Hi,
Need some advice here.
My wifes 2000 Accord LX, (4 cyl, AT), started acting up. The transmission was slipping really bad between gears. Turns out she's never had the fluid changed and it has about 140K on it. Honda looked at it and said it needed to be replaced. We decided to try and hold off. I changed the fluid and it drove alot better but it still has the problem. We've been driving it as is for about a year.

Now we've decided to get it fixed so I found a low mileage salvage transmission with 55k on it. I found a guy to put it in for me cheap but he seemed bent on rebuilding the old one. Well, he put the salvage tranny in and now the car hesitates for a very long time when going from neutral into reverse or neutral into forward gears. When it finally engages, it thumps into gear really harshly. The mechanic is saying the salvage tranny is worthless and I should throw it away and have him rebuild the old one.

I'm torn. I don't know if I should fully trust this mechanic since he seems biased towards rebuilding my old tranny for extra $$ in his pocket. The guys I bought the transmission from, (JDM), claim the computer just needs to be reset and that it will go away after a day or two. The mechanic says this is BS. I'm trying to cut my losses and just get this thing back on the road at minimal expense.

My question is, does the computer reset and drive remedy sound credible? If you read my long post, thanks, lol. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Reset the computer yourself & see if it makes any difference. (I bet it won't)

Open front passenger door. There's a fusebox in the end of the dashboard, near the door hinges. Remove fuse #13 for a minute or so. (Ignition key turned OFF.)

Put the fuse back in. That's how easy it is to reset the computer...

From here, I have no way of knowing if it's better to rebuild your old tranny, or rebuild the other one you just bought, or go looking for another one. Your mechanic (if you trust him) is in a better position to see that firsthand. Got another mechanic for a 2nd opinion??

 

Honda trans are not designed like any other atx from any other company. So if he knows how to rebuild a dodge he might not know jack about the inside of a honda trans. I've heard that they aren't bad to work on just really complicated in a makes sense kinda way.

 

Yhea, I'm not too keen to have the tranny rebuilt. My thought was I'd have better luck with a low mileage used one. This shop, (recommended my my farther in law), didn't look very tidy and organized. I didn't get a good feeling about these guys doing a complete rebuild for me. Though I feel totally confident they could do the swap, (the swap was pretty cheap).
The replacement tranny comes with a 30-day warranty. They will give me a replacement only and no reimbursement for the labor. So, I don't want to start playing this game where I'm repeatedly swapping out trannys and going broke in the process.
Was hoping there's some truth in the 'reset-and-drive for a few days' thing. Though nobody's commented that this could be the case. Not sounding good for me so far...

 

Reset-&-drive is literally as easy as pulling that #13 fuse. Try it & see, absolutely no cost & no risk. But I doubt it'll help.

 

I pulled the ECU out for a few minutes, put it back in and drove. No difference at all. The guy who sold me the transmission also suggested changing the solenoid with the one on my old transmission. I'm getting frustrated and wish I could just find some straight up people to do business with. A good mechanic you can trust is hard to find.

 

Last night I swapped the solenoid from the old transmission. Two of them actually, the two that come off as pairs.

I'm not sure what they're called or what they do, (I think I counted what looked like 8 different solenoids total on this tranny), but after changing them, the problem is gone and the transmission is working flawlessly.

One of the solenoids I replaced didn't look like the one from my original so maybe this transmission came from another model year and the solenoids were a little different for whatever reason.

The part that actually fixed the problem is the pair that's located further left on the tranny as your facing the engine from the front of the car. The battery tray needed to be taken out to access it. The solenoid pair are secured with 6 bolts.

Anyhow, just thought this info might be useful to someone.

 

Which ones did the trick? Sounds like #6?

 

Yes, #6 did it. Anyone know what that solenoid is called and what its particular function is?

I'd also be curious to know what #8 is. I changed that one first but it had no effect.

 

Majestic just calls it a "linear solenoid assembly". I don't know what it really does. #8 is the "lockup solenoid assembly".