Transmission Goes Out After 20 Minutes of Driving
 

I have been having some transmissions problems for the past three or four days.

I have a 2000 Honda Accord EX 2.3L with an automatic transmission. The Check Engine Light is always on, along with the SRS light.

The transmission seems to be totally going out after I drive the car for a while. I can pretty much set a timer to it. After I drive for about 20-25 minutes the transmission totally goes out. The RPM's go up above 6000 and will not shift.

If I pull over, shut the car off, turn it back on, it will run fine for about 20-25 minutes and do the same thing again.

This has been happening for about 3 days and the D4 light has only flashed once. I checked the transmission fluid and there is plenty in there, however the fluid does not look pink or red. It looks the same color as engine oil (not sure if Accords have red transmission fluid or not). I bought the car with 160,000 mile on it an it now has 230,000 and I have never changed the transmission fluid. It possibly could have never been changed.

The only thing that has me stumped is that it only happens after a certain time of driving and not all the time. Could I need a transmission flush and a new transmission filter?

Thanks so much for the help!

Stop by an auto parts store and have them scan for codes. Post any codes they find on here. They start with the letter P and have four numbers, like P1234.

Do not get the transmission fluid power flushed. Just drain and refill using Honda ATF. It will be about three quarts. Then see how it drives.

I don't think transmission fluid in any car should look like engine oil. And ya do what PAhonda says about getting the codes that your car might be throwing. Here where I live when I had any problems with a transmission I would just take it to a transmission shop and they would scan it for free.

You bought a 6th gen Accord (98-02) which has such a bad transmission design that Honda extended the warranty to 100K miles for those cars due to a VERY high failure rate.

You bought it with 160k miles and then drove it another 70K miles without changing the transmission fluid when it calls for being changed every 45k miles.

You have now destroyed your transmission and will be spending around $2,000 to fix it.

Preventive maintenance costs much less then replacing components that are broken due to neglect.

And yes, Honda trans fluid is light red in color.

This is going to be an expensive lesson for you.

Hopefully the next car you buy you will treat better.

You can try draining and filling the transmission fluid a few times and hopefully (long shot) it fixes your problem or buys you enough time to trade the car (I hate when people do this but I do understand) and get something else that you will treat better.

Good luck to you.

I went to the auto parts store and thye said the codes were 740 and 730.

Read up on the codes a little bit and people were saying to need to replace/rebuild the transmission. Maybe changing the transmission fluid will help a bit but I dont know to much about this kind of stuff. Good Luck!!:D

Yes, agree!

Honda Z1 ATF is a bit red in color, but not deep red like some others. On the dipstick the color isn't real strong but you can see the red coloration. Don't know about the newer stuff that replaced Z1...

I changed the ATF last night then drove back and forth to work today. It ran a lot better. It was still not perfect though. Rather then failing out 3 to 4 times in one trip, it only did it once.

Would it be beneficial to drain and replace the fluid one more time? Thanks for all the advice!

Yes - recommended is to do it 3 times.

What trans fluid are you using?