Used car, transmission problems?
 

So I bought a certified pre-owned 2009 Accord LX AT with about 30000 miles and before I bought it I did an inspection on the vehicle and test drove it, everything seemed fine. Only when I get home and drive it little "things" begin to nag me.

1. The fluid color is not red but not black. Just a little dark. I plan to change the fluid Saturday. I heard Honda fluids darken at around 30000 miles so I didn't think this was that bad. The dealership told me the fluid was fine when I asked them about it, they could have lied.

2. When I start the car in the morning and shift from park to drive or reverse, the car sort of jerks into gear. What I mean is within a second, less than a second, the car shakes slightly forward and back. There are sounds from the car moving but no sounds under the hood specifically.

3. When the car is warmed up, after I drive at highway speeds for about 20 minutes and park at work. When I put it into park, not even a tiny shake is felt. It's almost unnoticeable. When I move it back into drive, I feel a tiny change in the noise of the engine and a slight very tiny shake, nothing near as big as when I first shift in the morning.

4. When I'm driving, sometimes I'll push on the gas and it will be sluggish to react. So when I'm driving at 50-60 and I push pedal further the car takes a about two seconds to start revving the engine up and go faster than 50-60. So this leads to some situations where I push the pedal down and don't get an initial response so I push it down further and suddenly it kicks in and VROOOOOM the engine revs up high and I go flying forward. Is this a slipping tranny? I didn't take a look at the RPM gauge when this happens but my understanding was that if the tranny slips the engine revs as in it becomes louder but the car doesn't go any faster.

5. Aside from those issues while I'm driving I notice no other issues. Meaning no clunks, noises, shaking, jerking like when I shift in the morning. It's a smooth, quiet, uneventful ride. I've been driving this for about two weeks.

Anyone know what's going on? I heard the fourth issue might just be normal because the newer cars are drive by wire as opposed to a physical linkage to the throttle by cable.

I might be crazy, so hopefully a pro will chime in at some point and say if I might be on to something or I'm totally off. 1st of all, is your engine 4cyl or V6? Isn't it a "coil over plug" system? If one of the coils was bad and fouled a plug, it could cause symptoms very similar to the ones you described. I've seen it in Fords before, but not Hondas so I could be way off here. Just my $0.02.

V4, why yes I believe it is coil over plug as in there is no one ignition coil but rather four coils over the four spark plugs, one per plug.

How do the plugs get fouled on the Ford?

do your drain & fill of the tranny fluid, now and annually later.

We all try to get a 'new' car perfect in our mind.
I'd just drive it and see how I feel after 6 months...

I would do the automatic transmission fluid change first. Use the new Honda DW-1 ATF fluid, which is synthetic and better shifting during initial cold start-up.

To change the fluid on the 4 cylinder, you either need to take off the plastic splash shield or enlarge the cut-out in the shield to access the transmission drain plug. Refer to this thread regarding the drain plug:
https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...id-plug-43520/

Drive-by-wire throttle response should be quicker than the older style cable controlled throttle system.

For the 4 cylinder, the car probably had the PCM/ECM software recall/updates already; but, you might want to check. You could verify either with the dealer or by entering the car's VIN in America Honda's website. One of the software updates (TSB 11-049) is to update the software related to the fuel injector timing and VTC timing at cold start.

Hey thanks for the replies guys!

Dang, I only have a case of ATF-Z1. This car was made pre DW1 so I'm not worried about using Z1 since it's backwards compatible and it's what's already in there. Don't feel like going out and getting DW1 just yet.

But I noticed the cold start-up statement from Honda as well. Does this imply that the transmission is supposed to shift harder when cool?

Also does anyone remember what the initial fluid Honda puts into the transmissions from the factory is called? I vaguely remember there's a separate name for it. Is there anyway I can find out if the initial fluid is still in the trans when I drain it? Like is there a specific color?

I tried American Honda's website but couldn't find it. Ya got a link? :confused:

Use up the Honda Z1; however, I do feel the DW-1 does seem shift smoother in all conditions, especially after a drain and fill.

There is no special factory fill for the transmission fluid, it is the same Honda fluids.

Search under Honda Owner Link for the website.

A coil went bad which fouled the plug on the #5 cylinder. I was totally convinced it was a solenoid on the transmission, because the only trouble it was having was the downshift between 5th & 4th gear. It would buck and miss and then drop into 3rd. Check Engine light eventually came on.