I recently bought a 2000 crv with 164k miles and had no issues om test drive or the drive home until almost all of the way home as I slowed to a red light that turned green. I went to accelerate and there was a ton of vibration from the engine and noise. Now that I have driven it more to figure out what's going on I am positive the transmission is shifting in to overdrive way too soon. Either that or the torque converter is locking up way too soon. I could be going 25mph and I will shift into overdrive and the car will be so bogged down that it canot accelerate. I have to give it a ton of gas to make it downshift and finally go.

Has anyone had this issue and found a way to fix this issue ?

 

Having a 5-speed CR-V (the way they all should be) I'm not entirely familiar with the automatic's function, but is there a button on the shifter that allows you to deactivate overdrive? Most automatics have them so that you can drive around town and in 35-45 mph speed zones your transmission isn't constantly up-and-down shifting between 3rd and 4th gear. If your transmission does have a button to disable overdrive, I'd hit that to keep you in the lower 3 gears. This should help you separate out whether the 4th gear function (OD) is what's giving you the trouble, or if it's something like the torque converter clutch lock-up, or the transmission as a whole. If you disable overdrive and the problem goes away, then you've at least got a reliable way to drive the vehicle until you get the problem truly figured out. I hope you don't commute on the highway... ... My first step after that would probably be to change the transmission fluid. Having just bought the car I'm going to assume you don't know the service history. Do a spill and fill, not a flush. Empty out the 4 quarts in the pan, refill, drive about 500 miles, then swap out the 4 quarts in the pan again. If things improve, repeat after another 500 miles.

See how those suggestions play out for you. Maybe someone who's actually familiar with the issue will chime in with something more applicable.

 

yes it has the disable and I do use it when I am under 35 sometimes. The reason I do it only sometimes is because I know when the transmission is going to do its weird thing. The problem here is this car was supposed to be for my girlfriend to relieve the stress she has when driving her manual transmission car. So I test drove this crv and all was well, until I almost got home. So the car will drive fine if I am accelerating normal all the way to freeway speeds. It has no noticeable driving issues whatsoever. The only thing this car ever does that is weird is shift into the tallest gear at around 25mph if I am keeping the speed steady which out of the 10+ cars I have owned that were automatic, ive never had a car do this.

I have taken the car to aamco and they ran their diagnosis. They said the computer is communicating instructions properly, and the lockup solenoid is responding properly. So they would like to check out the TPS sensor next for 300$. So instead I replaced the TPS (and calibrated it), tested the lockup solenoid, cleaned the screens on the lockup solenoid, tested the MAP sensor, and drained/filled with fluid 1x so far (have only driven 20 miles since fluid change)

I refuse to believe things like "this is an older car, it does this now cause its worn out and tired." I understand it is 16 years old and has 165k miles. The transmission shifts smooth as butter and the engine is quiet and has no vibrations or noises other than a slight hint of belt sound. It accelerates smooth, etc. I swear it drives great for its age. There is some module or something telling the transmission to shift way too early. Someone else a few years ago posted on this forum their crv was doing exactly the same thing and I have sent him a PM and still no response, the forum didn't turn up any answers. This was 3 years ago so I was hoping maybe by now someone has had this issue and has found the fix.

My next steps I am most hopeful about are:
- waiting for a reply from the dude with exactly the same issue
- hoping someone who has had this issue or thinks they know what it is will chime in on this forum or another I'm on
- finding a specialty Honda shop that has technicians experienced in vehicles of this vintage
- maybe the computer/TCM can be reflashed? can they get goofy at times and forget their shift points?

 

I have exactly the same issue on my Honda CRV 2000 year model. When cold, it shifts fine but when the transmission warms up, it will go into overdrive at around 30-35 mph and when you step on the gas, it will shudder because the gear is too tall. you have to step on the gas quite a bit to shift down. I know it is not the transmission because I have been driving like this for 3 years and it still runs fine. I tried calibrating the TPS but no luck. Anyone tried changing things like the charge temperature sensor or Manifold pressure sensor?

