Matt W

I've been noticing this problem lately that will occur once or twice a week. It seems my transmission sometimes gets confused on whether it needs to down shift or upshift and it will do one and realize it needed to do the other and its almost feels like the gears are getting caught for a split second and it causes a very light braking feeling (hardly none) and then its all fine. There is also a slight audible noise that can be heard when this happens.

For example (if I get caught in bad traffic) I will start accelerating kind of hard then right before it would usually upshift I let off the accelerator and its like it gets caught because it thought I was going to keep accelerating but it has to down shift instead.

The opposite is also true. For example if I start slowing down and its midway through downshifting (or something) and I hit the accelerator to speed back up it gets confused, makes the "clunking" sound, and then shifts gears normally. This is literally all happens in probably less than a second. It doesn't happen too often either.

Overall the rest of the shifting feels absolutely fine with no problems. I changed the transmission fluid myself about 5K miles ago with Amsoil Synthetic Multi-Vehicle Automatic Transmission Fluid. I checked the level after I got home yesterday (while the transmission was warm) and it was a little over the upper limit, I think thats normal right, or is my transmission fluid too full and would this even cause a problem?

The only thing I can think is maybe it doesn't like the Amsoil transmission fluid, but I've known other people to use the on the RL and haven't had any problems...I considered having the fluid changed again with the Honda DW-1 fluid but not sure this would help...

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

So you are accelerating hard and letting off and then slowing down and try to gun it and you think there is a problem is the trans?

I'm curious to see where this goes Welcome back MDubb

M T L T L

If I put a gun to ur head n tell you to jump off the roof and as soon as you had one foot off the ground, I dropped the gun, you wouldn't know what to do either.
Try Redline ATF, my 03 TL-S liked it alot.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

hahaha

oo7spy

I'm confused.




Matt, I don't think there is anything wrong. You are simply confusing the logic of the ECU. It doesn't really matter how robust or redundant the logic of your state machine is, a human can always come up with a trick it, at least momentarily. One reason why humans are better than computers is because they are capable of irrational thought. For instance, accelerating hard until just before an up-shift completes and then slamming on the brakes would never happen in a well designed system.

M T L T L

^
I knew it would come up. Its the ground of the roof on which he is standing on not the ground he's about to fall on.

oo7spy

Of course. Clear as mud.

Matt W

I think you guys are just misunderstanding what I'm saying.

I'm not driving radically, I get stuck in stop and go traffic everyday so when all of the sudden traffic starts moving I start accelerating then the guy in front of me slams on his brakes It would happen to coincide when the car was about to upshift and instead I let off the accelerator and it does that weird thing I described.

Similarly when I start braking and slowing down and the guy in front of me starts accelerating quickly again of course I need to start accelerating too but it may coincide when the car was about to down shift or was in the middle of downshifting.

Normal driving...

But yeah thanks oo7spy, I just wanted to be sure the Amsoil wasn't causing any problems.

oo7spy

I got what you were saying. I was just using hyperbole to make the point.

Traffic jams are another artifact of mankind's terrible efficiency and poor logic skills.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

Not for me.

Try driving in manual mode.

EL19

iTrader: (4)

Or trying leaving more room between you and the person in front of you. I don't stop this boat unless I absolutely have to. I'm typically cruising in second and barely hit the brakes since the car will slow itself. It also keeps the car from searching for gears like you describe.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

Leaving more room is kind of a death sentence for anyone commuting in rush hour/bumper to bumper because you will get cut off every time.

The deal here is stop blaming the car:
1. put your phone down and pay attention so you dont have to gun it
2. stop gunning it, if you keep that up you will rear end someone one day
3. If you follow 2 you wont have the braking issue.
4. Leave earlier or stay later... trust me you will gain years back in your life by not having that stress.

Dont sweat it, I drove like an a-hole when I was young too... growing into the upper 20's and 30's will help out.

oo7spy

My least stressful days are the ones when I leave the house at 6:30 and the office at 3:00. Unfortunately, they are also my least energetic days. I pretty much refuse to leave the house between 7:00 and 8:30, but I get suckered into leaving the office at 5:00 almost every time.

Mike734

Transmission logic is one of the weaker areas on this car I'm afraid. If you are not using D3 in traffic you should. I drive around town mostly in D3. I don't like the hunting around for gears in D4. Also, with all Hondas, using Honda fluid seems to provide the best shilling possible.

HEAVY_RL

iTrader: (1)

Good call