Hello,

Story starts simple: my mother wanted a small car, so we got her 95 Honda Civic with 131k on it. The car was going cheap ($1200) because it had a transmission problem. When buying, owner told that it's making noise when cold, and that's why he is selling - repair is expensive in the shop (they just told him an estimate to look at it=)).

I drove the car when it was warmed up, looked under it and noticed a left-side drive axle seal leaking. "I can fix that" I thought, and we bought the car.

So, after reading smart books, I rent some tools in local Autozone and went to do the job over night. Replaced the seal, it took me about 12 hours because I had to cut-off and replace lower ball joint, but I did it.

Went for a drive - dam... nothing changed. And the new seal is leaking as well, much less but leaking.

What does it do: When you go it does not shift soon (engine is just going higher and higher) and when it finally does shift, it's kind of as with too much gas on the manual (you know, when you are pressing gas but did not release the clutch good enough ))))
Also, when you completely depress the gas pedal, you hear whistling sound, not high, something similar to a plane engine maybe...

But, after driving about 5-7 minutes, at some point there will be a light blow during acceleration, as if something was plugged and blew itself clean under pressure. After that, car starts to accelerate faster, gears shift nice and soon, and when the gas pedal depressed, car keeps speed just fine and no noise.

Before I thought that transmission in not hermetic, because of the leaking seal. But the new seal leaks as well, so my theory now is that for some reason it is not shifting soon enough and pressure inside getting too high and seal leaks. (repair manual mention that seal leaks might be caused by high pressure)

So, what do I do? I've never worked with automatic boxes before, do not know where to look. I think, thought the problem is not mechanical, I just have to replace some valves, may be sensors... What controls shifting? Why doe is goes away after few minutes?

Thanks.

 

[sm=welcomesign.gif] to HCF. [sm=groupwave.gif][sm=groupwave.gif][sm=groupwave.gif]

What type of air filter does it have? Stock, or something else?

 

check the tranny fluid level, and change if neccesarry. I dont know what else could be wrong.

 

The shifting business could be the work of a bad torque converter. Can you describe the shifting issue with a little more detail?

And the high pressure could be an overfilled tranny (though that's pretty hard to do, since it pretty much falls out when you put too much in). Check the level though.

 

Thanks for replies!

The filter is stock, it's not that =)
The fluid level was checked first thing, and it was drained and refilled due to the seal replacement.

Shifting does not occurs soon enough. I'm pressing gas, it goes faster and it seems that is must shift already but it does not. It just keeps going in the same gear. So I press harder and it finally shifts but hard. It kind of lets go then picks up... Like clutch was released late.

But it goes away fast. There is a blow, as I already described =), and it starts to work normal. I press the gas and it shifts smooth and right away with no delays on lower rpm's. And there is no sound when the pedal is dropped.

It'd not fluid business... Is there a pump in there? What's a solenoid by the way? =) I think may be throttle control cable needs to be adjusted, but it seems too simple. I'll try it today. May be the valve that cable pulls? =)

I hate Automatic transmissions =)

 

The reason I asked about your air filter was because of the following question by you:

I was just wondering if you had a CAI, because they can cause sort of a whistling noise.

 

I know about the air stuff, but it's not that. The car slows down because it is driving in low gears on high rpm's. As soon as I let off the gas engine slows down and slows the car fast. Something wrong with the shifting mechanism.

 

um, I dont know if this is the same thing but, I had my kickdown cable tightened on my autmatic, and now it wont really shift till I let of the gas, then when I do it shifts by itself in D. I could give it more gas slowly, then it would shift by itself but kinda hard. Symptoms are similar to those of what you've described.

 

check the selinoid i had the same problem whith my auto back in the day...it wouldnt shift then it would shift to early..eventually i had to shift it manualy and on top of that turn the car on and off when i stoped to get it to go back in gear...but i just let it get worse until i threw the gears through the casing..."cuz i wanted a manny"...

 

I found a perfect sourse!!!!! There is an online PDF workshop manual awailable on the official British Honda site -> http://www.honda.co.uk/owner/CivicManual/index.html
It'd perfect... It has more material on the transmission then my Haines book for the whole car!!!

There is a list of common diffects of the tran. hydraulic system and probablt causes for them. On the "Late shifting" issue is says that something called "modulator valve" is stuck. =) I was telling that something is just stuck and gets blown clean withing few minutes of driving... I was right!

Now I got to find where that thing is and how to get to it. Something is telling me that it's something deep inside of the transmission... I'm thingking to give it a shot with some good transmission flush , may bw that would help [&:]

p/s I drive 88 325is "manual" myself

Few hours later: Just bought Sea foam for transmissions... it's red [8D] That's the only thing I found for flushing, it says about hydraulic valves on the label. All other stuff was for leak stop, no way I'm using anything like that (I've had bad experiense =)

I know regular sea foam is good for injectors, hopefully it will be the same for transmission. I'll try the thing tomorrow and write if it helpes or not.