1997 honda accord with automatic transmission, after driving for 4-5 miles and the car is warmed up the transmission just goes out. my daughter drives this car to school and right now we just can't afford to take it to a shop. any suggestions on how we could diagnos it ourselves? hope someone can steer us in the right direction as im so stressed out today.

 

Well first. Is there a check engine light on? Does the d4 light flash? Have you checked the transaxle fluid? If you don't know how, the car has to be running and in park or neutral to get an accurate reading.

After you do that get back to me and let me know


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Transmission fluid change, clean your control solenoids, check all of tthe connections. etc. Google is a wonderful tool.

 

You bastard haha. I was getting there. Just didn't want to overwhelm him all at once.


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my daughter left the car at her friends house near school. so tommorrow after work i will pick it up and once i get it home i will report back on what its doing and if any check lights are on, thanks all!

 

The ATs in these cars do not have a removable pan, nor a readily serviceable filter. If the fluid is not changed or neglected the friction material and metal particles can build up in the filter blocking flow. This will render the transmission inoperable. Unlike typical ATs the Honda unit uses a small intake port that can be obstructed.

You will know if the fluid has been neglected when the fluid is drained, the drain bolt is magnetic and will be covered in ferrous material. If this layer becomes too thick it renders the magnet useless in collecting more particles. This slurry of metal and friction material can snowball and block the sump pickup.

The end of the drain plug will be the size of your pinky, but if it has been neglected will have materiel coating it larger than your thumb.

If this is the case, add some SeaFoam Trans Tune while going through the refill and drain procedure. It will help break up the slurry and aid in removing it from the case. These transmissions do not like to be power flushed, only drain, refill, and drive. Do this three times to remove the majority of the old fluid. If the fluid is greyish in hue, it would be worthwhile to flush the old fluid out first with Dexron(to remove the majority of the crud) and then replace it with Honda ATF.

 

LOW ON TRANNY FLUID! filled it up and drove it 20 miles on highway and no problems, the way my daughter was describing what happen i was worried, but im going to drain the fluid and refill this weekend. thanks for the help everyone.