Hello everybody,

I just purchased my first Honda yesterday from a private dealer and when test-driving the car I noticed from 2nd to 3rd and then 3rd to 4th it would SOMETIMES shift a little hard. Not necessarily slip, but it doesn't transition smoothly. Sometimes I feel it jump just a little bit when coming to a stop from say 40 mph as well.

I ended up still buying the car because it only has 117k on the engine with very minimal oil leaks and the price was right so a rebuilt transmission down the road isn't the end of the world. Well I took it to my mechanic right after buying the car and he put it in the air and showed me that I have a cracked (i believe rear) engine mount. I didn't get a very close look at it but it was underneath the car and looked like it might have even been mounted to the transmission.

Could that possibly be the cause of the hard shifting? All the fluids looked pretty clean and right at the level they're supposed to be. I'm guessing the guy before me had all the fluids changed within the last 2000 miles. Once I'm home from work today I'm going to flush a little tranny fluid and replace it with some Lucas stop slip and see if that helps. First things first I need to have it registered and make sure it passes smog before I decide to start putting a bunch of money into it. I will keep the thread posted. Thank you.

 

Strange/hard shifting can be hard to call over the internet.

Yes, if there are any mounts in need of replacing they should be replaced. A trans fluid change is always a good thing. On these, there is a "throttle control" cable that runs from the throttle body (TB) to the trans. You will want to be sure this cable is properly adjusted as if it is out of adjustment, strange shifting can happen.

 

Thank you for the reply. I actually just left my mechanic about an hour ago and found out that both my rear and my front engine mounts are broken and need replacing. I watched my engine as he shifted in and out of park and there was a lot of play on the mounts so im pretty convinced that has to have something to do with it. Lucky for me I can replace the front engine mount myself. The rear on the other hand, looks like a pain in the ***. Now that you mention the throttle cable I remember reading about that somewhere on these forums. I will definitely be sure to check that out.

 

So last night I replaced my front engine mount. Found at the mount was completely split down the center and just floating there in place. I also drained the tranny fluid and replaced it with Lucas stop slip and some fresh ATF fluid and the hard shifting has eased up a good amount. Still though it seems when my car ia just started and and the engine isn't warmed up yet it still shifts hard kind of. Once it's warmed up it pretty much goes away entirely.

 

First, just my opinion, I'm not a fan of the "fixes in a bottle" but hope it works out for you.

The rear mount is not as straight forward as the front mount but isn't that much more. No fancy tools and that and it can/does come out the top of the engine. So if it is broken it needs to be replaced before getting further into shifting issues.

If you are willing to get into the rear mount let us know and we can offer tips and that on the replacement.

The throttle control cable should be left alone until all of the mounts are out of the equation.