I bought a slightly crashed 96 Accord LX 2.2, i replaced the impact absorber, and a headlight. Everything else on the body including the bumper and hood was undamaged. However the air bags deployed, I replaced the bags and the srs sensor, cleared the code and all is well. I don't have any CEL's, and the car drives fine, transmission shifts up and kicks down a little rough but nothing of concern. However, when I park the car on a hill and put in into Park, it pops out and rolls, making like a skipping noise. It's a little tough getting it out of park, and it doesn't seem like it securely locks in. Is this an internal pin or could this be a solenoid or a sensor of somewhat? I don't think it's the brake switch as my brakes work fine and I can shift from Reverse to Drive easily.

 

Bump for help please.

 

I don't know much about auto trannies but perhaps the car was hit when it was parked and the parking pawl got damaged. I gotta think you would have to pull the tranny to fix it, but perhaps others know more about this than I do.

 

I think something broke in the tranny in the crash. If the impact was enough to deploy airbags, it was enough to damage something in the tranny. I've seen it and heard of it before.

 

Under the right side cover of the trans is where the transmission parking pawl is located.
#13 is the pawl.


But if the pawl is not fully engaging it could be that the shifter cable is out of adjustment or there is damage to the parking pawl or the parking sprocket.

The parking pawl will not hold forever. It is only spring loaded, thus a hard enough push/bump will cause it to unlock. It is mechanically engaged when you place the shifter into Park.

Use your parking brake. If it does not work fix it. If the parking brake mechanism is not working then the self adjusters are probably not working either. If that is the case your brakes are not giving you full stopping power either. And you are probably going through front pads in short order.

When parking an automatic always treat it as though there is no gear to hold the car, curb tires, set parking brake, place car into Neutral to verify parking brake will hold then place into Park. The car should hold with ~7 clicks on a slight incline, more if a steeper incline. If the hand brake just zips up to its full travel stop with little or no resistance there is an issue with the parking brake mechanism.

 

Depends on what the airbag logic is with the Accord system, and even then it could have been a simple 10-15MPH bump while the car was parked.

Since we have no known history of the car, the previous owner may have only ever used PARK as the parking brake and not engage the hand brake. This would cause wear and tear on the pawl to the extant that it is no longer able to hold.

 

It was a low speed impact, broke the pass headlight, and bumper light. I could have gotten away with not replacing the impact absorber, but I like to do things the right way. As far as the pawl, how hard is it to replace? I've got experience under the hood but never ripped apart an automatic before. Also, where would I get the replacement pawl?

 

Found the pawl and the spring at hondapartsunlimited.com it's 35 dollars for both of them, I would think I should also get the gasket for the trainy cover. Looking at the diagram it doesn't seem too complicated.

 

Verify first that shifter/shifter cable are not out of adjustment. If the cable is just out of adjustment you will not need to open the case. Which BTW I'm not even totally sure if you can remove the RIGHT SIDE COVER with the trans in the car. Click on the TechAuto link in my sig, I think the cable adjustment is under the Ignition Switch menu.

 

Yup, I was reading that up lat night too. The previous owner told me the engine and trainy were replaced about a month before the accident, then sat for about 9 months. The paperwork shows it, so I was curious if the mechanic didn't check the tention on it. It's done at the shifter if im not mistaken, i'll have to find that again. As far as the trainy cover, I think MAD_MIKE is right, it's too tight to take off with the trainy still in. I think if you could tilt it, you'll be able to get in there. I swapped a manual on a 90 accord that way.