It's been slipping for awhile (about 2-3 months now).

First gear is fine, accelerates great and then it tries to go into 2nd, sometimes it skips it completely and smoothly and goes to 3rd and then it's normal from there. Sometimes it goes into 2nd for a second and then it kind of jerks out into 3rd (again after it's in 3rd it's fine, no other gears have an issue). It used to *sometimes* go into 2nd (it still occasionally does, I think it did once about 4-5 days ago). This all started as hard downshifts, if I was turning a corner at a green light, it would downshift hard into 2nd. I guess after awhile that made it to what it is now.

I drive it everyday, like 20-30 miles, and it hasn't gotten any worse. I mean, sometimes you wouldn't even notice unless it was one of the jerky shifts (seems to be completely random). It still accelerates nicely and doesn't really struggle other than normal 3rd gear at 20-40 would.

I hear flushing the transmission is bad when you have a lot of miles on the car (157,000), but is draining it, and refilling with Lucas transmission fix and fluid going to cause more damage?

I know it probably won't *fix* anything, but I want to buy as much time as I can before I have to shell out the $1500+ for an overhaul.

Also, I'm not *great* with cars, but I feel as though I might have a transmission fluid leak? I drove for about 15 miles yesterday and decided to check my transmission fluid, so I turned the car off (fresh from the drive). Pulled the dipstick and wiped it on a cloth, and dipped it back in and pulled it out to check the level and it seems the dipstick wasn't even reaching the fluid? Could all of this be attributed to low transmission fluid?

I also tried peering into the hole that holds the dipstick and I didn't really see any liquid. It was dark and I had my phone's flash camera, so I could be mistaken. This morning I pulled the dipstick after the engine was sitting all night and there was a very small amount at the very bottom of the dipstick about 1/6 of the way to the first dot/line on the stick. Should I get some fluid and top it off? Or should I just pour some Lucas to top it off?

I just don't want to make anything worse.

 

Updated information:


I took it to Autozone to pull codes, they said they got 8 codes

Misfire Cylinder 1
Misfire Cylinder 2
Misfire Cylinder 3
Misfire Cylinder 4
Torque Converter Clutch Solenoid
Torque Converter Clutch Circuit
Incorrect Gear Ratio


More information, I posted this because last night when I was coming home from my girlfriend's house, my car wouldn't go past 45 MPH. The RPM would seemingly "hit a cap" at about 2,500 and kind of stutter/drop 400~ RPM ish as I applied pressure.

This happened on the way to Autozone but not on the way home, so I don't know..


Also, the misfires *might* not be related. About a month ago I was having trouble starting the car (would sputter to a start)... but that randomly went away. The Check Engine Light started flashing during that time, I haven't noticed it flash during the driving part of this issue.


Also** I started the car, and shifted through all the gears, pulled the dipstick, wiped it, dipped it, and the level seemed to be where it should be (just under the first bar).

 

Slipping transmission means the engine revs up but the car won't go. If the engine doesn't rev up and the car shakes, the engine is misfiring-- the transmission is probably OK.

No harm in a drain and refill but use only Honda fluid. Generic fluid or additives are usually very bad.