to a repair shop who will take a look at it later today. Assuming the worst--needing a new transmission, is it worth it to spend $2000 (just making up a figure) for one? The car is an excellent condition 1992 Honda Accord EX with only 40,000 original miles. Yes, not making that up. Is a new transmission the same term as a rebuilt one, or are they different terms? Will having a rebuilt transmission affect the value of the car vs a new one?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Happs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">This morning, I merged onto the freeway from a dead stop and noticed that my car wasn't shifting into gears progressively. I can normally feel the automatic transmission shift/change gears at 15, 30, 45mph and so forth. As the car got up to 60mph, it felt like it was still in first gear with the rpm's running at 4000. After 60mph, I pressed on the accelerator and nothing happened, the rpm's continued to increase but the car began to decelerate slowly. I pressed again on the accelerator, nothing happened but the rpm's increased, the car continued to decelerate. Fortunately, I was near an exit and the car came to a halt at a parkng lot. I turned off the car, waited 5 minutes, and it started right up again, put it into drive and off it went fine for about 5 seconds until I got to 15mph and then nothing--when I pressed on the accelerator, it felt like the car was in neutral. Shut it off and called for a tow truck and had it towed to a repair shop who will take a look at it later today. Assuming the worst--needing a new transmission, is it worth it to spend $2000 (just making up a figure) for one? The car is an excellent condition 1992 Honda Accord EX with only 40,000 original miles. Yes, not making that up. Is a new transmission the same term as a rebuilt one, or are they different terms? Will having a rebuilt transmission affect the value of the car vs a new one?</TD></TR></TABLE>

time for a 5speed swap

 

This is a good description of the trans being contaminated, usually the torque converter is coming apart. The trans will run till the sump screen gets plugged up, then no pressure. Letting the car sit a few min. the sump screen clears out enough to pass fluid again.
It might be worth the effort to remove the trans and take the end case off, then clean it all out. Replace the torque converter, and flush out the trans cooler.

 

Just an update. The car now goes into neutral in all gears. No D4 light blinking, and a false positive reading on the TCU of 15. The Honda repair shop is going to replace the shift control solenoids and if that doesn't work, then a rebuilt transmission. Hope it's the former. I suppose age can get to a transmission too and not just miles.

 

my 90 honda car month ago "S" light was flashing in random so I just put
trans oil looked like the problem solved but it began coming more often.
Now when I start the car "S" light is on

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that in the end, my car needed a rebuilt transmission at a cost of $2500. The shift solenoid valve wasn't the issue. The Honda repair shop had never heard of my generation 1992 Accord needing a new transmission so early in it's life. The car only had 40,000 when it went out. The transmission fluid was changed at 29,000 miles at KMart's Penske Auto Center. Perhaps not using genuine Honda transmission fluid was the cause of the failure or not changing the transmission fluid every 2-3 years regardless of mileage. In any event, I now plan to change the tranmission fluid every 2 years or 15,000 miles just in case. I'm probably going to write Honda without expecting anything in return except a form letter back just to let them know what happened.