External Transmission Solenoids Questions

[Connie]

Car is a 2002 V6 Coupe with 467k km. Transmission has about 400k km.

Curious as to some issues I've been having with my transmission.
I have 2 spare transmissions; so worst case I swap the whole transmission, but I was wondering if the solenoids on top of the bell housing (that look like they could be easily swapped) could be contributing?


The only time I experience trouble is into second gear.

The upshifts to second are slow and laggy (especially before the car is warmed up), probably a full second between disengagement of first and engagement of second. And when it finally drops in, it drops in HARD! But then sometimes it shifts perfectly normally.

Downshifts into second are slow too, and sometimes quite hard when it finally bangs in. But, again, sometimes perfectly normal shifts occur.

If I am at WOT, it shifts much better, but second is usually a little rougher and slower than any other gear.

There is absolutely no slipping when the transmission finally does pick a gear, even after hours at 120+ kph on the highway, up hills and everything. Zero slipping. It seems like either I have a sticky valve inside the valve body, or a shift solenoid issue.

I am fully prepared to change out the transmission, but I'd rather not if it can be avoided. Does anyone have any experience with a similar issue, or know specifically what a bad second gear solenoid would feel like?

Fluid has always been OEM Honda ATF, drained and filled every 30k. It doesn't smell burnt. Last drain and fill was 2 months and 10k km ago.

 

[Rusty Accord]

Car is a 2002 V6 Coupe with 467k km. Transmission has about 400k km.

Curious as to some issues I've been having with my transmission.
I have 2 spare transmissions; so worst case I swap the whole transmission, but I was wondering if the solenoids on top of the bell housing (that look like they could be easily swapped) could be contributing?


The only time I experience trouble is into second gear.

The upshifts to second are slow and laggy (especially before the car is warmed up), probably a full second between disengagement of first and engagement of second. And when it finally drops in, it drops in HARD! But then sometimes it shifts perfectly normally.

Downshifts into second are slow too, and sometimes quite hard when it finally bangs in. But, again, sometimes perfectly normal shifts occur.

If I am at WOT, it shifts much better, but second is usually a little rougher and slower than any other gear.

There is absolutely no slipping when the transmission finally does pick a gear, even after hours at 120+ kph on the highway, up hills and everything. Zero slipping. It seems like either I have a sticky valve inside the valve body, or a shift solenoid issue.

I am fully prepared to change out the transmission, but I'd rather not if it can be avoided. Does anyone have any experience with a similar issue, or know specifically what a bad second gear solenoid would feel like?

Fluid has always been OEM Honda ATF, drained and filled every 30k. It doesn't smell burnt. Last drain and fill was 2 months and 10k km ago.

I'd pull the solenoids off and clean the screens and any mounting surfaces. This is 1 of the common problems the AT has (clogged screens).

 

[Connie]

I'd pull the solenoids off and clean the screens and any mounting surfaces. This is 1 of the common problems the AT has (clogged screens).

That's what I was thinking. I'll try to get to it this week.

I just drove the black car about 30km and I thought Connie was a little lazy in the tranny....WOW....that black car works almost perfectly. It has a very slight idle issue, but the tightness of all the shifting and suspension...I can't believe how bad Connie actually is compared to that!....the flaring it does between gears with Connie is crazy!! And the difference in suspension....Midnight sits almost an inch higher than Connie

 

[Rusty Accord]

That's what I was thinking. I'll try to get to it this week.

I just drove the black car about 30km and I thought Connie was a little lazy in the tranny....WOW....that black car works almost perfectly. It has a very slight idle issue, but the tightness of all the shifting and suspension...I can't believe how bad Connie actually is compared to that!....the flaring it does between gears with Connie is crazy!! And the difference in suspension....Midnight sits almost an inch higher than Connie

When was he last time you did a drain and fill? Just asking as it might be due.
I guess Midnight is just showing you how tired Connie is.

As for the slight idle, that might correct itself with more run time, or it could be due for plugs.

 

[Connie]

When was he last time you did a drain and fill? Just asking as it might be due.
I guess Midnight is just showing you how tired Connie is.

As for the slight idle, that might correct itself with more run time, or it could be due for plugs.

Every 30k it gets a drain and fill with Honda DW-1.

It's been about 10k since the last one, but the car had been shifting like this for probably the past 10 months/60k km. Three or so drain and fills and no change, just .0001% worse every day I think. But I still can't get it to slip no matter how hard I beat on it.

I'll keep this updated when I can get to it. Midnight should be on the road in the next few days, so that'll give me a few days to mess around with Connie and see if that's the case. There is a growing list of other things that Connie needs ASAP, so I need to get her tuned up before too much longer. I'll try the solenoids first; I'm thinking about changing every suspension bushing in her to try and make her drive like Midnight, which would probably be easiest with the front sub-frame out, which will give me access to a lot of things much easier. And if the transmission really is dying, it'll be easy to pop another one on with the sub-frame, engine, and transmission outside the car.

I think my idle issue on Midnight is IACV related or something. Like it's trying to idle too low and keeps getting bumped up (700ish-730ish range). You can BARELY feel it; I didn't notice for about 20 minutes that it was ever so slightly off. It's only varying the idle maybe 30RPM, so it's not much. It's cyclical, happening every 1.5 seconds or so....an like I said it's BARELY there; maybe I'm being anal about it but it feels a bit off to me. No CEL either. Just a tiny little RPM bump...the tachometer BARELY registers any fluctuation at all..if there is any throttle input at all, it immediately goes away....first things first is a tune up, check the plugs, drain and fill the transmission and cooling system. Maybe it'll go away after that.

