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I have a 2002 Civic Si/Ex auto coupe with 120,000km on it. When accelerating from a stop and constantly putting in gas to go up in speed, it goes to 2nd and 3rd perfectly but when it is just about to go to 4th gear the rears go up and then goes into gear. This only happens if I'm still gaining speed and not cruising at a constant speed or slowing down.

To better explain it, its kind of like when driving a manual and your going to shift gears and you press the clutch in but still have your foot on the gas, kind like if its stuck in between gears for a sec.

What can the problem be? Easyand cheap fix?

Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 319

Probably the clutches inside the tranny are slipping. It is a somewhat common problem in the auto 7thgen civics. You can take it to a Honda dealer and have them look at it, if it indeed the clutches slipping, it will be costly and generally a used tranny is cheapest route. However, Honda has been somewhat kind and often will help pay for a rebuild, if it is done by a Honda dealer.

You can start with simple and cheap things to make sure it is not something else though. Check the fluid of the tranny. Flush the tranny out with Honda ATF (automatic transmision fluid), use Honda ATF made for your car, others have had nothing but problems when using off brands. There are a few threads that explain how to do this, if I run across one I'll post it for you. But I would try this stuff first.

Hopefully you're just a little low on fluid

 
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Can I just check the fluid level before I start flushing it out? How come this only happens in 3rd to 4th gear?

 
Rep Power: 319

Yeah, you should have a dipstick, like the one for your oil, but for your tranny fluid. I forget what color it is, but it is in your manual. If you want to fill it, you will have to pour the fluid down this tube, you'll need a funnel.

Why it is only happening between 3rd and 4th, I don't know, my guess is the pressure is to low from lack of fluid, but that is really a shot in the dark. Most of the time when the clutch plates in the tranny start to slip, people notice it in lower gears, higher gears seems to be a small leak in the tranny fluid, which mean you need to fill it and find out where the old stuff went to, assuming it is low. make sure not to over fill the tranny by the way, hope this helps a little.

 
Rep Power: 288

the ATF is red, have you changed your ATF yet? youre suppose to change it EVERY 30k miles or 48k km. if you havnt, your tranny will kick and burn fluid. i just changed my tranny fluid recently cuz it was kicking and i was over due for a change by 18k miles. the red ATF came out BLACK. After the change, the tranny stopped kicking. I have a 100,000 mile warranty, i dont want the tranny to break but if it breaks ill just bring it to honda. But try flushing your tranny yourself by using the method honda recommends int he manual. you need about 12 quarts of honda atf to do the proper flush.

 
Rep Power: 453

the automatic tranny wont burn fluid unless there is a problem in the tranny like jrfish said, usually slipping clutches or cluch packs with no clearance usually will hender a result of burnt fluid. also some torque converter problems cant cause it as well.

Now something I learned in school when I learned about automatic trannies is if the fluid is red or light brown in color, you are ok to flush or drain it. Now if it is dark brown or black with a burnt smell to it, something internally is wrong. It may still work fine, but changing the fluid only buys time or may cause more of a problem once changed. thats why it isnt recommended to flush and sometimes change black fluid. Its better to fix the problem. same as if water gets in the tranny, once in there, and circulated, it deteriates the clutches.

 
Rep Power: 288

a dark color honda atf shouldnt be that big of a problem unless you continue to drive on it. honda atf turns bad pretty quick cuz of the high tranny temps. what one should be afraid of is when the tranny fluid is black and there is a lot of metal shavings on the magnet. thats an easy self check when draining the aft.

 
Rep Power: 0

to be honest, my dad does whatever maintenance it needs besides oil changes. i don't remember if the atf has ever been changed. i'll have to look into that. hopefully that is it.