Ok, I'm daily driving a 98 CL 3.0 with over 320K miles on it. It's been a great car, everything on it works and we have it for about 4-5 years now. Like everyone I've been waiting on transmission issue to arise and they finally did. It had a long shift from 1-2 and 2-3 hit pretty hard once it shifted. Babied it home and began my search. It threw a couple codes for the torque converter and shift solenoids. I don't remember the exact codes.

What I decided to do was change the fluid (which I have been doing every few oil changes to get fresh stuff in) and clean the solenoids that I could get to.

What I found was under the throttle body are a pair of solenoids for the torque converter lock-up that had screens on them that were completely blocked. I held them up to a light and could not see through them at all. Cleaned them, changed the oil, put an inline transmission filter on and it's back to smooth shifting. The solenoids are below the throttle body. They have 3 10mm bolts holding them on with a rubber o-ring gasket. I removed the battery to have better access.

Just thought I'd throw this info up here to help somebody having similar problems.

 

Great info, thanks

 

That is great this fixed your issues.

Do you know what the material was that was blocking your filter? It was clutch material.

Your clutches are wearing out and eventually will block your internal filter completely.

A sign that transmission failure is coming soon is the solenoid filters are dirty.

 

I added an inline filter on our 99 too, as well as an additional cooler. Keep it clean, keep it cool.

 

Which is better
Honda ATF DW1 vs Honda ATF Z1. for 98 3.0?
Am experiencing intermittent grabbing/slight jerk when moderately acceleration when going from 3rd-4th.. have kept up on fluid dran/fill every 40k or so but used the import multi fluid and maybe a little lucas transmission additive. has only happened 2 or 3 times in a month or so!
Thanx P

 

Paul,

The Z1 atf is obsolete and it's been supersede by DW1.

You should do 1x3s until the atf runs clean or close to it.

All you need is DW1 atf, nothing else.

For your shudder you might want to try replacing the Shift Solenoid C and 3rd Clutch Pressure Switch.

Check the Torque Converter and A/B Pressure Control Solenoid's screen for clogging.

Personally, knowing the age of the car I would just replace all these solenoids with new ones-oem only.

The solenoids are tire from many years of service. Think of it as a motor with 2/300,000 miles on it. The motor still works perfectly fine but its not going to have that brut force or quick snap responses it once did when new.

 

yea.. awesome 01.. the trans was rebuilt by pretty reputable guy around 100K.. and now has about 255k on car now.. however we changed fluid several times this go around.. has never really gotten real dirty or but.. not sure if guy replaced any solenoids or switches..
May try fluid 1st...

 

I had the same exact issue with my sisters car and cleaning this solenoids solve the problem. Thank you for posting this, this is exactly why I joined this site.��

 

I have had worsening trans problems; It started with not shifting from first to second gear at which point I found a youtube how to video about cleaning he shift solenoid screen like you mentioned but the screen was in the middle tube located in the box (also under the throttle body) but in a box with six 10mm bolt(heads) that can be hard to get to. I also did the three times flush adding three quarts of new Honda fluid each time. I would get a couple hundred miles of trouble free use of the car, but the problem would eventually return. It appears that my 98 Cl 3.0 went too long before changing the fluid because there's too much accumulated crud inside the trans and it's impossible to adequately flush it out by the 3X method or probably a 10X dumping only about half the total trans fluid each time. Now my car won't upshift past second gear and I'm wondering where exactly are the solonoids that you cleaned on the trans? There don't seem to be any You Tube videos available because of the age of first generation ACURA CLs. Pleas advise if you can because my 98 is in great overall condition and it would be a shame to have to sell it for junk value!!

 

godsent been having these isses when cold for about 5 to 8 minutes when cold then fine when at operating temp 97 3.0 CL