Hello everyone,

I have a 1996 Honda Accord 2.7L v6 and I believe I am having transmission problems. It all started yesterday on my way home. I am driving down the road and my car seemed to lose complete power for a second, then I hear a thud and then the transmission shift to a different gear and it gained its power back. This happened for just a second, so I stopped at the gas station to buy some gas and continue on home, again a loss of power for a split second and then it gained its power back and kept moving. So today I went and checked all my fluid levels and it seems like my transmission fluid was low, so I added more and took it for a test drive. Now the transmission seems to hate me even more because I lost power again and this time it was for a longer distance than before, it never really gained its power back, I kinda just had to nurse it back into the drive way and the RPM's were extremely high. Can anyone tell me whats going on? Maybe things I can check? The only thing that I have changed out was the shift solenoid back in March because the transmission was shifting hard. Changing the solenoid did not fix anything, but the shifting was not any worse than it was before, so I left the new on. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

PsXtreme

 

*crickets* You mean nobody here has come across these same symptoms before and can give me an idea what to check out or replace? Thanks for the help guys!

 

I'm not familiar with the 95-97 V6. If it is similar in design to the 90-97 F series AT, and you don't have reverse, the sump is probably impacted with gunk. Stop the engine the pump stops, junk falls out of the pickup into the sump. Start engine and the trans works again.
Try draining the AT. If there is a lot of debris and sludge then the ATF has probably not been changed in a while and the sump pickup is impacted with junk preventing flow.
How many miles on the car?
When was the ATF fluid changed out?

 

I changed the fluid back in March when I changed out the shift solenoid. It looks like its still clean on the dipstick, but maybe the sludge is down near the filter. I just tried changing out the TCU because I was told by a buddy that it could be that possibly. However, after driving the car around for a little bit the issue came back. It really feels like I have a clog somewhere and after a second it gets pushed through and thats why I get power loss for a second and then it comes back all the sudden. Kinda like my filter is possibly clogged or something. I dont have the money at the moment to get that honda fluid from the dealer right now, but I will try changing it out as soon as I can.

 

I just drained the transmission fluid to see if I could strain some of this gunk out, but there really wasnt any clutch material in the fluid. It was a dark red color, but I think thats normal for my transmission. So now im at a loss as to whats going on here. It does seem right that something is clogged, but there isnt anything in the fluid. Maybe the filter? Could something be so clogged in the filter that it cant clean itself out? What do you guys think about Seafoam trans tune in a honda transmission to clean it up?

 

What happens with the H4A(F22 trans) when the fluid is not changed, the lighter stuff will get pulled out, but the heavier stuff with stick to the filter pickup and become impacted into the screen.
Guys have tried solvent, thinner, Trans-Tune. It just doesn't work. One could park the car at an angle and hope the gunk 'falls' out of the sump and drains towards the drain plug, but that is unlikely. It sticks to the screen. Only way to make the trans work again would be to clean the screen, by either locating where the screen actually is and drilling/tapping out a hole in the case to aid in cleaning out the filter. Or opening the case and replacing the filter, but by that point you may as well rebuild.

But you will need to verify that the filter is impacted, attache pressure gauge to the pump output test port. If there is no or very low pressure then you know the pump is not working properly.