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Hi all. My car has been feeling funny lately, and I figured I'd ask you guys, since you seem to be a very knowledgeable bunch, and I'm hoping someone could help me out here.

I bought a 2000 Civic DX a couple weeks ago, with about 80k miles, and the car seemed fine then. The car is absolutely basic, with no options whatsoever besides the auto transmission. More recently it has been feeling a little stranger while shifting and coasting. Accelerating from a dead stop the car will sometimes take off very slowly, and then it feels like it launches a little harder after a second or two. I can't tell for sure, but it might be when it shifts into 2nd that it launches harder. The car also feels like it takes a little longer than it should to shift while I'm accelerating slowly, and sometimes when I accelerate slowly to ~25-30 mph, the rpm's seem to stay a little higher than they should. It reminds me a lot of my Camaro with a high stall torque converter. Also at this point, the car feels like I have it in low gear when I press or release the pedal. Along the same lines, often when I'm driving and release the gas pedal to coast the car feels like it's in a low gear, and will decerlerate very quickly. I've tried to determine at what speeds or gears the car does this, but it seems to be pretty random about it. It cuts down my coast time and distance dramatically, and you can feel a noticeable difference when shifting into neutral at this point. Other times the car will coast normally, and you can barely notice (if at all) any difference when shifting between N and Drive. I always double-check, and I have always had the car in D4, not D3 while driving.

I hope somebody can help me out with this, if you have any other questions, or need more details, please feel free to ask. ANY tips or advise will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all very much, for your time and effort :D

Steve

*ps - I've also been playing with FAS, and turning off my engine and coasting to stops. However, I never do a FAS if I'm not coming to a complete stop at the end of it, but I figured I'd just throw this in here in case it matters any*

I would check the condition of you fluid in the transmission first. Is it dark, or appear to be burnt? Sometimes just a fluid change can help. I don't know much about your particuliar transmission, this is just general info.

Good Luck,
Stan

A few more general observations:
- Don't assume that lack of off-the-line power is related to the transmission. If you press the accelerator and the engine doesn't want to rev, it could be the mass airflow sensor, throttle position sensor, clogged catalyst, low fuel pressure, or any one of a dozen other conditions.
- If the engine "flares" (revs but the car doesn't move, as it if were almost in neutral), it is still not necessarily a transmission "failure". It could just be a shift linkage that is out of adjustment, which can literally place the transmission half way between N and D when the lever is shifted to D.
- If the transmission is *not* electronically controlled, it may have a "kickdown cable" that needs to be adjusted. If it is electronically controlled, a bad throttle position sensor or vehicle speed sensor can confuse the controller and result in balky shifting.

If the transmission is actually slipping, the fluid will be burnt. The cause of the slippage can be as simple as a clogged transmission filter, improper fluid level, or improper fluid. Honda requires their own type of transmission fluid, and using Dexron or Mercon or ATF+3 or anything else will cause you much grief.

Well, I took it in today to get the tranny fluid and oil changed. The car runs much smoother now, but I can't tell if it's me just being finicky, but I think I can still feel it a little bit. I asked the guy changing the tranny if he could check if the tranny fluid was black/burnt at all, and he said it looked good.

What I meant about the off-line-power wasn't that the car doesn't want to rev, or revs freely, but the car will accelerate rather normally at first, and then it feels like it accelerates abruptly all of a sudden, again, like the car is in too low of a gear. It's really hard to explain, so I hope I'm describing that correctly.

As for now, I think the tranny is quite a bit better with just the fluid change. I only have 3 or 4 miles on the car since the change, so I'm going to give it another week or so, and really pay attention to how it feels. Thanks again for all the advice everyone! Sometimes it's the simplest solution that works the best :D

I don't know if this will help, but I thought I'd detail my 01 Accord's shifting for you.

1st gear up to about 10mph smooth shift
2nd gear up to 20mph smooth shift, unless very light throttle then it kicks a little
3rd gear up to 33-35mph smooth shift, feel it more with light throttle...
4th from there...

My brother had a Mustang that really kicked you back in the seat when it went into 2nd gear. I guess I know what you've been describing... He never messed with it, and nothing was ever proven to be wrong because the car was totaled after 2yrs...

Just so you know, there are 2 ways of changing that trans oil

One way is to just let it drain, and this will get most of the oil.

the other way is to use a presurized line to pump the old oil, as transmisions have a bizillion channels and cravices.

you may want to have the oil changed again if they only drainied it and refilled it,
this will insure they got all the old oil and little pices may have gotten stuck in there.

glad the car is feeling better allready :)

It almost sounds like a minor issue I had with a 2001 civic where shifting from 1st to 2nd was kind of harsh, but the rest of the gears were fine. It might be possible that the clutch pack are worn, but with only 80k miles I doubt it. It could be an adjustment issue on a number of things as stated before. If it really bothers you it sounds like you have to start going down the list of possibilities and eliminating them one by one.

I do believe the older Honda auto transmissions were a bit clunky, but that's just me.

Call me cheap, but I have removed the line from the transmission to the cooler after I had dropped the pan and changed the filter. I installed the new fluid, pulled the fuse to the ignition coils, and bumped the starter. Fluid shoots out and its easy to see when the new fluid starts.