Hello,

Story starts simple: my mother wanted a small car, so we got her 95 Honda Civic with 131k on it. The car was going cheap ($1200) because it had a transmission problem. When buying, owner told that it's making noise when cold, and that's why he is selling - repair is expensive in the shop (they just told him an estimate to look at it).

I drove the car when it was warmed up, looked under it and noticed a left-side drive axle seal leaking. "I can fix that" I thought, and we bought the car.

So, after reading smart books, I rent some tools in local Autozone and went to do the job over night. Replaced the seal, it took me about 12 hours because I had to cut-off and replace lower ball joint, but I did it.

Went for a drive - dam... nothing changed. And the new seal is leaking as well, much less but leaking.

What does it do: When you go it does not shift soon (engine is just going higher and higher) and when it finally does shift, it's kind of as with too much gas on the manual (you know, when you are pressing gas but did not release the clutch good enough ))))
Also, when you completely depress the gas pedal, you hear whistling sound, not high, something similar to a plane engine maybe...

But, after driving about 5-7 minutes, at some point there will be a light blow during acceleration, as if something was plugged and blew itself clean under pressure. After that, car starts to accelerate faster, gears shift nice and soon, and when the gas pedal depressed, car keeps speed just fine and no noise.

Before I thought that transmission in not hermetic, because of the leaking seal. But the new seal leaks as well, so my theory now is that for some reason it is not shifting soon enough and pressure inside getting too high and seal leaks. (repair manual mention that seal leaks might be caused by high pressure)

So, what do I do? I've never worked with automatic boxes before, do not know where to look. I think, thought the problem is not mechanical, I just have to replace some valves, may be sensors... What controls shifting? Why doe is goes away after few minutes?

Thanks.

 

First of check the fluid, make sure level is good
(Hondas check with engine off)
If it not nice and pinkish, I would replace it, as a starting point, might not fix the problem tho
Then buy a helm manual and look up throttle pressure valve adjustment, that might help your problem with the shifting.
As for the seal make sure the lip is not damaged

my .02 cents worth

 

Well, if I did get as far as replaced the seal, I checked transmission liquid before, of course. It has been drained and replaced to take off the seal anyway.

The lip is an outer part of the seal that goes around the axle right? I no not remember damaging it, and I checked. Besides an axle itself at that place did not looked bad. I got Haines manual, will look for the pressure throttle, do not know how I missed that. Thanks.