Transmission Issues (not my DD)

[Connie]

Well, I now own 5 6th gen Accords.....

Last week I picked up a 98 V6 Coupe for $350 because "it needs a tranny". FWIW, it has had a junkyard tranny installed in the last few thousand km, and PO said "it's doing the same thing as the last transmission did" again. I have a 98 Sedan I picked up a few months back for $400 because it had a low-mileage rebuilt transmission, but the "body is rotten". It's really not that bad, I just don't like sedans.

So my plan is to swap the good tranny into the Coupe and either sell it, give it to my gf's daughter, or keep it around as a backup. It's the first one I've seen up in the rust belt that doesn't have a spot of rust on it, which is amazing seeing as it's a '98 with 266k km on it.

I drove the new-to-me Coupe 100km home from Missisauga to Barrie after the seller drove it from the Niagara region to meet me. So it is capable of over 200km, but dude wasn't kidding when he said "transmission issues".

If you start it from cold, and are really-super-duper gentle with the gas, the transmission shifts properly. As soon as it starts to warm up, all hell breaks loose. Banging, crunching, jerking, it's pretty near undriveable unless you put the shifter into "2". I put on quite a crunching, jerking, banking, bucking show on for everybody at Steeles and HWY27 on my way home with it to say the least. In second gear, it starts driving perfectly fine, as long as you're gentle or it slips a bit.

Even reverse is almost completely burnt out, as I discovered when I needed to turn around on the way home in someone's driveway. If you shut the car off, then restart it, you have about ten seconds of slippy reverse before it just revs like it's in neutral.

I also noticed (and feel like this might be important) that the ONLY gear selection indication light that works is "2". None of the other gearstick positions light up the indicator on the dash except for second gear. This leads me to believe I may have an electrical or transmission computer issue I need to deal with before putting my nice rebuilt transmission in there. That's my main question; what could cause the indicators on the dash to stop lighting up and what sensors or systems are involved? I don't want to destroy a nice rebuild by not fixing the original problem, but I'm not really sure what it could be, if anything, at this point. The transmission feels like it doesn't know what gear to be in when in any forward gear except second; seems to randomly shift up and down, banging and bucking the whole time, and doesn't stop until you select second. Even first gear does this.

The rest of the car seems great; I'd love to drive it but only having second gear is sort of a problem. The check engine light isn't on and VTEC still kicks in, but I haven't scanned it yet.

If anyone has some suggestions on what to check before rolling the dice and dropping another transmission into this beast, that would be much appreciated.

 

[Nam1911a1]

The D light in my 95 Camry went out. Just because it was in D for 20 years and the bulb burnt out. I drove it like hell shifting through all the gears up and down shifting for the past 4 years before I sold it. That car had an indestructible transmission.

I would pull the dash and check the lamps

 

[Connie]

The D light in my 95 Camry went out. Just because it was in D for 20 years and the bulb burnt out. I drove it like hell shifting through all the gears up and down shifting for the past 4 years before I sold it. That car had an indestructible transmission.

I would pull the dash and check the lamps

LOL, that's why Connie's check engine light needed a bulb last year.

I'll check the bulbs and see, but I find it pretty unlikely that 1, D3, D4, N, R and P are all burnt out on the cluster, although I suppose it's possible.
Connie has 500k on her and those bulbs are all original; it would make sense if only D4 was burnt out, but that's not the case.

I'll check it out and report back; I have the cluster from the 4-door that everything works on; I'll probably just slap that in for now to see if it makes any difference.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Connie]

Swapped the cluster with one from an 01 US 4 coupe (I'm in Canada). Everything works on this cluster except, unfortunately, the temp gauge.

Found the bulb for D4 missing, D3 loose. The rest looked fine, But don't work. I've had a whole lot of bad clusters for some reason, and it seems like this is another one.

I'm debating whether or not to take 'er for a rip and see what happens, but there's a big leak in the Injen SRI it had on it because some dumbass tried to weld a support bracket on and weld it to the frame, and the weld is torn out so the damn thing is just gulping in unfiltered air, and has been for god knows how long. I'll have to tape that up or something first, because I don't have a spare intake system sitting around. Maybe I'll just cut it before the hole, jam the filter on for now and see what happens. Probably the same thing.

