So i have a 1998 honda accord ex, the f23 motor with auto trans

It seems to be once every couple of months, but while driving and usually when cruising at 50+ mph *possibly bumpy roads contribute* , in the blink of a eye the car is no longer in drive, and acts as its in neutral if you gas it. If you wait about 10-20seconds, it will go back into drive and you can continue about your day. otherwise, simply going into neutral and back to drive fixes the problem.

What i have noticed...
* check engine on cluster flashes for less then a second and goes away, 0 code
* the cluster goes dark where the strip for P R N D 3 2 1, once it pops out. and lights back up when you switch to neutral or wait the 20secs.
* over 1 year now, slight rpm jump when upshifting, mainly when cold.


Would this be a transmission problem? and when it pops out of gear the check engine flashes and the ecu basically reboots? If it indeed did pop out of gear why would it resume in 10-20sec without me touching anything

or could this be electrical related? cant tell if everything goes dark for a millisecond or just the cluster. deffinite click from check engine going on/off instantly, and the motor just revs like its in neutral until ecu realises its in drive and lights back up on cluster


i dont daily the car anymore, beat it for 7 years and every other car has been stick since, but its the ole lady that always reliable for going point A to B regardless of slipping lol

 

It sounds like it is electrical and not mechanical. Check and see if you have any D4 codes.

 

anywhere in particular to look for electrical? iv nvr touched the grounds so cant hurt to clean them up. i believe theres 2 shift solenoids on the trans housing, and then the pinout for ecu.

I will say, my climate controls went out also lol. For a few months they would flash when u first start the car, and after driving 10-15mins driving would return to solid. assumed it was low voltage related but nows its completely out and stuck on HOT