Hello I have a 92 accord wagon that is having a weird, intermittent problem in which it either starts from a stop in 3rd gear, or sometimes won't shift past 3rd.

I've taken it in twice but they can never get it to happen in the shop so I just get a shrug. The frequency has increased quite a bit though, since the last time I tried to have it looked at.

The first symptom is that D will be lit up on the dash even if it's not in Drive. The gear it IS in will also be lit though. So if it's in Park both P and D will be lit.

I can either start very slowly in 3rd by having patience and giving it very little gas, or I can shift it to 1st or 2nd on the shifter.

It shifts down fine when I do this which makes me think it's not the transmission itself, but rather the shifter control or at least something in the way they communicate.

Again it is intermittent but I haven't found anything that reliably triggers it.

Thoughts or questions?

Thanks

 

If the D4 lamp is blinking or illuminated then there is a code stored in the TCU.
Go to your passenger kick panel.
Look above it for a two wire blue plug, it may be floating in space, it may be tucked behind the kick panel, but it will be there.
Jumper the blue plug with a wire.
Turn your Ignition switch to II(ON).
Watch the CEL and D4 lamps on the dash for blinking.
Quick dashes are ones, longer dashes are tens.
Codes will be in numerical order. And will repeat.
Record codes.
Post back here for further diagnostics.