Hello.

My girlfriend's automatic 1991 honda accord lx started acting strangely about a week ago. It is not shifting gears like it should, causing the rpm's to rev higher. You can tell it will move between 1st and 3rd sometimes, but not in a normal fashion. It will just get stuck in one gear so driving over 40 mph is not pretty.

It is worth noting that the car seems to be stuck in "sports" mode also. That might have something to do with the problem, but I don't think it is the cause.

I thought I'd ask here before I take it in. Any advice is appreciated.

Matt

 

Souns like the same thing as my 93. No one can seem to help us here. No one knows about transmissions here. I looking for a more helpful site but no luck so far. I did get the transmission trouble code of 278 and no one knows what that means. My accord only has 38,000 miles and garage kept so its not the trans but I dont want to get ripped off so I'm surfing the web for answers.

 

Hey guys- there has actually been a plethora of threads about this exact ptoblem.
In fact, I am having the same problem! ('91 Accord EX Wagon)
The common cause seems to be a blown capacitor and resistor in the transmission's "brains" aka: TCM or TCU. Do a search and you'll see lots of recent threads about this. I just posted asking for the specs of the two components so I could save $100 for a TCU rebuild (TIGHT budget and I know how to operate a soldering gun) and no one has been forthcoming as yet.

Other possibilities I have seen thrown out:
Bad solenoid
Low/contaminated trans fluid

As for me, I peeked in my TCU box, and the resistor and capacitor that are typically the problem are blown in mine. I am just hoping someone takes mercy and tells me the values of those two pieces so I can do a DIY repair. (I'll bump this thread so you can see it easily...)

Cheers!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wyldbil &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hey guys- there has actually been a plethora of threads about this exact ptoblem.
In fact, I am having the same problem! ('91 Accord EX Wagon)
The common cause seems to be a blown capacitor and resistor in the transmission's "brains" aka: TCM or TCU. Do a search and you'll see lots of recent threads about this. I just posted asking for the specs of the two components so I could save $100 for a TCU rebuild (TIGHT budget and I know how to operate a soldering gun) and no one has been forthcoming as yet.

Other possibilities I have seen thrown out:
Bad solenoid
Low/contaminated trans fluid

As for me, I peeked in my TCU box, and the resistor and capacitor that are typically the problem are blown in mine. I am just hoping someone takes mercy and tells me the values of those two pieces so I can do a DIY repair. (I'll bump this thread so you can see it easily...)

Cheers!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Thats weird, I have the exact same car, and I am driving mine still with a slipping auto trans. Your car doesnt happen to be silver also, does it? Lol.

 

Check car-part.com for used tcm's (may also find a rebuilt). Lots of them there for under $100.

 

To 91wagon- Nope. Mine's maroon or whatever the Honda name for that color is.
Wanted BLACK, but as rare as the wagons seem to be, took what I could get in decent condition.

 

lol this has been covered a lot.

first what u do is check the codes from the tmc.

usually there are the shift control selenoids that go bad(where it jumps from first gear to the third one) then its the tmc it self.

the second one u can find out if its burned by opening it and u will notice if its fucked or not.

and when it comes to 4th generation accord there is a site which is only four 90-93 accords.

the site is http://www.cb7tuner.com it has threads where u can find out how to check the codes on the car computer and the tranny computer(this pic for the ones who need them)

then they have a diy thread where they show u how to swap the automatic tranny. go and check them out. and do some search on their threads.
good luck

 

I took mine to the dealer for the exact problem. It turned out to be something called the automatic transmission lock, or something like that. They reset the TCM, and said that if it happened again I would have to buy a new one. But in the end it only costed me $35.

 

Wyldbil,

I'll take mercy on you, and give you the specs but the repair is not as simple as you think. The reason the resistors burn is because the capacitor starts to leak, slowly corroding the circuit board. Eventually, the salt in the electrolyte shorts out the circuits, and the resistors burn. The problem is that the circuit board itself also burns, along with some of the traces. If you've never rebuilt one, then you probably won't know how to properly clean and repair the board before replacing the damaged components.
But anyway here goes:

Resistors are 10 ohm, 1/2 watt
The capacitor is 220uF, 35V

BTW, I don't repair those TCM's after someone elses tries to repair them