I have a 99 Accord 6cyl (EX/DX I'm not sure). I know zero about cars so I'll try to get through this as best I can. Driving to work today, my Battery, ABS, door, and rear lamp lights all came on at once. I checked and all lights were working and the car was running fine so I assumed I could at least make it to work. However, shortly after, my car slipped out of gear. I pulled over, and found that I could only use 1st gear. I turned around and headed home, on the way back I found that I could shift from 1st to 2nd to 3rd but if I gave it to much gas it would just slip again. This is an automatic by the way. Also while driving home, I noticed that my dash, lights and 4 ways became dimmer. Is this a simple battery fix and the transmission slipping was due to some electrical error because of a dead battery? I can't get codes because I barely made it home and have to wait until the wife gets back before I can do anything. FYI I'm in NE Ohio and it has been snowing and freezing here for over a week. Don't know if that affects anything.

Thanks,

 

Your lights are likely the result of a bad alternator. After you address that issue you may still have a bad trans, it is pretty common on v6 accords of that era.

 

Is it just bad luck that they would both fail at the same time then? I was wondering if the altenator or battery were bad, would that affect the electrical system enough to cause a timing error or some other computer error that would cause the transmission to error. The transmission only seemed to fail when it would automatically switch gears. When I manual went through them it seemed to work okay.

 

There is no way to know if they are related. The battery will die from your alternator not putting enough juice into it to replenish the energy required to start (not to mention lights,heaters,wipers, etc). You have prolly been driving on a weak alternator for a while before it made itself obvious. Most of the electronics in your car are voltage sensitive so low voltage makes them act wierd. If you didn't have a trans problem before you prolly don't have one now.

 

Great thank you. Is the altenator something I can remove myself to have tested? Will Autozone be able to tell me if my transmission is bunk before I waste money on a altenator?

I really appreciate all the help.

 

Take the alternator and the battery to get tested..but they cant help you with the transmission..they can advise you where to take it tho...

 

most likely you got a bad alternator , ( i bet Delphi brand ) , have it tested, charge the battery fully and test it as well , replace as needed,, then look into the tranny issue,, I have seen bad alt ( low electr output ) cause all sorts of unrelated issues .....