Recently I bought a 98 Ex from a friend of my wife. The only known problem with the car was a bad auto tranny, go figure!!! I drove the car and addressed the CEL, which told me that there were a few codes for the tranny. I was unsure that I would even make it back to my house with the original tranny in the car because it was slipping and acting so crazy.

I sourced another transmission from Steve at hmotorsonline. It is a JDM transmission and I had to change over all of the sensors and solenoids from the USDM tranny. I removed and replaced everything and got the JDM transmission in there. Since the first time I have driven it a little over a week ago it has been acting weird. There are no CEL's, the transmission has been flushed 3 times now with Honda ATF, and Steve of hmotorsonline has been contacted since the tranny came with a 30 day warranty. That was just to give him a heads up and to see what he had to say, which he was also helpful and understanding.

Here are the problems I am having. As usual, it seems that when the car is cold, the transmission is going to slip between shifts. Each shift is slow with an RPM spike. Just yesterday I was leaving work and coming to a stop, I was doing less than 1mph but still slighting rolling and the tranny made the car buck hard enough I checked my rear view to make sure someone did not tap my rear bumber! Thats only happened once though. Basically, it is the slow shifting accompanied with a slight RPM spike and a slight hesitation like something is not engaging and then it grabs and takes off. That problem has no RPM spike though, engine rpm stays the same. Also there is no CEL, no flashing D4 or anything, and these problems are not completely consistent. They seem to diminish a little once the car/tranny warm up, but it still happens while it has been warmed up. One minute it may act normal, the next it may seem to be slipping. Steve asked about the shift into reverse from park, which seems normal to me. I do not think there is a problem with any of the switches or solenoids since there are no CEL's, but I want to make sure with others that have more experience with these transmissions.

Is there anything else I can try or check out or is this the typical decline in transmission health that is going to lead to another bad transmission?

 

Did you clean the filter screens on the solenoid units? It's possible one of the components you swapped over was marginal.

 

Yeah, I made sure all the screens looked good before swapping them over. That isn't to say that one could have gotten something in there and is creating a problem.

I also noticed there is a slight little whine coming from the tranny while driving. Is that normal for Honda automatics? I only have experience with one other Honda auto tranny and that was a 1997 Civic Ex. I replaced the tranny in that car and basically immediately sold it, so no real experience other than making sure it worked fine.

I told Steve at hmo that I would test a few more things out and let him know what I find.

 

Anyone got anything else they can add in before I get in touch with hmo again and tell them this tranny definitely has problems.

 

I have had 5 Accords, no tranny whine on any of them. All automatics. 92, 93, 01 4 cylinders. 2 01 6 cylinders.

 

All automatics? It is nothing serious, but with the radio down you can certainly here a little whine.