Hello all, let me first introduce myself, my name is Drew and I am new to this forum. I am in dyer need of electrical/transmission help with my 92 honda civic dx. Please help or advice if you can. The other day, I went to start my car, and the batterywas dead. It had been sitting for a while and one of the cells was dead. Well I jumped it and drove somewhere so that I could work on it. While I was driving it, and it was only running on the alternator, everytime I hit the brake pedal, the lights would blink, speedometer would drop and the radio would go off for a second, and then everything would go back to working normal. While this was happening, I was worried about some kinda of electrical problem happening.?.? So finally, when I was about a mile from home, I hit the gas at a stop light, and the car would not move. It would rev up but not move, like the transmission was slipping really bad. It would not move at all. No matter what gear I put it in. After finally got the car home, and replaced the battery, it was fine at first. Then after a couple minutes it would start slipping again. If I turn off the car, and then turn it back on, the car shifts fine for a couple minutes(ie, I can move forward and back for a few minutes, then it starts slipping again, so I can't move, and I have to turn it off and on to move it back. I have heard several different things, from shift lock solenoid, to shift modulator. There is no check engine light, or codes. Does anyone have any idea what this could be? Thank in advance for anyhelp. Sorry this is so long.

 

If you have a voltmeter, check the alternator charging voltage. Turn your car on and after its running, put the leads of the voltmeter across the battery. The voltage should be between 13.5 and 15 volts. If the alternator is running, then the car shouldn't do anything funny when you hit the brakes. It could be that that happened because the battery was busted and the alternator was using its energy to recharge it, but its better to by safe then sorry. As for you transmission, i got nothing but some1 else should be able to help.

 

It's not good on the alternator to drive the car when you have a bad battery. In most cases it well toast the alernator. If you drove it at a short distance it is probably OK but if you drove it for a pretty good distance it might have damaged your alternator. As for the electrical problem on your transmission im not for sure. A transmission that is going out will shift OK when the fluid is cool but when temperature builds in the tranny fluid it will begin to slip. Also check your fluid level, if it is substantially low it will cause it to slip... Just a few thought's.. Hope they help........

 

The alternator is working fine. The battery was just dead because the car was sitting for so long. The problem is with the transmission. It doesn't slip when I first start the car and shift for a few, but after a few minutes, it will start to slip so that the car won't move. Then I have to turn the car off and on again, to get it to move. I guess what I need to know is...what does the shift lock up solenoid do? From what I have researched, it works with the CPU in the car to actually close a valve inside to fill a particular body of the transmission with fluid, which in turn, locks up the torque converter, i.e. Move the car. Can anyone verify this?

 

sounds like you might have some crappy fluid in your trans---- i think what might be happening is when u first start it its ok ---but after a few minutes the filter gets clogged & starves the rest of the tranny---then when u shut it off all the crap settles to the bottom of the tranny ----but theres no way to change the filter without dissasembling the whole tranny ---i would just change the fluid & see what happends

 

Well the thing is, the car was completely fine until this battery problem happened. When all of the power was getting cut of and on constantly, I think some switch, solenoid or something electrical was fried.

 

I thought the filter was right above the transmission pan? I replaced the filter on a chevy truck and a sentra and both times the fiter was right above the pan. Take the pan off and the filter was right there. I've never done it on a Honda, so it could be different. But i would look to have the trans fluid flushed as well as a new filter. I think you can flush the trans fluid your self. Disconnect one of the lines going to the trans cooler. Put the hose in a bucket and add new fluid in the trans cooler while you run the car, stop when the fluid coming from the trans looks like the stuff your putting in. I've never done it before or seen it done before, but thats how it was explained to me when i asked my teacher.

 

i assume your car is standard and if you are revving up and not moving then your clutch is gone. if it's a cable clutch you might be able to adjust it and get some more life out of it....but it sounds like it needs to be replaced. i would also say this is totally unrelated to your electrical problem. a new battery should fix that as long as your alternator isn't toasted. but there aren't any electrical problems i can think of htat would cause you to rev up without movement..... so i'm willing to bet it's your clutch.

if its an auto then i apologize... i know nothing about auto trannys and am no help to you lol.

 

Hello all. I just wanted to update on this post. I went out there trying to troubleshoot earlier. There are no codes in the computer. Transmission shifted fine. After a couple minutes of going back and forth, it started slipping again. I turned the car off and it was fine for a good while. I ended up turning it off before it started slipping, but it stayed shifting for a good ten minutes. I checked the ohms on the shift lock solenoid(the thing under the distibutor on the tranny for anyone who doesn't know) and one of them was out of specs. The honda manual says they should be at 14.1 - 15.9. One of them is, the "B" I believe, but the "A" is not. It is only at 13.8 ohms. Would that little of a difference cause a malfunction with it? If anyone knows, let me know. I also applied power to each side of the solenoid, and heard clicking(on and off) from both a and b of the solenoid. By the way it is an automatic.

 

I just called around to get a price on the lock up control solenoid. The Honda dealer stated that what I am suffering from sounds like it could be malfunctioning. $247.00, and it has to be ordered. I asked if it only being off my a couple of ohms could really make that much of a difference. They said yupper. Has anyone else ever heard of this?