My Honda Accord 2002 2.3lt V4 started with transmission problems a little over a year ago. When cold, the card would hard shift into 2 & 3rd. After a while, say 5 minutes of driving and changing gear all gears changed fine.

Initially I took it to a technician who ended up putting in a new master rebuild kit. When the car left the shop it still had the same problem just changes weren’t as hard as they used to be. I ended up taking it to the trany shop 3 more times over the following 3 months with no positive results. I continued to drive the car this way, and I would let the car warm up 10 minutes before I left and this seemed to help for a while. As time progressed the symptoms got a little worse. The reverse started to shift hard also, and every once and a while (usually when I didn’t warm up the car long enough) the hard shifting would make D4 start flashing and the gears wouldn’t engage and I would have to turn of the car, change to Park, turn on the car and back to D4.
So finally I decided to take it to another trany shop. They scanned the car and the following code came up:
P0700 FAULT IN TRANSMISSION CONTROL MODULE
P0739 3RD PRESSURE SWITCH
P0780 SWITCH MALFUNCTION
P1751 MECHANICAL FAUL IN HYDRAULIC SYSTEM

They said that the gears were burnt and that they had to put in another master rebuild kit and that the torque converter also had to be rebuilt. They went ahead and made the recommended repairs. After they completed the repairs the said that the car was still having the same issues as when I took it in. And it is still giving a P0700 error code (I asked if there were any other codes along with this one and they said the P0700 was the only error code). They said they swapped the solenoids a few other parts to see if that was the issue and that the car continued to present the same symptoms. They deduced that the computer was bad and that it had to be replaced. This is where I am at right now. I have a feel the once the computer is repairs I am still going to be left with the same problem.

Can anyone make any recommendations? A new computer is going to cost a fortune as it has to be programmed by a Honda dealer. I've looked online for something affordable but it always boils down to have to reprogram the computer at a dealer.

I am aware of the lawsuit and all considerations that Honda has given its car owners. But my car is out of warranty and it has 168K miles already. My transmission was repaired by Honda for similar issues at about 70k miles (I purchased the car at a Honda used car lot, so the engine and trany were cover under a 100k Honda certified vehicle warranty). Excuse all the incorrect terminology.

 

You can buy a used ECU/TCU from a junk yard. Check car-part.com. I found them as cheap as $25. I recently bought ECU for 94 EX from a yard I found w/ car-part.com and had them mail the part to me. No problems.

You've been ill-served by transmission shops that rebuilt the trans and think the non-working trans problem needs another part. I'm doubtful the ECU will resolve, but it might and it's cheap enough used. If ECU doesn't work, hold their feet to the fire for a fix or ask them to purchase and install a replacement used transmission, if they can't fix yours.

good luck

 

from what I've been told, anything after 2000 (or 2001, I dont recall) requires dealer programming, is there any way around this?