hello peole, im new to this forum and could do with some advise, ive got a 1998 prelude, auto with the tiptronic on it, and its also got the ATTS box, im having trouble with it, the cars done about 80'000km, when driving along the box is fine, but if i have to stop at lights or turnings, it wont pull away, it sort of jumps out of gear 9times out of 10, not slipping, just as tho its been put into neutral, to get it back in i have to select reverse and go back to d, and it will pull off again, but with a nasty ******, it will sometimes even do it if i just go realy slow, i did bodge it for a while, by turning the idle speed up to around 1500rpm, this helped to hold it in gear, but it was still very snatchy pulling away, but fine again while under normal driving conditions, anyone had this happen before? whats happening do you lot think, cheers.

 

First-the 5th gen Preludes only came in 3 models. BASE 5 speed-Base SS (Sportshift/Tiptronic)-SH 5 speed/ATTS. The easy way to tell the difference between either version of a Base and the SH is to look where the Oil Filter is located-to know for certain which block is in the car.

Now to your question. The Sportshift tranny in your model year does have several issues. If still in warranty-take it in. There is a real problem. Another thing-try having a DEALER do a full tranny service. Why the emphasis-because they have a special machine to do the reverse flushing that is required at 45,000 intervals according to the manual. You also need to stay on top of tranny service at 15k intervals and do the drain and fill routine.

Please read this carefully-a Sportshift/Tiptronic type transmission is sequential and electronically controlled. The way it changes gears in AUTO mode is not like it is in many conventional cars. The computer and transmission will search for the correct gear by going thru them to get there. In SS MODE the situation is a bit different in that you decide which gear you want to be in-but must go one at a time to get there too. As to playing with the Idle-don't. The computer knows if the car is moving and that signal is part of how the tranny is controlled. Neutral dumps and other hard starts are a big NO-NO.
The tranny in my 99 takes a bit of time to "spool up the torque convertor and that is in fact how it is designed for AUTO mode to operate. It can be quite frustrating when you want to pull out quickly and nothing happens for a second or so. The dealer checked mine and all is good-see explanation of how it works, generally.

Again-we do not know the history of your car. My simple advice is to have a Honda Dealer check it out. Do NOT rely on a salesman or private owner to tell you that everything was serviced UNLESS they have given you the actual service records for the car. I went thru this with our CRX and have complete proofs of what has been done. You need to have a dealer do a complete service to be absolutely certain that everything is as it should be. This includes a timing belt if over 90,000.
If you need the transmission repaired-that will be very costly without a warranty. My advice is to have a dealer do it (warranty comes with the replacement). You have 2 solid choices for suppliers-HONDA or Howard Engineering. They both use the same clean-room methods to do a rebuild. Expensive-yes but you will have assurance that it will be cared for if it fails again.

For others tempted to answer-a swap to a 5 speed can be done. However, keep in mind that the resale value of the car will go down considerably when the VIN is checked. Modified cars are not as easily sold in the retail market.

SAoory for the long reply-but it is important as there has been a lot written about this.

 

He's from the UK....I don't know but maybe there was an auto ATTS model....never heard of it though.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by satan_srv &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">He's from the UK....I don't know but maybe there was an auto ATTS model....never heard of it though.</TD></TR></TABLE>

same here but i would be interested on seeing some pictures of it, i wonder if it work the same as a 5 speed

 

im in the uk, but i imported the car from japan, so uk dealers dont want to know, its says its a sir on the vin plate, but its got an atts box under passenger footwell, and its all fused in for atts, it defo has it, but like you guys, i always thort it was only type sh that had it, ive changed the oil loads in a hope it might clean it out but it doesnt make much difference, just dont know what to do.

 

I have had a 98 Prelude SIR SSS since 99. At first all was well, then as you know garages don't want to know about it as it's an import and so my service routine skipped the ATF change - big mistake! Jerkiness then total loss of drive. I took it to an Auto Gearbox specialist, but they were useless basically - took 8 months till I got my car back as he got broken into whilst the car was there and it got vandalised! Upon getting my car back my pocket was £2K lighter and the box went again! This time I read up on the subject and inspected the bits myself. I noticed the control and shift solenoids had burst their mesh filters and asked for them to be replaced, but no. Anyway, box blew again and was rebult under warranty only to come back whining like a milk float! Box was re-built again under my insistance.

Anyway, I have now found out that a new box (complete with solenoids) from Honda is £1350 before any discount i.e. Gold/Loyalty card -20%. So I would advise you to get one of these instead of taking to be rebuilt by so called specialists ... anyone can set up shop as an auto trans specialist in this country. There are no checks on experience and qualifications.

My box seems to behave itself now when driven gently, but I've bought another car just in case - a 2001 Accord SSS to check the difference! I'm keeping my fingers cossed about the lude as I don't trust it completely - some harsh shifts from neutral sometimes. I've changed the lock-up solenoids and will replace the shift solenoids in due course.

 

ive had a play around with the solenoids, swapping some from an accord that i know is ok, but it didnt make any difference, my honda garage just keep saying its the plates worn out, but its not, as it never slipps at all, it drives nice when moving, its just this jumping out when stopping thats the problem, the car was stood for along time, in japan, and here while i got around to registering it, could that have caused something to seize up, or become sticky???