I have a 94 Honda Accord EX (automatic) and 2006 has not been the best year for my car. First my drive belt broke and the A/C belt came off. I went to attempt to fix them and noticed that the drive pulley itself had broken too. I finally got that fixed (at a Honda Specialists autoshop) and 2 days after I get my car back I notice it's not shifting right. When it went to change into 2nd gear, it would get to the RPMs where it usually changes, but then jumped up another 1-2k before it shifted. Then when it was going into 3rd gear it shifted at a lot lower RPMs than it usually would. It also accelerated very slowly.

The next day I go to see if it's doing the same thing. I put the car into reverse and back out a little then put it into drive and it took about 7 seconds before it caught the gear and started going. Then I noticed I could not get out of first gear. It was like giving it gas while it was in neutral, it would just rev while creeping along at a turtle pace. I call the shop I took it to for the pulley and they thought it might be the computer and suggest trying to shift it manually from 1st gear to try and drive it back to the shop.

So I go to give that a shot then I noticed when I was walking to the car (I had started it remotely) that where was this whining sound coming from the engine bay. Since I know nothing about anything under the hood, all I could tell was the noise was coming from around or under/behind the headers and spark plug area. I called my friend who is a mechanic (not really knowledgable about Hondas though) to come listen to it because I wasn't sure if I wanted to try driving it. He looks around and checks the transmission fluid stick and notices that the tip has brown/yellow cruddy stuff on it, instead of being "blood red". His conclusion was that my transmission pump had broken. Someone just told me that the fluid isn't a red color so i don't know what to make of this now.

I called some transmission places and they pretty much said I am going to need to replace the entire transmission because Honda transmissions are not easily rebuilt and it would be more difficult to just fix the pump and it might cost more overall. One place even said it would be around two grand (wtf?).

I checked some places and I can get a used 1997 tranny (80k on it) for a little over $700 shipped, and one shop said they would swap it in for around $400 which was the best price I got.

So (finally) my questions are: Do I really need a whole new transmission (providing ONLY the pump is broken, I still haven't taken it anywhere to get looked at professionally)? Could I just get the pump fixed without worrying about another part of the transmission breaking in the near future? Is it more expensive to replace the pump vs. the whole thing?

I guess I'm just hesitant because I just put about $400 into it to fix the pulley/belts and now I have to spend a lot more. Being the start of the semester for me, I'm not looking to spend all of this semester's student loan check on my car. I just want to find the cheapest way to fix it. I also haven't taken it anywhere to get looked at yet. I don't know if I should take it to the dealer to get a definitive diagnostic (they are expensive aren't they?) or if I should take it back to the Honda Specialists since they were the ones that worked on it last?

If this definitely sounds like a tranny problem then I don't think I'd need to take it to get checked out by anywhere other than a transmission shop. Bleh I dunno what to do. Any ideas?

 

I had the same problem with my 92accordEX and I had to shift the gears manually so they could change so I went to the tranny shop and the guy drove me around and said he would rebuild it for 1000 to 1500 dollars. I declined his offer and had my friend just switch it to standard and now my car does about 130mph tops w/ the manual tranny and it cost me only 1300 dollars including labor I only paid him 600 bucks. Besides the best thing is that manual honda tranny's are more reliable than auto.

 

I would agree with whoever (in your extremely long dissertation ) mentioned internal damage.
A whining noise from an Automatic Transmission is usually indicative of three conditions:
1) Fluid extremely low (pumping air)
2) Mechanical Damaged Pump
3) Turbine (Torque Converter) Failure)

It sounds like the converter went 'south', circulated particulate debris thru the transmission which started hanging up the valve body spool valves. Thus the progressively erratic shifting.

It will be far less expensive to have a used transmission procured and installed when compared to the expense of rebuilding yours.

P

 

So hmm... should I even bother taking it somewhere to get it looked at or should I just go ahead and set up the swap?

 

i called a transmission and they said that a lot of times the filter on the transmission gets clogged by metal or organic shavings from the clutch packs, and after that the fluid flow is decreased a lot. they also told me that even to replace the filter in the tranny, you basically have to tear it apart cause its way up in there.

i honestly recommend that you swap your car over to a manual transmission. its so worth it IF ITS DONE CORRECTLY. so do a lot of research on it.

basically, i would say your tranny is nuked. the same exact thing happened to mine, and the only way i could get it home is to drive in reverse (luckily i was at the entrance to my neighborhood) good luck

Mark

 

Why do you suggest manual over automatic? How much more/less would it cost versus an automatic?

Also, I might be trying to sell my car in the near future, don't automatics generally sell for more?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 92accordEX4life &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had the same problem with my 92accordEX and I had to shift the gears manually so they could change so I went to the tranny shop and the guy drove me around and said he would rebuild it for 1000 to 1500 dollars. I declined his offer and had my friend just switch it to standard and now my car does about 130mph tops w/ the manual tranny and it cost me only 1300 dollars including labor I only paid him 600 bucks. Besides the best thing is that manual honda tranny's are more reliable than auto.</TD></TR></TABLE>


Only the transmissions in the 6th gen cars are crap. The 5th gen trannies can take a beating like no tomorrow as long as you properly change the fluid. I have a 1994 accord with nearly 150K on it and the trans is holding up just fine

You can rebuild that trans for about $1500 and most likely it was the torque converter that went bad. It is rare for any of the "hard parts" to fail in that trans.


IF you swap to a manual you will make the car worth even less than a manual accord as people tend to stay away fron cars with lots of changed parts on them or where the engine / trans has been changed to a different size or type.

 

Well I can get a used 97 tranny with 80k on it installed for around $1100. That should work fine right?

Should I bother taking it to the place and have them look at it before I order the tranny? Or should I just go ahead and order it?

 

if the tranny was properly maintained, it should work fine. make sure that you drain and fill the torque coverter before installing and then fill to the proper level

 

Several observations about the discussion so far:

1) Changing the car from automatic to standard transmission is a decision which no only effects you, but your chances to sell it later. The vast majority of potential buyers are not motorheads, and even fewer know how to drive a standard transmission equipped car.
2) You will be decreasing the resale value.
3) Manual Transmissions have just as many issues as Automatics. IE: 5th gear lubrication failures, 3rd & $th gear syncro failures and the ever popular clutch release system malfunctions.

If you don't forsee ever selling the car, a manual trans swap is a possible option.
But be aware that it's not as cheap or simple a swap as you may be lead to believe.

The 5th gen transmissions are a vast improvement over the 3rd gens' (Non-electronic control) and the subsiquent 6th gens.

P