im about to buy a 99 Honda Prelude, but im worried about the automatic tranny. Ive heard that the clutchless automatic mode dies after a while, and that you need to buy a new tranny once that happens. if the clutchless automatic goes out, can i still drive in auto mode?

 

funny, two of my friends have the SS tranny. one of them autocrosses with it and none of them have had that problem. check up in prelude forums like hpoa.org, preludeonline.com, and absoluteprelude.com and see what they have to say.

 

If you know the history of the car you can decide if it is a good investment. Or put another way-if the car is obviously modified and beaten on stay away from it. That is unless you have about $3500 to spend on a tranny rebuild from Honda or Howard.
I take our 99 SS to Pocono and The Glen and run it very hard. NO problems with the tranny at all in either normal or SS mode. The important thing is to flush and fill the gearbox according to the service intervals that Honda gives you. A drain and fill should be done every 15K and a full flush at 45K for normal driving. Do it more often if the car sees hard usage.
I do not drag or hard launch the car. In fact, the SS tranny is not really designed to do that from the factory. The computers do control it to a degree. Once again, the SS is a great gearbox if properly used. Beat on it and it will break. Some people got the early version and those did fail when pushed really hard.
For those that say do the swap-keep this in mind--you will lower the resale value of the car. If you intend to keep it forever (10 years or more) then by all means consider the swap. I'm keeping my car as is-it is a personal and financial decision I can live with.

Good luck and welcome.

 

Learn how to drive a manual, much more pleasureful...

 

Do i have to get a new tranny if the ss fails, or can i just stay in automatic mode?

 

If the SS fails it usually means a rebuild. The control system has taken a dump. Sometimes the computers are to blame along with the solenoids. Remember that the SS uses electronics and not mechanical selectors. The shifter is actually connected to switches.

One other thing-this gearbox hates neutral drops. It also has some maps to control when and how a gearchange happens. Internally it is very much like a sequential tranny on a bike-it must go thru the gears to get to the one you select.

Happy Luding

 

:werd:

 

Another vote here for buying a manual 5-speed Prelude.

A car that's been well taken care of and maintinenced will be probably be a good buy. The Prelude, however, shines best in stick-shift form.

 

The SS tranny doesn't have a huge amount of problems, but I would say above average. I'd hold out and wait for a 5sp

 

5-speeds are nearly bulletproof...trust me.