Hello I am new to this forum. I was hoping I could get some help with my auto transmission issue. I have a 95 accord ex coupe f22b1. The car has just about 130k on it and is in excellent shape. The problem is the the car consistently does not like to downshift from 3rd to 2nd when I need it to. For example, I will be driving at 40 mph and have to slow down to 15 mph to take a turn. When I come out of the turn and get back on the gas to accelerate again, the car lugs in 3rd instead of shifting down to second unless i really mash the gas. When I do that, the car will finally downshift to second, but not smoothly. When it finally does shift it revs through the roof and the car lunges into second. Other than this, the only other problem with the trans is that it hesitates to engage when shifting from park to drive. When i put it in gear, immediately I feel it do something but its like its not fully engaged. The car will kind of start moving but then about 1 second later I feel another thud like it tries to engage again and then its good to go. Its like it has to try twice to engage drive when shifting from park or reverse. There is no check engine light on and I read a write up about the shift solenoids on these cars causing these types of problems so I tried replacing those but that didn't really seem to help. The only thing I haven't tried is changing the fluid, which still looks pretty clean and does not smell burnt at all. Aside from these problems the car drives perfect. Has anyone experienced these issues? Sorry for the long post, the problems are sort of hard to explain. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

It goes without saying try changing the fluid. With your transmission you can over fill it without worries. It sounds to me like the torque converter may be the issue, but low fluid level can also cause somewhat similar issues.

 

Yeah, I guess I will have to try changing the fluid and see what that does. From what I understand, the transmission does not have a replaceable filter? Also honda specifies Z-1 transmission fluid which is discontinued but I have read that DW-1 is the new version and should be used to replace Z-1? I heard that it may be necessary to drain and refill again with DW-1 after a few thousand miles to make sure all the old Z-1 fluid is out. Is that true? Thanks for your input.

 

All three questions and your answers are true, however, the DW-1 and the Z-1 Honda designed to be compatible with each other so changing after a few thousand miles is not necessarily the case. The only reasons I would do so is if your existing fluid was dirty and the magnet on the drain plug had an excessive amount of metal on it, and/or you notice a change in the way the transmission shifts after changing the fluid as you are only changing about 30% of the fluid each time you do a drain and fill.

 

Ok, good to know. I was just curious about the compatibility of the two fluids because I read a few people experienced harder shifting when they switched to DW-1 for the first time, but I assume they may have had other issues going on with their trans that was causing the problem. I will pick up some DW-1 this week and see what happens. Thanks for your help!

 

One simple thing to try is to remove most (not all) of the slack from the cable going from the throttle body to the transmission. The video below shows how to do this on the cable going from the gas pedal to the throttle body, which you may also want to do.

You may also want to remove the snorkel, clean the inside of the throttle body and throttle plate of any dirt/grime buildup.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. Im gonna have to try all this stuff this weekend. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen this video by Eric the Car Guy yet. I have watched a good amount of his videos. Lots of good info in them.