My girlfiends 99 lx auto has a problem getting into 2nd and third gear. It hesitates, and then goes into gear with a jerk. But it never slips out of gear, and when she floors it, the car shifts perfectly in all gears.

I have tried lucas trans slip fluid, changed to Honda ATF, tried Seafoam Trans Tune, none of these had any effect.

Was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what the problem might be, because I would have assumed that if the transmission was really crapping out, it would shift poorly under any type of acceleration, especially WOT.

 

Any CEL codes? Is the cluster D4 light blinking?

 

no CEL, not sure what the D4 light is, but there are no unusual lights on in the dash cluster.

 

My '98 DX auto does the exact same thing. Drive it normally and it hesitates/clunks into gear. Floor it and the transmission feels great. I've been told by two different tranny places that its needs to be either rebuilt/replaced. Does her's make any kind of noise (whistle/rustling especially when it shifts)? My CEL is not on and the D4 light on the cluster doesn't blink.

 

best i can describe, when its about to shift, it sounds like a wet dry vac when you hold your hand over the end of the hose. Then when it finally shifts it sounds normal again like you took your hand off.

 

I guess the noises are similar. I think of mine as a kind of hydraulic-sounding chirp. I'm riding it until it completely dies before thinking about rebuilding/replacing.

 

My '99 Civic LX does the same thing. Drive it easy and it shifts a little late and hard into 2nd & 3rd. If you are in a hurry and have the throttle down it shifts like nothing is wrong.

I've been told that with a couple of fluid changes and changing out the shift solenoid it can solve the issue. Supposedly the solenoid in these models get cloggged. I don't know if there is more than one solenoid thoough. I've performed one fluid change, but it didn't really make a difference. I haven't looked deeper into the solenoid issue to know what it involves or costs.

Mine had Honda ATF its whole life so far. The car has a little over 103k on the odometer.




DK