Transmission problems

Funny thing is, it's a Honda. Granted, its a '98, but it has treated me perfectly up until now. It is an automatic.

Making matters worse, I just started a new job at a new city a few months ago and I'm hours away from the mechanic I learned to trust and respect.

Thanks for the input everybody. Man this is going to be painful.

 

Replacing transmissions is extremely costly, but all of the people saying he should just buy a new car are crazy. Who of us sports writers has money to buy a new car at the drop of a hat? I sure don't. So, unless you are going to buy a clunker for $2k, then I would just get it fixed.

 

That works out to $125 a second.

 

PM me if you need to, but there's is this stuff you can buy at AutoZone. You add it to your transmission. Sometimes it helps, when it doesn't you're only out $5. In our case it didn't solve the problem, but has made it bearable.

WHATEVER YOU DO, don't change the transmission fluid if it's not pink. If it's brown-ish, that's your problem ... it's not been changed enough. (And the only thing that's keeping it from not slipping more is all those metal shavings in there providing grip)

If you change transmission fluid now, the detergent will eat it up in less than a week or two.

I would say though that the reason it's popping up now is because it's colder. Warming up a car with a bad transmission does help a little bit. Three or four minutes should do the trick.

 

I really thought this was going to be involved in this thread:

 

Not many on this board know what that is. Or cupplers for that matter...

 

You need to head over to the SportsJournalists.com parellel universe.

Over there everyone eats at "real" restaurants (no chains!), has 15,000 songs downloaded into iTunes and pays $20,000 for weddings.

 

Quick update for those interested: Found a trustworthy tranny specialist in the area. Turns out my fluid was pitch black and smelled awful and my transmission was only miles away from dropping on its own. The owner of the place said he was surprised I could even drive the car to the shop.

There were a number of codes going off and I had two choices: leave my car in the shop for a week or two and let them rebuild it, which guarantees nothing, or put in an exchange unit (a refurbished transmission) and get it back in two days. That should solve my problems and I get a one-year warranty on the unit.

I went with the latter because the guy said that as bad as my transmission was, the cost would be similar with labor and parts piling up on a rebuild. Will set me back about $2K.

 

Mechanics are always so melodramatic/judgmental. Just fix the fuckin' car, grease monkey!

 

"I don't care for that term."