Hello Everyone.
I have a 97 Automatic Civic and I was hoping to get some help here.

The other day I was driving the car and after 3 or 4 miles I noticed that the tranny would slip when taking off from a stop. It got worse as the car warmed up to the point that I would stop, take off and the whole front end would violently shake. Checked the tranny oil, was red as usual, was last changed 3 years ago (22K miles), but had a slight burnt smell. Put the car in D3 same thing, D2 no problem. Back to D3 or D4, rpm would raise, but no shifting to 2nd gear, back to D2 no problem shifting. NO Engines light either.

Parked the car and called local Honda for an appointment, 2 hours later, started the car, drove around, No problem since, no burnt smell either.. Went to Honda, they told me that since it wasn't happening at the moment and there was no engine light, they might not be able to diagnose the issue, so they recommended coming back if it happens again. It hasn't happened since 3 days ago.

Any suggestions? Solenoid, speed sensor, 3x drain and refill tranny fluid?

 

change the filter and fluid, and hope for the best.

 

I thought Honda doesn't use filters in their transmissions or that they can't be serviced?

 

They can't.

 

Same thing happened to me a year ago, now it wont move on D4, D3 nor D2. Got cel for solenoid but i decided to change the tranny since its making strange noise.

 

Update.

I went ahead and did a 3x drain and refill even though the problem did not come back after a few days. First I did a 2x drain and refill. Car is silky smooth. Waited a week and did the final drain. Felt smooth, no problem. This weekend, wife drove the car for about 25 miles and called me complaining that the car felt hard and heavy and that it now had a check engine light. I drove to where she was to inspect. Check engine light was up with codes P0700 and P0715 for a Input shaft speed sensor, but when I drove it once again it feels normal. After doing some research, I found a Honda TSB for this issue which calls for a 3x drain and refill and to replace the linear solenoid. This information was confirmed thru local Honda dealer. Since I did the the 3x flush already, I ordered a new linear solenoid. There is a big chance that the solenoid is clogged with contamination, thus causing the slippage. Car only has 71k miles and has been religiously maintained. We'll see what happens. I am really hoping it is just a solenoid or an electrical malfunction, since the car drives fines most of the time and the problem has only happened twice during the last 2 weeks.

I'll keep updating this thread whether it fixes the problem or not. Hopefully someone else can use this information without having to read through hundreds of unfinished or unresolved threads on the net.

 

Did you do anything to fix it when it started a year ago?

 

Well I did changed the linear solenoid. Waste of time and money. Cars shifts perfectly fine when driving on local roads or short distances. Once the car warms up after driving for about 30 miles on the highway. It starts slipping again in 1st gear.

 

Had I seen this earlier I would have warned you. 99% of the time when these civics start throwing transmissions codes the transmission itself is toast. Side note, make sure if it was an EX that you get another EX transmission, if it was a DX/LX get a DX/LX transmission, they're slightly different and interchanging them will leave you with a permanent P0715 code and sometimes erratic shifting.

 

It was toast. I had it rebuilt by a friend. First gear was damaged and second was starting to go as well.