Transmission Problem

[Hans]

I was driving on the interstate a few months ago and I took my car to 104 mph in 4th gear and left it there for about 8-10 sec before shifting into 5th gear. When I shifted into 5th the car wouldn't accelerate anymore, it shook a lot more than normal at that speed, and actually started slowing down even though I was at WOT. The problem seemed to go away, but now when I drive on the interstate the car, every now and then, just randomly has those same problems: almost no acceleration, and shaking. I can't tell exactly what's broken or warped or stripped, but I know that SOMETHING is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[MessyHonda]

when was the last time you did a tune up and balanced your rims and tires. 104 is not that much in 4th gear.....i redlined 3rd around 90mph and 4th to around 5000 rpm....it gets me around 110

[Hans]

I had the wheels and tires checked when I had work done on my head. This was about a month and a half ago and the wheels were fine. When I redlined 4th it was at 104mph becuase it's an '86 which has 110hp vs. your '89 with 120hp. Normally I can get the car to 115 which is just about my top speed without problems, but sometimes going anywhere above 65 mph seems like it's gonna tear the car apart.

[MessyHonda]

how many miles does it have?

[ZackieDarko]

my spedo says 105mph at 6K in 4th but i have 15" wheels with 205/55/15 tires and it's smooth as butter

how old is your fuel pump?

[Hans]

I have just above 93,000 miles and I'm not sure if I've ever had the fuel pump replaced. I think what I might have done is warped a gear or something, but I'm not exactly sure on that. I have the stock tire and wheel sizes.

[russiankid]

I have just above 93,000 miles and I'm not sure if I've ever had the fuel pump replaced. I think what I might have done is warped a gear or something, but I'm not exactly sure on that. I have the stock tire and wheel sizes.

I doubt you did any harm to your transmission.

[lostforawhile]

how old are your CV axles? that doesn't sound like a transmission problem,these transmissions are tough. as long as you were within redline for the engine,the transmission would have been operating within it's limits. I had a similar problem with a bad cv axle,it would shake itself to death from time to time, if it's worn internally it can actually slip,if this happens you will lose drive temporarily. I had this problem with the hatch,and with the 98, both were fixed by replacing the cv axle. the one on the 98 was so bad it came apart in my hand,but the car was still moving. it would shake very badly at a certain rpm. if you tried to go over a certain mph or rpm, it would actually start to slip. the one on the hatch actually had a small tear in the boot,it slung out all the grease,but the boot didn't look bad. the cv axle was destroying it self the entire time

[Hans]

Thank you lostforawhile, that sounds a lot like what is happening with my car.
I had work done on my head about a month and a half ago and when they reinstalled the hose that runs coolant through the block they left the fitting really loose. Also there is a leak in the head gasket that is dripping oil onto the block. When I go to have that fixed (probably this weekend) ill have them check the cv joints.

[Hans]

Okay I dropped my car off at Firestone this afternoon. I told them to inspect the cv joints, repair the oil leak (99% sure it's from the head gasket), redo the fitting on the coolant hose heading into the block, and for the love of god put the nut back on the exhaust manifold that they left off! When I showed him where the nut was missing on the manifold he let out a little half laugh like he couldn't believe that one of his mechanics screwed up like that.

[MessyHonda]

Okay I dropped my car off at Firestone this afternoon. I told them to inspect the cv joints, repair the oil leak (99% sure it's from the head gasket), redo the fitting on the coolant hose heading into the block, and for the love of god put the nut back on the exhaust manifold that they left off! When I showed him where the nut was missing on the manifold he let out a little half laugh like he couldn't believe that one of his mechanics screwed up like that.

head gasket job is like 1000 bucks....hope its not the prob

[Hans]

head gasket job is like 1000 bucks....hope its not the prob

I won't have to pay if it is. Explination: It was about 2 months ago that I had the number 3 spark plug, I believe (when looking at the engine from the front it's the second from the right), pop out of the cylinder head. It had come loose before and they (Firestone) did a patch job which apparently didn't hold so they sent the head to be machined and have the hole redone. Firestone put my car back together and their work is under a guarantee, so they will be the ones footed with the bill.

[MessyHonda]

nice.....tell them to use a OEM honda gasket this time.

[Hans]

That I shall. I have no f***ing clue how they messed up the gasket. It's to the point where after running my car for a few min I can pop the hood and watch the oil come out from between the head and the block right below the distributor.

[Hans]

Okay so I got the car back from Firestone today. They replaced the coolant clamp with a better one and they put a nut on the exhaust manifold where one was missing. It turns out that 90% of the oil leak is coming from the main seal in the transmission and the other 10% is coming from the seal in the distributor (which explains why I thought is was coming from the head gasket.) I'm gonna take it to a transmission place sometime in the near future I hope. Could that possibly explain the reason that my car was acting weird as mentioned in my first post on this thread?

[Hans]

bump