The transmission fluid is clean, new and amazingly doesn't smell burnt. It also seems to be the correct DW-1 Honda fluid.

I'll keep you guys posted; If it's still doing the same thing, I'll keep troubleshooting. If I decide the tranny is definitely pooched, I'll be swapping transmissions with a 98 sedan that happens to have a low mileage rebuild in it.

But damn, this transmission hasn't been in here long; it's super clean in there and it's obviously been apart super-recently.

 

[Connie]

Here's a video of the new addition. Aside from the transmission, the e-brake is stuck down and it looks like it's going to need brakes all around. The tires are also 11 years old.

Aside from the clearcoat issues, though, not a bad looking car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT2fhIJcMVo

 

[Nam1911a1]

Back in high school when all I knew was how to change my oil I had a quick lube shop change my oil and replace the air filter. The idiots decided that popping all four clips for the filter box was too much work so they popped off two and shoved the filter in sideways. Not flat.

I did not find out until two years later when I replaced the filter and found twigs and leaves in the bottom of the dirt lined air filter box.

My 98 Ford Explorer 4.0 V6 SOHC was sucking in raw air from dry dusty gravel roads and dirt roads for two years. I had no idea. I was furious when I found out. But the damn truck just kept going haha. It was a beast of a truck.

I'm sure the engine digested leaves and sticks and gravel dust and dirt dust like it was hungry for more. I can't imagine what the cylinder walls looked like.

 

[Rusty Accord]

Swapped the cluster with one from an 01 US 4 coupe (I'm in Canada). Everything works on this cluster except, unfortunately, the temp gauge.

Found the bulb for D4 missing, D3 loose. The rest looked fine, But don't work. I've had a whole lot of bad clusters for some reason, and it seems like this is another one.

I'm debating whether or not to take 'er for a rip and see what happens, but there's a big leak in the Injen SRI it had on it because some dumbass tried to weld a support bracket on and weld it to the frame, and the weld is torn out so the damn thing is just gulping in unfiltered air, and has been for god knows how long. I'll have to tape that up or something first, because I don't have a spare intake system sitting around. Maybe I'll just cut it before the hole, jam the filter on for now and see what happens. Probably the same thing.

The transmission fluid is clean, new and amazingly doesn't smell burnt. It also seems to be the correct DW-1 Honda fluid.

I'll keep you guys posted; If it's still doing the same thing, I'll keep troubleshooting. If I decide the tranny is definitely pooched, I'll be swapping transmissions with a 98 sedan that happens to have a low mileage rebuild in it.

But damn, this transmission hasn't been in here long; it's super clean in there and it's obviously been apart super-recently.

Hey Connie, here's a Honda bulb number for the dash lights (trans lights, and check engine light) 35861-S84-T01.
I realize that might not be your problem, but you could move a good bulb from 1 cluster to the other (putting it in the D4 position), and see if it coughs up any trans codes. At this point, that's about all you can do on the cheap. I only say that as I don't know if your code reader will read trans codes. But if you can get the D4 light to work, it will give you some codes IF there's a problem. I stole the D1 bulb and moved it to the D4 position in my wife's car, so I'd know if any problems pop up (without the light, you won't know until you can feel it). Just a thought.

Also, is the rusty sedan a V6 car? If so, you might try swapping the ECU from it into this one, and see if it shifts correctly.If not, then the trans isn't usable either, as it's a reverse rotation engine-trans combo (the 4 cylinder cars). Just another random thought or 2.

 

[Connie]

Hey Connie, here's a Honda bulb number for the dash lights (trans lights, and check engine light) 35861-S84-T01.
I realize that might not be your problem, but you could move a good bulb from 1 cluster to the other (putting it in the D4 position), and see if it coughs up any trans codes. At this point, that's about all you can do on the cheap. I only say that as I don't know if your code reader will read trans codes. But if you can get the D4 light to work, it will give you some codes IF there's a problem. I stole the D1 bulb and moved it to the D4 position in my wife's car, so I'd know if any problems pop up (without the light, you won't know until you can feel it). Just a thought.

Also, is the rusty sedan a V6 car? If so, you might try swapping the ECU from it into this one, and see if it shifts correctly.If not, then the trans isn't usable either, as it's a reverse rotation engine-trans combo (the 4 cylinder cars). Just another random thought or 2.

Hi, Rusty!

