Hello,
Before I take my RDX to my local mechanic, I wanted to see if any of you could give me some advice. I have another car so I have not been driving the Acura unless it is for testing.

I made the mistake of trying to make my gear position changes (D to P, R to P, etc) less clunky and more smooth. Park to Drive would be especially slow but not violent. To do this, I purchased some cheap OEM "tested Working" shift solenoids on ebay. Mine are a bit rusty and have 250K on them. So I figured they gotta be better than what I have now, right? Well, long story short, I got terrible results. I used OEM gaskets and topped up the fluid level with a genuine Acura DW-1. I just did a transmission fluid change about 7k miles ago.

Symptoms include: Hard, violent shifts from park to drive or any combination. Flashing D on the dash after driving it for a few minutes, and even some other lights that I cannot remember at this time.

I keep forgetting to check the codes after work. Maybe that will give me a direction to go in.
I decided to reinstall the old solenoids in hopes it would go back to normal. Sadly, I got the same results. I have confirmed the solenoids are fully seated and correctly wired. I take pictures of everything for reference later on. All seems to be correct.
I also checked the small screens inside the fluid tubes. All clean.
Side note, I also replaced the drive gear shift solenoids and those appear to be working great while driving.

I really got myself into a pickle. I am now a strong believer in, If it is not broken, don't fix it... I would much appreciate any advise.

 

Did you reset trans adaptation? That is a requirement after a trans drain and fill, it is probably a must with shift solenoids.

How is the pull of the car, can it accelerate or is it sluggish?

Are your fluid levels correct?

Check codes and report back please.

 

Also, by violent and clunky, is the shift bad or is it strong vibrations. You may have a bad trans mount if its only from park to drive and reverse to park.

 

Thanks, Yanga. No, I have not reset Adaptation. I didn't know that was a thing. I will research that.
The car feels great while driving, even with the flashing D indicator.
I topped up the fluid after changing the solenoids to the "new" ones and after going back to the originals.
I also did change the trans mount while I was in there. I thought it was weird that the new mount was very easy to move and very soft. The original one was stiff. Do you think that has something to do with how rough the shifts feel? Its the shifts that are very delayed and violent. The whole car moves and it sounds bad. No vibrations as far as I can tell.
I will check codes later today and report back.

Thanks for the reply!

 

Reporting back with Check engine codes-

P2263- Shift Solenoid "D" Stuck On
&
P0769- Pressure Control Solenoid C Performance/stuck Off

It's just so frustrating to me that even after putting the original solenoids back in, the problem remains.

 

Try setting the adaptation, it might be an out of parameter thing given code 2 is a performance code. 2263 may also relate to performance as well. Are you able to properly clear those trans codes?

I would clear codes, set adaptation, then take er for a drive. Sort out the electrical

As far as violent shifts, you need to check all the mounts now. Was the new mount oem or aftermarket. Sometimes aftermarkets can be very stiff which translate a lot of motion. Additionally, sometimes one good motor mount will be overcome with handling the entire vibration if the others are bad as well.

How are your drive axels? I once had motor mounts so bad on another car that it affected shifting as the engine was somewhat sitting on the axels as opposed to the engine. This was in an old Volvo so i dont know how honda does it.

 

Can you provide instruction on resetting the adaptation? I tried looking it up but only found information for the TL model. I attempted it anyway but didn't notice any changes.

Yes, I can clear the codes but within about 5-10 minutes they return.

Maybe I will reinstall the old trans mount. The car has a good bit of mileage, and I thought while I'm in that deep changing solenoids, I would also change the mount. The aftermarket mount I bought was very soft. Not stiff. Axles look fine also.