My 1999 Accord with 236,000 miles needed its first clutch. I took it in Wednesday morning and picked it back up Wednesday night. On the way in to work Thursday the transmission was sounding loud, like a metallic spinning, very similar to the sound new rotors/pads make when fresh. After about 20 minutes on the road the car popped itself out of 5th gear. I was able to put it back into gear, and it popped right back out. Speed was approx 70mph, A/C was on, fan speed on 2. 5th gear popped out 4 or 5 times, and I had to take it slow to make it back. I took the car back to the Mech that replaced the clutch. He said, "well, it's not the clutch, i cant explain it, you need to take it to a transmission shop." My response way, "um, it had no transmission problems before you replaced the clutch..." Anyhow, i'm waiting on him to check it out again, but what gives? I searched around and saw some similar issues, but none related to a fresh clutch. Is there a likely culprit in this scenario they could have screwed up?

 

Mechanic probably forgot to put transmission fluid in, when you remove the transmission you loose a significant amount of transmission fluid out the axle holes. 5th gear is the furthest towards the far end of the case and get starved for fluid first and starts popping out of gear. Remove the transmission fill plug, check the level with your finger, if you don't find any fluid or its way down, go see your mechanic.

 

thanks for the suggestions, it kind of felt like it was rough and needing fluid, but i just took it straight to the shop anyway. the guy said he called a transmission mech out to take a look and he fixed it. he wouldnt tell me what the problem was so i bet it was something dumb. is that liable to mess up the transmission?

 

He forgot to put fluid in. I'd demand an invoice for the repair with a written explanation of what was done to fix the problem. He can do that for you even if he didn't charge you. That will help you out if the trans is damaged to the point of repair (the damage is already done, how bad it is I can't say).