Hi, I've never posted on here before but I thought this would be the best shot I'd find at getting a straight answer. I've got a 98 V6 Accord with 107K miles. This weekend I noticed a constant high-pitched whistling or humming noise and every time I step on the gas, the noise increases in pitch. Also, I noticed that the transmission isn't really acting normal. It is making some clicking noises and not slipping into gear as quickly as usual. Any ideas? I checked the Trans fluid and it does need to be replaced. But can that really cause these problems? Thank you!

 

Hi, welcome to HAN

The whistling/humming sounds like a bad alternator. They cost abour $120-$200 on ebay and it's a pretty easy do it yourself job. It's a very common problem on the V6 model...they're made by Delphi. Try a search on that.

The transmission is also pretty normal. Sadly, we got some pretty shitty transmissions in our cars - you can find a discussion about it in the FAQ. Your best bet is to drive your car until it dies and then get a slightly used or rebuilt tranny on ebay. Mine died at 150k, I bought a 33k old tranny on ebay and now at 191k miles (74k tranny miles) it's still working well.

Chris

 

Hi! Hmmm... alternator. I had the alternator replaced about 2 years ago and the part has a lifetime warranty I believe (glad I kept the receipt). That is really crappy to hear about the transmissions being so bad! I'm taking my car in tonight to get checked out b/c I am SO worried sick over how much it will cost. I talked to the shop and they quoted me about $1700 if they can find a good used one, $2500 for rebuilt. Is that an OK price?

 

I got mine for $1000 installed. I bought the tranny itself for $700. $2500 is a ridiculous price for rebuilt. You can buy Honda OEM for that much.

Do your own legwork and call around to shops, look on the net and search ebay...any shop will try to screw you over.

If you already had the alternator replaced and own a multimeter (voltmeter) you can test it yourself...if not most places will do it for free just so they might be able to take money from you in the future, call around.

 

Thanks for your help. This may be a dumb question but can you negotiate with shops? I mean, I don't have the technical expertise to really go out and find the transmission myself. Alternatively, I guess you can buy the transmission yourself and pay someone to put it in? I guess I should have them take a look at it and see what the problem is first. So ebay is a good place to look? Where else? How long does it usually take to get it? I can't go without a car for to long b/c I can't get to work. Thanks again!

 

Of course you can negotiate, you can negotiate with everything. It's always good to get multiple (I get more than 10 if it's major work) quotes and then play everyone off each other by calling them and saying how I got a price of XXX, can you meet it?

All you have to do is find an automatic from a 98-02 Accord V6. Make sure it has low miles. My tranny took like a week to come but I talked them into free shipping, so I can't complain. Ebay and junkyard search places like partstrain.com are good.

You don't have to not drive your car...Buy a transmission, keep it in your garage or at a friend's garage, and drive your car until the tranny slips so much that it's almost impossible to drive. My tranny lasted 30-40k miles from when it first started slipping and being noisy to when it stopped shifting into 1st and I had to start off in 2nd and manually shift. The not slipping into gear easily is actually a very early symptom...if you're not slipping on the 1-2 upshift yet then you should be good for a long time.

 

I was told that transmission oil additives give some extension on tranny before it fails completely for another year in average. This would buy you some time.

 

Uh no, any sort of oil additive is a waste of money. It is tranny death to use anything other than Genuine Honda ATF. People have had their trannies go very very quick because they had the tranny fluid replaced with non Honda ATF.

The only thing you can do to prolong the life of the tranny is to avoid throttle induced downshifts and buy a tranny cooler.

 

[QUOTE=98CoupeV6]Uh no, any sort of oil additive is a waste of money. It is tranny death to use anything other than Genuine Honda ATF. People have had their trannies go very very quick because they had the tranny fluid replaced with non Honda ATF.QUOTE]

I agree with that but his tranny is on its way out. There are oil treatments for slipping transmissions and they help with slipping only.
May be I wasn't clear in my previous post but I was talking only about this type of treatment and they it should be used only when tranny is already slipping.

 

[QUOTE=sibiryk]I don't think it's a good idea, it's slipping because the clutch packs are worn down. Magic fluid isn't going to replace the metal shavings that have been sheared off, it's only going to accelerate the process. Honda transmissions are unique and unlike any other automatic made...conventional stuff does not seem to help them.