i just bought a 97 Honda Civic EX today. It's automatic. I have never had a mid 90's Honda with an auto trans so I am new to them. I have always dealt with manual transmission. When I was driving the car home it shifted great at lower speeds. However, when the car shifts in to final drive when getting on the highway. It shifts hard. It doesn't slip or rev up then slam into gear at all. I know what a transmission slip feels like. But it does shift hard. Is this something normal? I have no idea if the transmission fluid has even been ever changed. The car has 164,000 miles on. I have heard that sometime changing the transmission oil in older cars can make problems worse. Any input would be appreciated.

 

Any CEL codes?

Do at least three ATF drain/refill cycles with Castrol Import ATF or Valvoline Import ATF or Honda ATF. Then go from there.

 

No codes or check engine light. I will do a drain and fill and see how that goes.

 

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/tsb/crv/x00-012e.pdf

 

I don't have any problems with 1-2 gear. It's only shift from 3rd to 4th around 50mph. It gives me a hard shift/clunk. I have did 2 drain and fills and still no improvement. I will do the 3rd drain and fill this weekend. Should results be immediate with the drain and fill?

 

If you don't get any improvement when you finish three or more drain-refill cycles, then start shopping for a replacement transmission.

 

If a solenoid was bad I would have a check engine light and code correct? Also, should i be driving the car between refills and drains? I rowed through the gears once and took the car for about a 2 mile drive between changes and made sure to go about 55mph. Thanks

 

Move slowly through all the gears multiple times with the engine running. Additionally doing some driving would also help.

 

no, not necessarily, especially the linear solenoid.

 

So my distributor had a slight leak. And it leaked onto the seloniod seen in the picture above. The seloniod is connected to the transmission. Could this cause problems?

So my distributor had a slight leak. And it leaked onto the seloniod seen in the picture above. The seloniod is connected to the transmission. Could this cause problems?

So my distributor had a slight leak. And it leaked onto the seloniod seen in the picture above. The seloniod is connected to the transmission. Could this cause problems?

 

no