ryan7645

Hi,

Just purchased a '98 2.3 CL (one of the relatively rare ones with cloth, it lowered the price quite a bit), and I have a 30-day warranty from the dealer (Carmax). I had it checked out by my mechanic- who specializes in Honda/Acura, as I had an older Accord before this. Everything checked out ok. Car only has 67k miles and is stock (I'm keeping it that way), and honestly is in showroom condition.

But...one thing I noticed is that when starting out in the morning, regardless of temp, When shifting into gear for the first time (either reverse or D4), the transmission seems to jerk a bit-- when the engine is cold. My old Accord and my mom's RSX are both harsher shifting into gear than say the Toyota's and Nissan's that I've driven, but how much of a 'jerk' is normal? When driving, shifting is normal. I opted for the 2.3 CL mainly because it was less expensive than a 3.0, gets better mileage and takes regular unleaded, not to mention the many problems I've read about regarding trannys on the 3.0's. Never read about any tranny issues on the 2.3's (my mechanic says he's never heard of any of the 2.3's, but has heard of a few on the 3.0's, especially the 01-03 CL's).

To sum it up:
1) Should I do the timing belt & water pump before I hit 90k, or should I wait (it will be a good 18 months before I hit 90k most likely).
2) Besides getting a drain/fill and filter change (using Honda ATF of course) at my next service, is there anything I should do or be concerned about? Or just chalk it up to a 'normal' rouch Honda transmission?

Thanks for any advice!

By the way, out of curiosity, I think 97-98 were the only years CL's (2.2/2.3's only, I believe) were available with cloth. I've hardly seen any CL's for sale (at least scanning ebay) with cloth. How rare is a cloth interior in a CL?

dragon084

if it has a 30 day warantee and its jerking like that,

take it to a tranny place like AAMCO or Lee Myles and have them diagnose something

and have the warantee pay for a tranny... thats whut im doing right now, but i had to

pay for my warantee (3rd party - CNA)

teh CL

iTrader: (1)

cloth on a CL is rare to me...

i saw a 98 2.3 at work the other day and i was just like WTF ....it just looks soo weird with cloth.... no offense

VB87

Congrats on your buy!

In the manual it says do the timing belt at 105 or at 7 years, whichever comes first.
You're right, the 97/98 were the only years that had cloth seats. Leather came standard in the 99.

r3mix3r

First of all welcome Please enjoy your stay at this wonderful site.

If I were you I'd get the timing belt done, as soon as possible... You may want to find out if it was already done? I mean you can wait a little while, but not 18 months, you are already over the scheduled time.

As for the cloth seats, I wish I had cloth. 100 degree summer + leather = swamp ass. I hate it. Not to mention my whole seat is all ripped up, and cracking.

For the transmission, I guess I would try to milk that warranty and see if it needs to be replaced. But the best thing to do right now would be to check the fluid, it may be low or dirty? Also you can change it yourself, or bring it somewhere for a drain/fill should be around 50-60 dollars.

good luck with the car man...

Motohip

I thought it was 105k miles that you replace the timing belt.

ajtcl

The Mistress was done at 88000... I would wait at least till you got 700000 or 7 years... but I think Motohip is right, 105K.... I will check tonight.

Motohip

Yeah, do it at 700,000 miles.

ajtcl

Oh shit... that fawker's blown... sorry, 70K. But really, that is doing it early...