i have a 92 accord with 200k miles.about a month ago was driving at lunch and trans went into neutral.car wouldn't go forward at all.backed up into a parking lot and turned car off got out and got back in trans worked fine.It does this every time now.sometimes after 10 miles or more sometimes less.when trans is working it shifts like a brand new car.2 different trans shops told me trans needs rebuilt.i was checking out a 2005 accord and called the dealer to get maintenance log on it and told mechanic what was going on with the 92 and he laughed and said it was the TCM.he said tcm was resetting when i turned car off.does this sound right.i haven't found one with this exact prob anywhere on the internet.pulled the tcm and opened it up.looks fine.hate to buy one if thats not the problem.

 

I think a bad internal component of the transmission would cause shifting problems all the time.

When was the transmission fluid changed?

Check for engine and transmission codes. See the common diy thread on top of the gen tech help forum for a link to get engine codes.

 

Some electrical troubleshooting?

The "backup fuse" is there to provide power to the computers when the car is turned off. That way the computers don't re-boot every time you turn on the car. So whatever pin (on the trans-computer) is powered by that backup fuse, check whether that wire is OK. That wire has been there for 23 years, maybe it's come loose somewhere.

Actually, if it was rebooting itself every time, that doesn't explain it screwing up while driving after 10 minutes. So I'm not sure it completely fits the description. But it won't hurt to verify that the backup power is OK.

 

i'm not much of a mechanic.i haven't driven the car much since it happened.i pulled the battery out and put it in another car 2 weeks ago.put it back in yesterday to move it to where i could work on it.trans worked perfectly.i just don't think it could be the trans.i've had couple transmissions go out on me in chevys and usually when they are done thats it in my experience.it hasn't been a real long time since i changed fluid(maybe a year) but i didn't know about using only honda fluid.i'm going to drain it tomorrow and put honda fluid in and change the tpu.i hope thats whats wrong.i took the old tpu apart again and there is nothing obvious.i looked really closely and didn't smell anything either.no check engine lights have came on and the guy at the parts store said he didn't think there would be any codes to retrieve.i looked at the sticky about retrieving codes and it is all greek to me.i'm guessing if i had someone to show me its probably not that hard but i'm lost.dumped a lot of cash on lawyers fighting to get custody of my 11 year old from my crazy ex.so i'm raising a child by myself(with no help financially from mom) and i need to try to get another year or so out of this old car.its been a damn good car for the last 100,000 miles.i got it from my aunt when she died.

 

you got me wondering ,jim blake, if there could be a loose conection to the wire supplying the 12 volts to the tcm.i hope not.i would think it would cause more problems then i am having.everything else i have found on the internet when people have had tcm's go out the cars shift rough or go into default mode or only go in certain gears.i had to pull the fan housing assembly back in the winter to change a bad blower motor and replace the fan control module.its possible i made a wire loose because i had to take the bracket loose that holds the ecu and tcu to get the fan assembly out.

 

installed new tcm.it evidently wasn't the problem.i just drove 80 miles and same thing happened 4 times.if a shift solenoid was sticking could it cause this.a guy i work with recomended putting some transmission reconditioner in it when it happened.it has a cleaner in it.i wonder if one of the solenoids could have been gunked up because it seems like the more i drive it the less frequently its happening.i'm gonna drive another 100 miles or so and change fluid.if it keeps actting up i'm going to get someone more car savy then me to check it out.i might try to trouble shoot the solenoids if it doesn't look to hard.

when you turn car off and start back up it absolutely works perfect.

 

From your PM:
Yes, if you check the wires one-by-one, post what you find out along with describing each check so we know what test you did.

I put this out in the forum because I'm a 3-pedal snob and not a real expert on automatic transmissions. But if you're confused about any instructions of electrical tests, I'll try to help.

 

Thanks Jim!It seems to have quit for now.I just drove 40 miles and no incidents.I figure it will happen again but maybe not.I'm still puzzled but 99.9% sure its not the trans anyway.Transmission shop was going to stick it to me!I'm sure it happens all the time though.