 

You have the same thing as me. It is a clogged internal filter inside the transmission. Many cars you can change this filter by removing the pan. But this car doesn't have a pan. This filter is inside the transmission and the only way to change it is to remove the trans at which point might as well take it to be rebuilt so you don't have to mess with it for many years. The reason this is the cause of the problem is it causes line pressure issues within the valve body. If you hold light throttle pressure while the engine is lugging it will eventually downshift. It just takes forever for the line pressure to build to the point the computer tells it to downshift.

Here is what I have replaced while chasing this problem.

Throttle position sensor (calibrated and quadruple checked)
MAP sensor (manifold absolute pressure)
Torque converter lockup solenoid or whatever it's called. Been a while.
Full tune up (cap, rotor, wires, plugs, oil, oil filter, air filter, even the damn cabin air filter... basically everything)
Transmission fluid "cleanse" whatever u call it. Honda does not recommend any back-flush or chemical flushing. I did what they recommend. Drain the trans fluid and refill with Honda brand fluid (other fluids do work, I just eliminated potential variables by following directions to the T. ). You drain and refill, drive 500 miles or so and do it again. Repeat until you have refilled it 3 times.

Nothing I've done has had 1 ounce of impact on this issue.

The transmission shifts perfect and everything. But if you are cruising under 40mph the trans will go into OD Full TC lockup and the vehicle lugs hard and can't accelerate unless holding throttle for a while or pushing hard to force a downshift. When I drive this car under 40 I keep OD turned off via the shifter column switch until I got 40mph or so then I turn OD back on. Been driving like this for 40k miles and it still shifts fine. If you plan to go up over 40 from a stop you can just accelerate like any other car. Only a problem when cruising maintaining speed under 40 the line pressure drops and it locks up the TC. to be honest I've decided to drive it like this until the transmission dies then I'll get it rebuilt.

Strong recommendation to everyone who owns a first gen CR-V automatic. Change out your fluid (3qt drain and fill) every now and then. Maybe like 15k or something. Once that internal filter clogs u will know why.
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thank you Jay, I did replace the Lockup solenoid located on the top and it still shudders around 30 - 40. I did drain and refill the transmission about 4 times and it did not help it at all. It shifts great going to freeway speeds and runs perfect at freeway speeds but I wish there was a way to back flush the tranny on these Hondas. I tried Honda transmission oil, maxlife but it did not get better. I will have to keep pushing the OD off button till I sell the car. It is a great car in the snow except for this issue.

 

Alright, so I've noticed something, and I do not know how it's related, but it seems that all the things you are explaining are the same thing I was experiencing.
Until...
I was driving, and AS USUAL my 2000 Honda CRV was struggling to get up a hill, and gradually losing speed. I got the idea to turn off the O/D to get out of high gear, as if I were driving a 5 speed.
And power, she had.
I climbed the hill and gained speed while doing so, although at 5k rpms.
I did this all day, as I was traveling a very long distance.
This is where I noticed a change: later on this trip, I needed to make a sudden left and accelerate then merge, and normally I would never attempt this as there just aren't any guts in this car. Except, there was! I couldn't believe how fast I sped up this time. The response from the gears was nothing I had ever experience in this car! I went from 0 to 50 in about a much time as would be expected in a normal car.
I feel like maybe I knocked something loose, or it recalibrated the radio somehow. Because momma like.... all because I to took control of the automatic transmission, into a story of forced semi-manual with no clutch under my foot. Got 1st, 2nd, drive and O/D under my kind-of demand... lol

 

Our 2001 crv does the same thing. We've had it for 14 years now. It was ok till we took it for a service to a place that specialises in automatic transmission rebuilds in 2010, they pushed for us to rebuild the transmission, and we've had this shudder ever since. If we coast on around 50km/h the transmission premturely shifts into 4th gear when really it should be in 3rd as the engine cannot provide the required power at that gearing and rpm. We've been using it since then by using the O/D button.
I've tried testing the solenoids, changing with genuine Honda fluid, putting lucas transmission fix. Nothing has worked so far. The car is now at the vintage where it is not worth fixing, so we're just going to keep using it till it dies.

I'm guessing our engine will go before the transmission, because we had an incident were the engine heated up internally because of oil starvation. Rocker cover and oil sump gasket leaks went ignored for a while and then we ran it without enough oil for while.
So my takeaway is, you can live with the transmission issue however, if you have engine oil leaks please fix it or keep topping up.