t600

Hey guys I have an 06 RL non-tech that just turned over 100k miles. I haven't owned the car long but recently I've noticed the car downshifting at what seems like exactly 35 mph. This happens when coming to a stop the car gets to 35 mph and it will downshift in the normal "D" position. I don't think its supposed to happen since it varies from being gentle to pretty serious with the engine shooting up over 2,000 rpm. Also when driving at around the 35 mph threshold while on the gas it will slam into the lower gear enough to shake the car and make the passengers ask what happened. On top of that when you slow down for something to say 10 mph or so and get back on the gas it takes a second for the lower gear to actually engage. Funny enough though if I hit the gas really quickly instead of gradually it will engage quickly like it should. Other than that the car upshifts fine and pulls fine with no odd noises or anything. I decided to do the 3x transmission fluid change like I read on the forum and after the first change the transmission was much better but after the second it seemed to get worse so I decided against doing a 3rd. Has anyone experienced anything like this or have any ideas on something to try. Thanks guys!

aznxb1az3

it seem like your 2nd and 3rd gear might had damaged. take it to the dealer and see what they say. it might cost you an arm and leg if you don't have warranty. and the 3x flushing, i heard it's bad for the transmission. instead changing the trans fluid 3x at one time, i do change it every 10k mile for 3 times.

aznxb1az3

Take it to the dealer and find out what exactly is wrong with your car. when the dealer found out what's wrong, or what you need to replace go buy the parts on ebay. there is a seller that sells towed RL working parts for a reasonable price. recently my power steering was acting weird. so i bought my car to the dealer and they told me my power steering rack wasn't working properly. they tried to convince to buy the part for $1500 and charge $550 for labor. i guess i made the right decision by buying an used part for $200 and installed for $300! it saved me almost $1500 and it works like an new part!

TonyCD

As an aside, where'd you hear that?

I'd agree that ANY "flushing" is bad, but there shouldn't be anything wrong with drain-and-fills of an approved fluid, no matter how you space them out.

TonyCD

I'm out of my league here, and I encourage the smarter members of the forum to jump in. But one thing I'm tempted to ask is, what fluid did you use? If it's the new Acura fluid, that could conceivably be the problem.

There was a recent thread here detailing that Honda/Acura recently discontinued its longtime transmission fluid, and replaced it with a new one. The new one was causing such rough shifts, Honda was making an interim recommendation to fix complaints of rough shifting by draining a quart of the newfangled fluid and putting a quart of old-style fluid back in. Which is why I went to a full-synthetic third-party fluid (again, see the thread) instead. Here's the link:
https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-rl-2005-2012-76/new-atf-rear-diff-fluids-795607/#post13313680

hondaxacura

+1 for ATF change. Do it often. Don't wait for the maintenance minder to come on. I change mine every 12k drain and flush 1x. It may seem just fluid, but it really does wonders.

If your fluid is not clear red on a paper towel, or brown, change it. First time does wonder, second time, amazing. Third time, it pretty much peaks.

t600

The transmission drain and refill was done with the ATF-DW1 tranny fluid. The original problem was before I ever did the drain and refill so I know the new fluid has nothing to do with the problem. I meant to ask but can you guys check to see if your cars downshift at around 35 mph when decelerating...it kinda seems to do it a bit in all gears and I'm curious to see if its a "feature" to help slow the car...even though my 3rd gear is engaging too much. I should also say that today I drove my car in sportronic mode or whatever Acura chooses to call it and the transmission shifts absolutely PERFECT in the conditions where it normally shudders in auto mode. I can leave it in 5th when I come to a stop and it will not bang into 3rd at all when decelerating. It also downshifts in 1/2 the time and shifts SO much smoother in sportronic mode. It literally is a night and day difference. I always drive in normal "D" so I was surprised today for it to shift so good. My thinking is if it was a major mechanical part like gears or clutches it would do it in both auto and manual modes. I also think that its odd that it sucks in downshifting in several gears but fine in upshifting in every gear. Whats the chances it could be something electrical? I have only owned the car for 5k miles and I'm starting to hate it with the problems I'm having one right after the other. If you guys have any ideas at all please let me know.

TonyCD

Question for my esteemed fellow posters: If the OP's problems are happening only when the transmission shift for itself, could he benefit by resetting the transmission's "learning curve" so it re-learns his driving style?

In other words, could the transmission be shifting roughly because it's expecting the driving style of the car's previous owner?

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

Absolutely, relearning the trans with a WOT in 5th would be my first recommendation.

oo7spy

That was going to be my second recommendation after finishing the 3x3 DRAIN and fill. Just to clarify the "flush" has nothing to do with pushing or pulling fluid. The recommended sequence includes driving the car between fills and flushes. You are supposed to engage all 5 gears and the torque converter in 1st and 5th. The idea here is that there are multiple chambers and clutches within the transmission that don't drain on their own. You have to cycle the new fluid through them to get the old fluid out, and really you end up just mixing the old and new together. You do it 3 times so you can get out as much old fluid as possible, but you will never get it ALL out. There will always be some mixture left. It could be possible a chamber did not get filled back up if the drive did not touch all 7 gear areas and that caused the second time to be worse. That is just a guess, but the 3x3 was designed by Honda to work in Hondas. There should be nothing wrong with it if done correctly.

Like mentioned, reset your drive by wire system and see if that helps. There are two ways that have been discovered, but have not been verified by Honda.
1) Turn the key to position II without turning on the engine. Floor the gas pedal for 30 seconds and turn the car off. Wait for a bit before turning it back on.
2) While driving in "M", put the car into the highest allowable gear and floor the throttle for as long as it safe. By putting the car into a high gear, the acceleration should be slow enough to allow you to drive safely. Putting the throttle to the floor is key, and it goes pretty far down there. This method is best performed entering a low traffic highway in 4 & 5th gears.

t600

Thanks guys for all the replies. I actually haven't driven the car in a few days so I hope to try this out in the morning. I was just curious if unhooking the car battery for a bit of time would also reset the drive by wire? The reason I ask is not 2 weeks after I bought the car about 1/2 of the power accessories quit working and and I unhooked the battery while I checked fuses and browsed around and immediately after reconnecting it everything started working again and the problem hasn't reappeared. I thought it might be smart to unhook it and just see if it changes anything.

oo7spy

Disconnecting the battery for 10 minutes or so should reset a lot of things. However, if the drive by wire memory is flash or RAM, disconnecting power will not reset it. The same reason why if your phone battery dies, it does not clear your memory. I don't know if the drive by wire system is like that or not.

The idea behind the methods I posted is to give the car a WOT signal. In a sense, when that signal is never supplied, the car can kind of "forget" what it is like. It will, over time, adapt to the range that you give it on a daily basis, so reminding it what WOT is will reset the range of the pedal.

sleepinxlionhart

Agreed, even Acura had a service bulletin of the step by step process the tech should take to do a 3x3 transmission flush.