Hi, I'm basically brand new to this site, but I have come here with a bit of desperation. I have a 1998 honda accord 3.0 liter v6 sedan that was gifted to me by my parents in a bout of insanity (lol). It had a rebuild tranny put in it not long ago, and has been slipping since have owned it. More so recently, but usually only if I don't let off the accelerator when the car shifts gears. I have done much repair to this car since receiving it, and love it very much. Now, to the meat of the story. I recently drove it about 700 miles with almost no stops, and half way through that drive the car seized in third gear, shook quite a bit, and hasn't been right since. The first gear works almost indefinitely, however, the lower gears such as 2nd,and 3rd are wonky. But once I get up to speed on the highway, it drives like a dream for miles. The lower gears sometimes catch and sometimes don't, and sometimes catch and then immediately let go. I've even had the oddity of being in third gear while my shifter is in the second gear's selection. I went to my local parts store and asked to get codes from it, and the codes read: P0705 Transmission Range Sensor Circuit Malfunction, P0740 Torque Converter Clutch, P0730 Incorrect Gear Ratio,P0700 Transmission Control System, then P0740 Torque Converter Clutch Solenoid Circuit / Open, and the last one I didn't get. For the most part I understood what all that means, but I'm also very lost. Considering I don't want to pa $2150 for a new tranny, I've thought of taking it apart and fixing it myself but I don't even want to think about starting that project. Any help, suggestions, or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

 

Seriously? No one can offer help?

 

Unfortunately, this generation accord, especially with the V6 is legendary for transmission problems. The first step is always start with the basics. Check the transmission fluid. If it isn't pink, or it is low, then you have hope that it is just a transmission fluid problem. Change, do not flush, the transmission fluid, using only Honda brand fluid. There are YouTube videos of how to do this, but basically you drain it, and fill it, and drive it a bit, and then drain it and fill it and drive it, and drain it and fill it and drive it. Why? All of the fluid, actually not even most of the fluid, comes out when you drain it. Why not flush it? If the transmission is having problems then there are probably some particles in the fluid, and a flush might force those particles into one or more of the tiny passages in the transmission. Draining and filling isn't any more difficult than changing the oil, but you need a special (but cheap) long necked funnel, at least I did on my 4 cylinder accord, and a drain pan or pail. And you need the right size socket and socket wrench. You can do the whole thing in a couple of hours, maybe even just an hour. You can get a subscription to alldatadiy.com for about $30/yr and you can get all the details on the codes, the potential causes, and the fixes. You can also get that same information at an auto parts store if you let them scan the codes for free, but if you are going to do the work yourself, I find that alldatadiy pays for itself many times over. There is a possibility of another cause that might be cheap but it is a long shot. On mine, I had a coolant hose blow and it got coolant all over one side of the engine, including some electrical connections. After a year I got a P0753 for a shift solenoid failure. I started to replace the solenoid but then I noticed when I unplugged it, the prongs on the plug were greenish. After a couple of tries with other things I bought some electric parts cleaner and really rinsed the heck out of the male and female part of the connection (with the battery disconnected). If neither of those things are the fix and a new transmission is needed, you can actually get a low mileage used transmission from Japan called a JDM, for much, much cheaper than a new transmission. Once you get the transmission running again, my advise is accelerate slowly (the engine is really too powerful for the transmission) and change the transmission fluid every 30,000 miles or 3 years whichever comes first, and always use the Honda brand fluid.

 

Andrew, I joined just now when I saw your post.
I have the same car and the same problem.
The car is in perfect condition, but for the shift problem.
Nothing is loose, nothing leaks, runs great once it's in the final gear D3 or D4.
At a stop it clunks into 1st. You take off and it let's go of 1st, then there's a 5 second delay before it grabs 2nd. Same from 2nd to 3rd.
I'm getting the "TCC circuit malfunction" code.
Here's all the stuff I did after some research, and I still have the problem.
I removed and tested and cleaned the screens on all the relays. Screens were clogged just like in the videos. Relays clicked and resistance matched the videos. Didn't help.
I replaced all those with junkyard ones that were clean and tested ok. Didn't help.
I bought all new relays from ebay. Some were even Genuine Honda, and looked quality. About $250 bucks, didn't help.
I did the fluid flush. Dump 3.5 quarts, add 3.5 quarts of Honda DW1 (replaces atf-Z1). Repeat 3 times. $100 bucks, didn't help. (The ebay case of 12 for $89 is the best deal).
I'm suspecting it's the internal filter clogged, but I'm not eager to pull it and disassemble it to put in the $15 filter (Advance Auto Parts B-290 'uppie' or B-291 'downy').
I see that 200 people have read your post, so we're probably not the only ones with this problem.
Let me know if you've found and fixed your problem, and I'll do the same.
-WoW