Hi I am new here. I have a good beater 91 Civic 4 door 1.5 LX Automatic that I like to keep for commuting. It has a shifting problem and will not shift into 4th from 3rd until it is warmed up for over an hour. I have changed the ATF fluid and bought a new shift solenoid to no avail. Been driving it like this for 10 years but it has gotten worse.
There are four different versions of the 1991 Honda Civic Automatic transmissions that went into the cars of various models for this year. I bought a replacement transmission with exactly the same part number as the one in my car from a junk yard. It looks the same but has a double shift solenoid valve switch on top instead of a single shift solenoid switched valve like the one on my car. The two pin connector fits from the junk yard transmission (double solenoid) but my wiring harness in the car only has one wire (to control a single solenoid shift valve). This surely will not work as there are no signals to send from the cars CPU to the second solenoid. Is there some way to make this work? Is there some other 91 Automatic Transmission part number with single solenoid style I should be looking for? This needs to be answered by someone who is a Honda Civic Transmission expert. There must be someone in the US who knows this answer? The car is a very good Honda with nice paint that runs great and passes smog super clean if the trans can shift, (34 MPG). Out of time now as the Reg. is coming due soon. Still paying insurance on it, i.e. it is still derivable now but only goes about 35 MPH.
Otherwise what it this car worth as is?

Thanks in advance
Lonesomedave

 

I have not dabbled in automatics very much for this year, but I believe that might be the torque converter lockup solenoid. As far as I know, these cars have mechanical valve bodies to shift with and a separate kickdown cable to downshift when you reach a certain throttle position. My EF service manual does not have an automatic section for some reason or I'd try to give more info on it. There just isn't much of a following for the autos on this year. Hope you get your help bud.

Where do you live that still tests emissions on a car this old? Just curious.

 

Hi Sumdewd,
Thanks for your response.I also have all the manuals I can find on this car and there is practically no information about this I can find anywhere. I know my old transmission has one wire and one pin in the connector to the single solenoid. The new one has two pins, two wires and is double solenoid. So even though you could be correct about the throttle position, something is not going to work right if I try to use the replacement trans? Just finding the factory new single solenoid was a chore as I was surprised to find there are dozens of different solenoids models to choose from for civics. I was stumped on this project when I bought the replacement trans with the same markings/part number/same year, only to find the solenoid differences when I got it home. Everything else is identical. The parts books online do not help as they only show parts and not the complete rebuilt trans.part numbers. It is a hard one to find for this car due to the short years used 90 -91. I should try to make some photos to post.
I live in Calif, where the joy of Smog Check goes back to cars that are 1975 and before ! Now because it is so old I have to take it to a special STAR station where they do extra and more careful testing on it. The goal is to get you to throw away your perfectly good car to stimulate the economy when you buy a new one (also more road tax). It has nothing to do with clean air at all. This car has always had Full Synthetics run in it, has 280k , but runs great and only emits 16 HC parts per million -which is supper clean. By comparison my 1971 BMW 2002 emits over 400 HC but it is now Smog exempt due to is age.

 

I'm in Hamilton County, TN (Chattanooga) and I still have to pass emissions on my 1990 Civic every year. At least when I used to live in Atlanta once the car was 25 years old or more you didn't have to do emissions any more...not the case here in Chatty.

 

I guess Floridians are spoiled. We don't even have inspection here. No emissions testing on anything basically. I would've gotten rid of my car or moved if I had to do emissions testing on it at this age.