My son's 2001 Accord will not shift into first gear, literally. It will go into 2nd just fine, but it refuses to go any further. Could something be blocking it, or .. Any info is appreciated, thanks!

ALSO ... the D4 and D3 gears, you don't have to push the shift **** button to get to either gear, up or down, it just slides back and forth. This concerns me cause this is my son's car and when if he or a friend accidentally hit the shifter at high speed. I know it's an overdrive fucntion, but shouldn't it have a lock between gears there?

And also the shift lights are out at the shifter, and one of the shift light in the dash console are out, I think D4 is out. As well as other bulbs and areas of darkness here and there.

 

You are trying to move the shift lever to d1? But it will only go to d2? I always put shifter in d3 because I rarely look at shifter. So I nudge it into d4.

 

It goes into all other gears just fine, but it will not slide down and lock into place for 1st gear, it is stopped at 2nd gear, it's almost like it is bottoming out in 2nd and it physically will not go into 1st.

 

When in D4, and you take off from a full stop, does the transmission start out in first gear?

 

my 01 trans requires the brake first than I can shift into any gear. once it is in 4 I can bump it into 3rd with no shifter button required. so I can jump from 4 to 3. if I push the shifter button I can go to 2nd or 1st. when I am stopped. I think I can shift to 2 or 1 while I am moving. don't know if it is speed governed where you cant shift to 1st at 45 mph. maybe you can manually move shifter to 1st but it wont actually go into 1st?

 

Have you opened up the console & looked for any kind of debris that might be physically blocking the shift lever or cable?

 

The question I have is, if the transmission uses all four gears with in D4, who cares if you cannot manually select first gear? In the five years I've owned my 2001, I don't think I've even even tried to find out if I could shift into first manually.