Yeah all of my Accords are V6, including this one. The Sedan is a 98 V6, just like this coupe.

I actually have all of the lights in the cluster that's in the car in question working now, including D4. The only thing not working is the temp gauge, and that's a cluster issue. And it also happens to be in mph, but whatever.

I drove the thing again today after swapping the cluster and redoing the battery terminals and a few grounds, as well as fixing the hole in the intake. Right after start-up, the transmission feels kind of vague. It shifts up and down through the gears, but shifts take way longer than they should. Once I got to the 3 mile mark and tried to leave from a stop, it started banging and banging again, and by the 5 mile mark, it was basically undriveable unless it was in second gear.

Surprisingly, D4 did not flash. But maybe that's because I gave up on it and just threw it in 2 before the computer had time to decide to throw a code. There's not much doubt in my mind that the transmission is finished. I have the thing in the shop now with the intake and battery out again, and I think I'm going to start pulling the trans. I wonder if clutch material got through the cooler lines from the first failure, wasn't flushed, and then got into this junkyard trans and wrecked it right away. Or maybe it was just a bad transmission from the junkyard, who knows.

I'll flush the lines while the trans is out and go over the ECU wiring. While I'm pulling the sedan's transmission, I'll grab the ECU just in case. But there is no way in hell that the transmission that's in the car is any good. I'm wondering if the torque converter gave out, too. Like it's really freakin bad, man.

I'll keep this updated with what I find.

Oh, and does anyone know why you can't put a 98-99 trans in a 00-02 car? For some reason the cross references at some of the places I asked said you can't put an early trans in an 00-02, but nobody could tell me why. I have a trans from a 2000 sitting right here on the floor beside me, and it's getting cold out there.

EDIT: UPDATE: battery and intake off, all the wiring is off the trans, starter and coil off, trans lines off, and just put the car in the air, pulled the wheels and drained the trans. The fluid that came out looked like mud, but smelt ok. There was definitely a lot of clutch material in it. The plug magnet was as full as I've ever seen one. Seems like I'm on the right track lol.

EDIT: UPDATE: splash guard removed, mounts unbolted and front half of subframe hanging. It looks to me like removing the back half of the subframe with the rack might not be necessary, as the front piece of the subframe can be removed separately. If anyone's done this before and can verify, please let me know. Not having to do the rack would be a big shortcut. Hub nuts are soaking, as are the rest of the fasteners holding the knuckles to the car. I'll get back at it tomorrow.

 

[Rusty Accord]

Yeah, that one sounds done. It might have been bad from the junkyard. Who knows.
If it looks like the bolts holding the rear cross member haven't been out, then you might not need to pull it and the rack. I haven done an Accord yet, but I have done a Civic MT before. I know, it's not the same, as the Civic seems to have more room because it doesn't have the side cradle brackets.

The FSM calls for dropping the front splash pan, and removing the "Front Beam", along with the 2 side pieces (together as 1 piece). Then using some sort of hanger bracket from above to hold the engine. It looks like a "T" that attaches to the upper strut mount bolt, and the hood latch. Then remove the end trans bracket (side bracket) followed by the rear mount (at the engine trans connection). Keep in mind that I only have the 4 cylinder edition, as Honda uses a supplement for V6 applications. Sorry, best I can do, but it doesn't mention dropping the steering rack or that bracket. Maybe 1 of the 6 speed swap guys can help??

I think if you're going to use the 98 trans, you might have to run the 98 ECU too. It's probably something in the ECU programing that keeps you from using it in the later chassis. We all know how fragile the AT is, and it might be a programing change or something like a solenoid change that keeps it from being a direct swap. Ok, doing a quick thumb thru of the AT section (it's 207 pages long), Honda calls out 98-99 as 1 version, and 00-02 as being "similar" in the hydraulic circuits. This tells me they must have mad some changes inside the actual trans, and the PCM was changed as well (internal programing). This might be part of the reason why the junkyard trans is acting up (it might be a 98-99 trans).
I hope this helps.

 

[Rusty Accord]

Hi, Rusty!

I actually have all of the lights in the cluster that's in the car in question working now, including D4. The only thing not working is the temp gauge, and that's a cluster issue. And it also happens to be in mph, but whatever.

You do know you can swap both the temp gauge and the speedo out. I think they're either push in units, or are held in place with screws.