 

[Blazinqwickly]

when you do a tune up check the cap/rotor/ICM in the distributor and even the leads, some of my lil hick ups were ignition related and tuned out to be a plug lead.

Just looking at it the distributor wires looked perfectly fine, but upon switching a single new lead between each cylinder individually instantly pointed out to which one was causing the tiny stumble.

Just food for thought for when you have time to comb over it during the tune up, Good luck to you on finding it

 

[Connie]

when you do a tune up check the cap/rotor/ICM in the distributor and even the leads, some of my lil hick ups were ignition related and tuned out to be a plug lead.

Just looking at it the distributor wires looked perfectly fine, but upon switching a single new lead between each cylinder individually instantly pointed out to which one was causing the tiny stumble.

Just food for thought for when you have time to comb over it during the tune up, Good luck to you on finding it

This car has COP ignition; the last year for cap and rotor ignition was 1999, at least on V6 cars. I've had coil packs go bad before on Connie many times, and this doesn't feel like that. When I have had bad COPs, I could really feel the car stumble at idle, and ignition breakup would happen at higher RPMs under load too. This doesn't feel the same at all. Ill let you guys know what I find when I get to the bottom of it.

 

[Blazinqwickly]

This car has COP ignition; the last year for cap and rotor ignition was 1999, at least on V6 cars. I've had coil packs go bad before on Connie many times, and this doesn't feel like that. When I have had bad COPs, I could really feel the car stumble at idle, and ignition breakup would happen at higher RPMs under load too. This doesn't feel the same at all. Ill let you guys know what I find when I get to the bottom of it.

That's right, I get so caught up in the single jingle world I forget sometimes, hopefully it is something simple, if it is still there after the tune up , then at least it will narrow down some ideas of what areas you need to be looking in.

 

[Rusty Accord]

Every 30k it gets a drain and fill with Honda DW-1.

It's been about 10k since the last one, but the car had been shifting like this for probably the past 10 months/60k km. Three or so drain and fills and no change, just .0001% worse every day I think. But I still can't get it to slip no matter how hard I beat on it.

I'll keep this updated when I can get to it. Midnight should be on the road in the next few days, so that'll give me a few days to mess around with Connie and see if that's the case. There is a growing list of other things that Connie needs ASAP, so I need to get her tuned up before too much longer. I'll try the solenoids first; I'm thinking about changing every suspension bushing in her to try and make her drive like Midnight, which would probably be easiest with the front sub-frame out, which will give me access to a lot of things much easier. And if the transmission really is dying, it'll be easy to pop another one on with the sub-frame, engine, and transmission outside the car.

I think my idle issue on Midnight is IACV related or something. Like it's trying to idle too low and keeps getting bumped up (700ish-730ish range). You can BARELY feel it; I didn't notice for about 20 minutes that it was ever so slightly off. It's only varying the idle maybe 30RPM, so it's not much. It's cyclical, happening every 1.5 seconds or so....an like I said it's BARELY there; maybe I'm being anal about it but it feels a bit off to me. No CEL either. Just a tiny little RPM bump...the tachometer BARELY registers any fluctuation at all..if there is any throttle input at all, it immediately goes away....first things first is a tune up, check the plugs, drain and fill the transmission and cooling system. Maybe it'll go away after that.

That's why I said throw a set of plugs at it. No telling how long or how many miles are on them. Also run it for a bit long, it might be trying to relearn, after having been laid up for a while. What's the idle spec for the V6? On the 4 cyl, it's 750 rpms. What I'm getting at is it might not really be a problem other than the idle being set low. No CEL or MIL is a good thing.

 

[Connie]

That's why I said throw a set of plugs at it. No telling how long or how many miles are on them. Also run it for a bit long, it might be trying to relearn, after having been laid up for a while. What's the idle spec for the V6? On the 4 cyl, it's 750 rpms. What I'm getting at is it might not really be a problem other than the idle being set low. No CEL or MIL is a good thing.

Midnight probably does need new plugs; but her transmission is fine so she'll just get a drain and fill, plugs, an air filter, and a coolant replacement this weekend. Changed the oil already before I drove it (the crashed silver car had a brand new oil filter in the trunk, yay!). Hopefully I get to the ministry after work in time to get a sticker for Midnight; but it's a long weekend ,so that might not happen.

Connie has been kept completely up-to-date maintenance-wise in the 4 years I have owned her. She idles fine; 750, higher when it's freeszing cold first thing in the morning.
I did the plugs in her last fall, so they aren't old at all. Maybe 60k km on them.

The transmission is probably just dying; it does have over 400k.

I'm going to try re&re-ing the solenoids this weekend. I'm also going to swap throttle bodies because the cruise control latch on Connie's broke about 3 years ago (jamming the throttle wide open in I-77 in West Virginia; but that's another story), so it'll have a nice clean throttle body too.

I also think my A/C compressor clutch is making a terrible rattling sound at certain RPMs and I'd like to do something about that, and since it's almost time to do the timing belt and water pump for the third damn time, I should probably do that too. It might be the PS Pump, but I'm leaning towards A/C. I know it's an accessory because it goes away if the serpentine belt is removed.

I haven't had A/C in years and don't plan to fix it (there's no receiver/drier, no condenser, and some of the lines are missing), I just want to shut it up before the compressor seizes right up like it did on my old 92 (melting the belt in half in the Sonoran desert).

I don't think there's any way to run a smaller belt with the compressor removed; but that's what I'd like to do for this car. I got lucky being able to just run a belt for a no-a/c car on the 92 (and also learned Mexico has AutoZone), but it wasn't a serpentine setup like the 02.