jquandtx

This developed over 1 week's time: It started with not going into gear while in drive so I used the 3rd and 2nd gears (auto) this turned into no forward gears at all.
The car's story: This was owned by a little old lady that had put only 100,000 miles on it in 17 years. The next owner, a college girl, owned it for 18 months then my
buddy had it for 2 years, I have had it for 3 years with 175,000 on it now. I had changed out the trans fluid a few days before the trouble started.
I beleve the little old lady was faithful in having all the factory services done when it was required (the car is still excellent throughout).
I don't believe the trans fluid had been changed since 60K, that would be 115K since its last change. Maybe, when it was changed some junk broke loose and clogged
the filter and filters on the solenoids. It has a high pitch whine similar to the way the power steering pump sounds when it is low on fluid or fluid is not passing through it.
I have to check the solenoids for clogging.
The internal filter is the problem as the only way I see to change it is by separating the trans housing (IE, remove the trans). Am I correct in this? If so, then I might
as well rebuild it.

97BlackAckCL

iTrader: (6)

Yep, you have to separate it

Acura_CL3.0

If you check out my thread I go through the process of rebuilding this transmission. There's plenty of links to rebuilds and the faults associated with Honda 4 speed units. Best of luck! Just be extremely thorough and don't rush your first one.

fliplyricist1

Sorry to hear that, but looks like the tranny lasted a lot longer than expected.


Just a pro-tip: when/if you ever rebuild or get a replacement, first thing you want to do is install an external transmission cooler. That's the inherent problem with these first gen cl's from the factory...a simple 30 dollar cooler would have prolonged most of them from premature failure.

Mine started slipping a big at 90k miles. Installed a tranny cooler, added some transmission treatment and it's been going strong 70k miles later. Actually shifts smoother now than I ever remember it. But I never go too hard on it just in case.