I've put 89k miles on my 2003 Honda Accord EX 4 Cylinder, automatic transmission. My car has started to exhibit some of the tranmission slippage, slip, slippin, slips problems I am reading about that the 98-02 Accord's have suffered from. I don't know a lick about cars...

At ~ 60k I took it into an Independent shop and they couldn't find anything wrong with the tranmission, in fact they couldn't get the slipping to repeat. At the time they performed an automatic transmission fluid flush and everything has been fine until now (89k).

A few days ago my wife informed me she was having the similar problems that I had experienced at ~ 60k. The dealer has had the car all yesterday and all today, and this afternoon he still didn't sound like he was able to reproduce the problem. Have others experienced the same problems with the 2003s/ 7th generations?

I know every 30k is when the automatic transmission flush is needed as well, so I will probably ask them to perform that service. I'm just mad that 3 years later I'm reading about horrible reliability engineering on these engines. That's why I bought a Honda after all. A friend of mine told me Honda of America will replace the transmission if I pay for the labor... but I'm not sure if they have extended it to 2003 year model (yet). I bought the 60k extended warranty... never in my life did I realized I would move to Southern California and drive a hefty bit.

 

A few more information. I've been doing the maintenance pretty much on schedule at dealerships in the area. I've slipped sometimes to 4k instead of 3k on the oil changes.

I see the problem driving locally and accelerating through 30-40 MPH. Once it happens I'm real careful about how much I accelerate.

The automatic transmission was flushed ~ 30k and 60k. I remember the 30k one becuase it was an unexpected cost, and I had to get new brake pads at that time as well.

I'm a little concerned about getting covered since my car is close to 100k, and I haven't seen many reports about these automatic transmissions showing the same problems. Perhaps it's because my mileage is unusually high.

 

Flushes are damaging to our transmissions. You should NEVER (power)flush a Honda tranny. only drain and fill.

 

Seems as though you brought about your tranny's demise.

 

If it is so damaging then why the hell did my dealer do it... twice? Maybe they just drained it and re-filled it then.

I have very little knowledge about cars, so if my dealer says I need to perform maintenance service on the transmission, I don't question if it is correct or not. Isn't that why people like me go to the dealer?

 

some dealers try to screw you.... it sucks.

most likely the dealer did drain/fill... but i'd check what the independent shop did at 60k

 

I'm just trying to remember what the Independent shop told me. I actually would trust them more than the dealership to do the correct job. Maybe I just figured "flushing" was when you drained, re-filled, drained, and filled it up again. If they had flushed it like was bad, wouldn't it have started to go back sooner than 30k more miles? I figure the dealer would already have told me I didn't have genuine Honda ATF in my car.

Honda Service rep just called and told me my car is throwing a check engine light for "solenoid". He didn't specify which. The engline light has come on every time I've seen this problem, so I would assume this is related to my shifting problems.

Maybe all I need is transmission fluid drained and replaced again. (Crossing fingers).

 

Sounds like what I have been going through with my 02 accord you might be experiencing.
Is the problem only happening when the car shifts from 1st to 2nd?
Is it like a hard jerk when it catches the 2nd gear ?
Also, does the engine rev a bit higher than usual right before it shifts? ( only happens to me when going to 2nd gear)

I too have taken it to honda and they could not replicate the problem whatso ever. My CEL came on when this started and the code referrenced my automatic transaxle. I reset the light and it never came back again.

I've changed my Lock up control solenoid and im about to change the linear solenoid but, im going to take it off and clean the screen first before i spend almost 200 bucks on it.

If your solenoid is changed and that fixes the problem let me know which one they replaced.


Honda Care advised me that they couldnt help me out since the problem has been fixed with the 02 accords. 98-01 have transmission problems yet, they assured me the 02 models were made with the correct part......I dont think their techs know anything anyway.

 

Oh Jesus Christ...you went to a horrible dealer dude.

Honda recommends the oil be changed every (I believe) 7500 miles on new Accords, NOT 3000 MILES

Never, ever flush your tranny as mentioned before.

If the dealer told you to change oil every 3k and flushed your transmission fluid, you should call Honda corporate ASAP and file a complaint.

 

and honda also recommends draining the auto trans fluid every 100k miles and the dealer only charges like 55$ for it, so you can do it more often if you want.