Rep Power: 0

The automatic transmission on my 2001 civic (155K) slips when I accelerate slowly off the line and then all of a sudden it catches and shifts through the following gears just fine. It only seems to happen when I accelerate slowly from a stop. If I accelerate quickly, no problems shifting. My 2005 civic was having problems similar to this around 90K miles, but the shop just changed the ATF and it's been fine ever since.

Should I drain/refill the ATF first and see if it improves, or just take it to a shop? If that's the first thing they're gonna do, I'd rather save the money and do it myself.

If yes, should I do the drain/refill 3x like the manual says?

Thanks.

 
Rep Power: 214

Drain and fill with new atf. And only just drain it once and fill once. You should not try and flush the tranni. See if this helps any and get back to us.

 
Rep Power: 811

usually changing fluid will not help, but worth a try. the slipping is a mechanical problem. 155k is great mileage already, most of these trans dont make it past 50-100k. just keep driving til it wont move. you may even get another 50k out of it.

 
Rep Power: 0

Decided not to change the ATF.

I got the car for free and only need it for a couple months. Also I don't have the money to replace the transmission if the drain and fill screws it up. Hopefully the tranny lasts. We'll see.

Thanks for the input.