there is now 42 miles on the car since i have put it on the road.
The 2-3, 3-4 shift drag has gotten a bit more noticeable. from 2-3 there is about a 1000 rpm jump and drop, from 3-4 there is a 1500-2000 rpm jump/drop. Mind you this is all at low mph (snow on ground) and VERY gentle acceleration. While on monroe ave there was a 2000 drop with 3-4 and the check engine light kicked on and then the light that highlights the D in the gauge bezel began to flash and locked out the manual mode. I pulled over and turned off the car then restarted it. the check engine light stayed on but i did not experience the flashing/manual mode lock out again.
I’m not a Honda tranny expert, but I’m pretty sure this tranny is going to fail.
Instead of whining (though i still think God hates me…) i need to weigh options.
1- sell the CL and recoup what I lost. I havent sold the 'clipse yet and can keep that. Its a pain to REregister it now, and have to wait for the CL title to come in to sell, but is it worth it to keep.
2- a class action lawsuit DID extend the warantee on the transmission to 109000 miles. The car currently has 47000. It is WELL under the limit, however my Salvage status might lock me out of this. I dont know if they check that. I submitted the VIN to see if my car was elidgeible (on the lawsuit site) and it said i was.
3- suck it up and purchase a new tranny with the hopes (if its compatable) of swapping in a 2003 tranny (maybe 6spd?) to try to rid myself of the headache… then again, there is the compatability issue.
I still need to get the code checked and tranny inspected, at least topically. I also need to call an acura dealer to get some direction. If anyone knows an Acura dealer let me know. This is killing me. I dont need this. I JUST got a medical school acceptance letter today and this ruined it for me.
Salvage gives you nothing, nobody will touch your transmission for free with that, regardless. And if they will, id like to know about it.
New automagic is about 3k min, generally about 4k from honda. People have got them rebuilt at trans places, but thats about 2k+ and most of the time has not proven to be reliable at all.
Swapping in a 6spd is about 3-4k, and you shouldnt have a problem with that, and everyone loves LSD’s.
No, that would be with labor. But its not cheap regardless.
Generally, you would expect to pay $4k at a honda dealer for a new trans. They generally last 50-100k. But most people who dont abuse it constantly and have a trans cooler make it past 100k no problem.
Obviously 6spd is the best option. Its not likely going to break in the future, but its not a easy task. You need to swap the ECU, or get richieV6’s harness. And then source all the parts associated with the swap. New, it would be very expensive. If you find used parts it can be done for about $2k, including the trans at $1k, DIY. Labor is going to be $1k easy.
Generally its the 1-2 clutchpacks that fail, you have no issues here?
no which is weird because i read that. its primarily 3-4 but def noticeable at 2-3. I wouldnt have the first clue where to look to source out a 6spd tranny. this shit kept me from sleeping last night…
i dont know. the shitty part is that its holiday time. its going to force me to essentially sit on it untill after jan 1. Im going to try to get it into the shop i go to tomorrow to at least see what the deal is with the code. The symptoms are just to similar to what others are experiencing for it to be anything other than the tran. Of course i’m hoping for the best, but im preparing for the worst.
on the up side the money from the eclipse will cover the cost to do this. The down side is i wanted to kill the loan i took out on this right away with that money. now i’ll just have a 105.20/mo payment. not a huge deal, just a pain and not what i envisioned.
off topic, i’m now collecting for the ‘bobby needs money’ fund, payable to me. ha.
Challengermike, you’re saying that changing the fluid on an auto won’t ever affect that its slipping? Can’t the fluid itself affect how the clutches grab?
Any chance this is related to the torque convertor not locking up, and feeling like a slip??? I’ve had vehicles in the past that would do this in cold weather…perhaps this is a sensor issue rather than a hard part issue???
Again…I’m not much for automatic trannys…that’s why I swapped mine out for a manual:)
i think the swap is going to cost a mint. the associated parts are what would break me. I found a 6spd tranny online (reconditioned w/ 20k) for 5090.00. No way. thats 80% of the value of the car. I found similar '02 auto trannys for 1000-1300. MUCH more inline with what I could cover.
The 6spd dosent cost nearly that much. Im telling you how much it would cost, its going to be about 3,500. Find a trans on car-part.com. Theres parts lists on v6p.net in the 6th gen section. Of course theyre for 6th gen accords, but someone there probably knows what else you would need, or could direct you to a correct list.
Youre looking for a 01, 02, 03 CL-s trans. They generally go for 1,500-2k, but they are available at 1k with 60k or less often if you look around.
Theres the general pricing. As you can see, the 100K+ trans go for cheap.
Reguardless, i would change the fluid and see how it does. Some people have reported the trans to take them 6months+ before having a gear go out, with similar symptoms as you. Checking the code isnt going to tell you much, its going to be a trans solenoid issue, and its going to come back. But see if they can clear it for you anyways.
You may want to consider finding a shady honda/acura dealer and seeing if they can do anything for you. I have no idea how the system works, but wouldnt it be possible to get a trans under warranty, if you said it was for another car that has a warranty?
Generally on cars that are out of the 109k by more than 10k miles or so, honda will good will 50% of the cost, but ive never heard of them touching a salvage title vehicle. Its still worth a try.
Don’t do the 6spd swap…I assume you would also need to do something with the ECU at that point…it would probably turn into a huge cluster fuck for a DD.
**forgive my spelling. I’m at work and secretly trying to research this
so long as they dont run a title check (and i cant imagine they would need to) they wouldnt know it was salvage. I just put a call into the service dept over at John Holst Acura/Honda here in rochester to see what can be done. I’m sure they will need the VIN to confirm it is covered in the suit.
Two things working against me:
not origional owner. I dont know if the lawsuit would carry over to new owners. I would imagine ONLY that sort of coverage would if any at all. People purchase cars all the time and transfer warrentes.
the salvage issue.
I’m prepping myself for a worst case anyway. I have my shop looking into another auto tranny for me. The 6spd is ideal, and i suppose i would look into it more if Holst has bad news for me. The cost associated with the swap along with the fact that I dont know of anyone who could do it is going to be prohibitive. Its not ideal to go with the same AT tranny, but what are the chances of a second failure? (as I hold a metal rod in the air during a lightning storm…)
no idea. doesnt specify original owner specifically, but mentions that 1st owners received notice of judgement and options in the mail. Doesn’t mention exclusions.
