Hello all,

I currently drive a 2000 Accord Automatic with 225,000 miles on it. Last night as I was driving home I noticed that the car was revving very high (3500 RPM at 75 MPH). After letting off the gas and slowing down the car would not get out of third gear. It would get to 3rd from a stop and then seem to "Peg Out" at 3000 RPM and 50 MPH. I made it home however upon checking the problem this morning it seems to have gotten worse. There is no check engine light on for me to find a code from. I took videos of my car this morning to help illustrate what the current situation is.


This is after first starting my car this morning before driving, Seems to be running fine in park.


This is after shifting into neutral and revving before driving. Still seems to run fine


This is roughly 3 minutes after beginning to drive. Came to a stop at a light and this is what happened after,


his is back at home in Park and Neutral after Driving.

I have no idea what this could be. I'm a little low on transmission fluid but not a lot. I just changed my oil 3 days ago. At the end of this video the car began to over heat a little as well. I don't know if this is a computer problem or a sensor or what. I am hesitant to believe it is actually the transmission since I have had no problems with it before and since it is having the issues in neutral and park as well. Please offer me any suggestions or troubleshooting tips you have, Thank You.

 

First thing you want to rule out is the fluid level - don't know what "a little" low is?

Next, have it checked for codes - not all codes will "trip" the MIL/CEL light.

Just for giggles, when you first turn turn the key to on/pos_ii the MIL/CEL should come on for a few seconds and then go off - does it? Bulb could be bad and again not all codes will "trip the light".

 

So It took a bit of figuring but I got it. It was the Catalytic Converter. What ended up giving it away was a rattling sound that I thought was just my exhaust pipe hitting the heat shield. Apparently if it gets too clogged it can cause the transmission to go into limp mode. This keeps the transmission from getting out of 3rd gear. Then once the engine heats up it basically stops the engine from performing completely. That's what happened during the video of me going 5 MPH. Changed it out, unhooked the battery to reset the computer, and its good as new. Or at least as good as it was 100,000 miles ago. Just thought I'd put the solution up for anyone who might have the same issue in the future. Thanks to everyone who read and extra thanks to everyone who tried to help.

 

Glad you got it going again and thanks for coming back with the "end of the story".