Hello,

I am new to this board and Hondas in gen. I Have a 1990 Honda civc CX 3 door hatch with a 4 speed Automatic Transmission.

It shifts very hard in all gears

1-2 and 2-3 are the hardest.

I've been doing some reading on-line and found that it may be the fluid, solinoid or other vaiorus adjustments. Essentially i'm hoping that I don't have to chnage the transmission or have it re-built, becasue the car is not worth it.

I was wondering if anyone else has had this issue before and what it turned out too be, I was goign to chaneg the fluid, but i'm told this can be bad on a transmission with a lot of KM on it. my car has 232,000 KM's on it, and i'd imagine the fluid has never been changed.

the car seems to have good power other wise (atleast for a car with 70 HP) and if you actually rev it a little higher then just normal driving (by no means WOT) it shifts a little softer. same with reving it up, lifting off throttle, and letting it shift that way, it shifts the hardist when you are driving it like an old lady.

any help would be appericated.

Oni.

1990 Honda civic CX
1992 240SX LE HICAS (Project car)
1995 Olds Cutless Ciera (people hauler)

 

Please change the fluid... then go from there.

 

could this be all that it is? and will I need to change the filter, or should the fluid do the trick?

 

It could be as simple as a flush. This happened on my '98 Civic EX daily driver. A few flushes at my buddies shop, drove the car for about 50 miles, and viola. Fixed.

 

the only unfortunate thing is I don't have a friend witha tranny shop, when you say flush, doesn't that involve hooking your tranny to a machine that pumps out all the old fluid and at the same time pumping new stuff through, and then you fill it up. Can I achieve the same thing by driming the fluid, re-filling it, draining it, then re-filling it.

I really don't want to change the filter, becasue then I will have to chnage my gasket...and the filter... i'm hoping that just changing the fluid will help

is it worth running royal purple tranny fluid or should honda ATF and some lucas tranny fix do the trick?

 

IIRC the filter on these trannys is not under the pan. It is an inline filter.

I would just use honda ATF.


These automatics always shift hard, so don't expect it to get like a buick or anything. From what you said it should be better, though.

 

inline you say, where abouts in-line.

and is it worth my while atleast to chaneg the fluid (with Honda stuff from the dealer, i'm told this is important) and add some of that lucas stuff. seems to get good reviews on-line "lucas tranny fix" apperently makes auto's shift a little smoother and add's life to the tranny, and I think mine needs att the life I can give it at this point.

I wish I had enough money to give it a 1up (switch the damn thing over the manual), but who knows, I picked the car up as a daily driver, and the body needs some work, but atleast the floor pans and everything under the car is rust free.

I really just want to squeez a couple years out of it. at that point its either gonna be paint, body, D15 (Vtec motor) and DX manual tranny, or i'll crush it and just buy a 1998 3dr hatch. yet again a CX, I enjoy the lack of power steering.

but as for the filter, I know with oil, there is no point in chnageing the oil unless you chnage the filter, and if the one on my civic is in-line, where about is it located, and shoukd I chnage this aswell if i'm gonna chnage the fluid?

 

The Transmission shifts a lot better, I did use the lucas stuff. and it seems to have helped. The mounts are pretty bad though, so they will have to be replaced.