I have a '98 EX V6, and it sometimes has a hard shift to 2nd. After driving for a while, it's not as bad. I called a dealer, and they said that it's likely a stuck accumulator, but that it doesn't affect the performance of the transmission. It just softens the shift from 1st to 2nd. Under hard acceleration, it should be more noticeable.

The service technician said that on a '98 accord, it's not something that he would spend money on fixing, and that replacing the transmission is the only way to fix it.

Is there anything that will improve this without replacing the tranny?