My 96 acura tl 2.5 goes in reverse but not in drive! I just bought car for 300 and I'm wondering if I need a transmission? I empty the differential fluid and tranny fluid but I don't want to put new transmission filter and honda atf. Along with dif fluids. If i am going to need a new tranny. I took of the solenoids but they are 500 to replace. So I'm going to clean old ones and out back. What to do. Should I fill up with fluids and hope she goes or drop the tranny and pay 1000 to rebuilt???? Car has 195000 miles and runs good

 

I suggest you post at the TL forum if you want people to reply

 

Moved to first gen TL forum

 

Just rebuild it and then you shouldn't have to worry about anything.

 

In my opinion, you should look at the cost and figure out if it's worth it to do one thing or the other. My guess is that it isn't going to be as easy as changing the fluids and then you get drive back, but I am not a mechanic. When my dad begins a motor restoration project, he usually won't even try to start it first to see if it runs. Instead he will open it up and clean and update the parts until he believes it is in running condition and then tests it. If you were going to take that route, then I think you would want to go straight to rebuilding, replacing, or repairing the transmission before adding the fluids. This can be costly, but if you only paid $300 for the car and the rest of it is in good shape, then it would probably be worth it. I have a '98 3.2 TL and I love driving it. My dad bought it for $4,500 several years ago with ~140,000 miles on it and sold it to me for $2,000 a few years later. If it's only going to cost $1,000 to change the tranny, then you'll have $1,300 invested in the car, plus the cost of fluids and stuff, and that doesn't seem too bad. Make sure the timing belt is okay, too, as well as the cooling system. You can do a chemical test to check for the presence of combustion gasses in the cooling system to make sure your head gasket and engine block are in good shape. If the most expensive parts of the car are not all in good shape, then maybe you would want to pick up another car and use this one for parts? This is just my two cents, but as I said, I'm not a mechanic and only know what I know because I've had my share of car troubles, too.