--repost from transmission recall section--

i have a 2001 CL and it has about 78,600 miles on it. the transmission hasn't been replaced yet, but it is under warranty up until 100k miles. it hasn't had any major problems with it, knock on wood, but something weird happened today and i'm not sure what it is.

so i drove to sf today and i went up and down hills for about 1-2 miles. i parked on haight and then walked around for a bit for about 30 min and then hopped back into the car.. and it wouldn't start correctly. i cranked it and it wouldnt hit the gear.. i turned it off again and then cranked it once more and pumped the pedal to get some gas in it to start and it just kept struggling. i switched gears from neutral and drive a few times and then turned off the car. the motor was also sputtering at this time. i turned off the car, popped open the hood and my friend watched it sputter when i repeated what i just did. it finally caught and it was fine.. i drove slowly back to the freeway and it seemed okay. i hit 65 fine and it was cruising along, at about 1500-2000rpm. i tested it a few times and tried to push the pedal further and noticed a slight loss in power. the speed would increase, but it would struggle to hit 3000 rpm and when it did, the car would go faster, but it seemed like it couldnt surpass 3000 rpm. it also took many more seconds to increase the speed from like 65-75.

when i got back to my home, residential area, i almost floored it for less than a block and it hit 4000 rpm this time.. i parked my car and revved it and it had no problem hitting 5000 rpm. i then turned off my car for the first time since sf and restarted it, and it seemed perfectly fine. there was no problem turning on my car anymore ....

the only thing i could think of was the tranny slowly going out, especially since it went up so many damn hills for over a mile, and it was stop and go cause of all the stop signs. i asked a friend who had his tranny replaced in his 01 accord and he said the same sputtering of the engine happened to him when he first noticed it.

so, do you think this is a tranny problem?
and how urgent is this problem? i have to drive back down to socal this wkend for school and i gotta drive through the grapevine. if i bring it to the dealership, it might take a few days to fix it, and it'll be in between new years, so i'm not sure if i'll have the car back in time. i'm hoping it'll be fine till i bring it to tustin acura like next week.

thanks.