Re: A/T skipping 1st gear

"Charles" <electrochuckREMOVE@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> That car just wants some cash from the machine.

Maybe just my service technician.

> That's probably unnecessary. The transmission control computer limits 
> you to second and fourth gears only when in "limp home" mode.

Well, as I wrote before, when in city with speed limits 35 or under, I 
like to drive with the AT gear in D3 position but in this case all I got 
was the torque converter acting like a slipping MT clutch. It was 
obviously not engaging the 1st gear.  Same in D4 position. I was able to 
start almost normally with the ****ft lever in D2 position.

> It could be some heat build-up causing the problem.

I doubt it because I operated the car for only a few miles before the 
incident and it was night time. Then I drove another couple miles to a 
restaurant where I spent about an hour and after that the symptom was 
gone and still is gone. So this issue seems to be transient. The only 
common thing between the two similar episodes was the short stop.

> Did the $300 result in the actual change of the ****ft control solenoid 
> assembly? Did you get the old part?

Oh yes, I explicitly asked for it and could tell the Honda dealer****p's 
technician installed a new one.

> Let's assume that a new solenoid was actually installed. I recall that 
> you have the service manual. Can you read the transmission control 
> unit error codes without a service tool. At least on older models you 
> just watch the fla****ng lamp on the TCU itself. If so, what error code 
> is fla****ng now? Still an eight as before?

According to the Service Manual, reading the code requires a special 
tool to read the code which I don't have. I'm assuming though that it 
would be the same code again as all the symptoms were the same. That 
also means that they made me pay for the solenoid needlessly and the 
problem may be somewhere else.

> The TCU itself may be failing or it could be a problem in the wiring. 
> A short to battery voltage, an open circuit, a low resistance to 
> ground or an adjacent circuit will register in the TCU and store an 
> error code. The TCU does not differentiate among various conditions. 
> If any anomaly pops up in the ****ft control solenoid B circuit for 
> instance, the TCU lamp flashes 8 times. Some oil leaks into the 
> connector in the engine compartment and the technician leaps to the 
> conclusion that the solenoid must be changed. As Tom and Ray will tell 
> you, he had a boat payment due.

I think you might be right here though I doubt the technician gets some 
extra pay from the dealer employer for this. It's more likely that he 
just chose the easy way out while at the same time pleasing his boss for 
the extra billing he generated.
Though some of you guys have been singing the praises of authorized 
Honda service shops, I've had nothing but expensive disappointments with 
them. I think I should have gone to my independent mechanic as before, 
but because he could not take on my car right away, I though I would 
give another try to a Honda service shop. What an expensive mistake that 
was! It reminds me the case of a former co-worker of mine with a Honda 
Odyssey problem. The power door motor started behaving erratically and 
the Honda shop diagnosed it as needing a new servo motor. That costed 
him some $500 and for a while the problems disappeared. Then the same 
problem came back even with the new servo. He took it back to the same 
shop where another mechanic found the problem being some loose ground or 
something like that. When my colleague remarked that perhaps that was 
the problem before the motor was replaced, they just shrugged their 
shoulder by saying that "not necessarily." I have a feeling that's the 
treatment I would get if I took back my car to them now. I hope my car 
will be OK till my upcoming scheduled maintenance with my independent 
mechanic and then let him do his own checking.

DB