last night my 96 accord (auto trans) seemed to be stuck in 4th. i was running at 55mph for about 30min, stopped for a toll booth when i noticed the D4 light was flashing, the engine was revving high but i had no power. i was able to limp back to the house, shifting (up) manually, checked the fluid. fluid as clean clear red, no burnt smell, and in the middle of that cross-hatched area. this morning it was doing the same thing. but as i was backing out of a parking space i rolled onto a curb with my pass. front wheel. i drove it for about 30 min after that and its shifting like it's supposed to. im lost.... i cant imagine the curb had anything to do with it but...im an air-cooled VW guy, IVE HEARD STRANGER THINGS.

 

I would imagine that it could be 2 things: VSS or TCU. How you go about checking these I'm not sure but if the D4 is flashing its like a check engine light for the tranny. Do a search on here for those two things and you might find someone who had the same issue at some point.

 

i searched this site and others for anyone having similar symptoms. i came up with what you mentioned, the VSS or the TCU. my speedo is working, that seemed inconsistent with the VSS. now it's shifting good again, every TCU problem i read about the trans stopped shifting completely. im glad that the car seems to be fine now, but i want to solve the problem so it doesnt happen again.

 

usually when a trans refuses to shift gears it is because a solenoid has failed, valve bosy is stuck or TCU (electronically controlled trans only). Your problem may return

 

if the D4 light was flashing there is a code stored, your car might still have the Blue 2 pin jumper at the top of the passenger side kick panel. you can jumper the connection and get the 'flash' code.
The other way is to have the codes read thru the DLC behind the ashtray.