I recently bought a 91 Civic Hatch-Back. I like the car and have done quite a bit to it. Timing belt, main relay fix, water pump. It is an automatic and I have noticed a few things. When I am driving I can feel a little jerk when it shifts through the gears. It's not too bad but I can really feel it. Another thing is that when I slow down I can feel the car down shifting. I know for a fact I am not supposed to be feeling these symtoms. It is not slipping or anything.

Does anyone know what I may have to do before anything goes bad and I have to cough up a lot of $$$? Has anyone ever experienced this before? Would a transmission flush clear it all out?
What are transmission flushes for?

Another thing is I have seen many people end up with bad head gaskets on these cars. Are they head gasket failure ****? What should I do to make sure mine doesn't go out?

I really like this car and would like to keep it.

Thanks,

 

I had a trans do this , non civic, and it was caused by the friction coming off one of the belts inside the trans. I drained it and replaced the belts and it started working fine again with regular and non jerky shifting.

Yes a trans flush might fix it.

 

Replacing the transmission fluid is definitely a good idea. Have you checked whether the level is low?

 

check the transmission belt

 

What is a transmission belt? How do I check it?

 

civic_burns_all is showing his sense of humor.

 

I had a feeling he was mocking the earlier post. There is no such thing as a transmission belt. I think some mechanic took him and his wallet for a ride by just flushing out the trans and telling him the belts were bad.lol

I have another question. Where is the drain plug for the transmission? Does it have a pan also?

thanks,

 

Sorry they are called bands. There is friction material on stainless steel bands that grip a drum when it needs to shift. Serves the same purpose as your foot in a manual trans but they are controlled by the auto trans. If the friction material comes lose under hard use it gets into the fluid and interferes with the valve body which actuates the shifting. Acts like dirt but doesn't disolve. Thus you get erratic and rough shifting. Mine did a lot of sudden down shifting. AT the wrong time too.

right, bands not belts. and no tubas involved either. lol.

There are also clutch plates in auto trans and my 83 civic has three sets of them or three clutches. The material can also come off of them and do thesame damage. The clutch is a series of 3 or 4 pairs of metal and friction plates that help to engage the power. On and off so to speak.

YOU SHOULD REPLACE AND FLUSH THE TRANS FLUID AS A FIRST STEP TO FIXING.

It could just be dirt in the fluid.

If you find clutch material in fluid then you need to have it worked on or just live with it. Clutch material looks like flat brittle cork.

There is some mechanism that slows the engine down when shifting. Perhaps this is set wrong in you car.

 

The drain plug is under the dip stick on my trans but as I said it is an 83. Down close to the bottom so it all drains out.

However about 1/4 of the total trans fluid stays in the torque converter and will not drain out. So you only change 3/4 of the fluid at a time. To remove the torque converter you have to take the trans off and you definately do not want to go there.

Some service stations can do the power replace or whatever they call it. They hook up hoses to the inlet and outlet connections on your trans and force fluid through the trans until it is ALL replaced. Power purge maybe is wha they call it.

As I reread your message it sounds to me like the thing is just set wrong and the trans is okay.

 

On the under side of the transmission, there should be a transmission fluid drain bolt (possibly requires a large hex-wrench type socket for removal).