So I finally found a DD winter beater. 2001 civic. Pretty clean for a 120k mile NE ohio car and had been always serviced at the dealer.
The bad was that I couldn’t drive the car when it was dead cold and I found out I have a slight tranny slip between 1st and 2 nd gear. Doesn’t do it once it’s warm. Thought it might be the solenoid or the fluid. I only had 3 quarts of Honda fluid so that’s all that got replaced until I get to Honda. Should I change the solenoid too. Depending on which trans code I have they can be pricey.
I hope I didn’t buy another “ problem Honda”
Ran transmission shops for many years. Hard to remember... its either an SLXA or BMXA transmission.
Solenoid failures are very common and they can damage clutches in a matter of a couple hundred miles. Replace the solenoids immediately and hope you dodged a bullet.
Our shop often replaced solenoids first, but easily 90% or more already had fried clutches and required a rebuild. The good news is, the solenoids are external and cheap.
do you have P0780? If so, solenoids first along with a fluid change and crossed fingers.
No codes. I’m not driving it anymore until I change the solenoid and fluid.
when I search rockauto I get single solenoid and a solenoid pack. Do these trannys have both? Little confused since I haven’t looked that close at the tranny yet.
edit: is there a specific brand of solenoid I should purchase? I see a solenoid pack on the front of the tranny. Is that the only one? They are expensive. $230-500.
It looks like there are two solenoid packs. Did I remove the wrong one?
The single is A, the "pack" is B and C. You removed the correct one.
On a winter beater, don't go nuts with expensive solenoids. They are electro-magnetic valves. They either work or don't.
The single solenoid (jeez this is years ago) I think is the TCC lockup solenoid. The double you took off is the shift solenoid pack. I used to get the single for $36 and the double for $65, but that was wholesale and many years ago.
If yours are the linear solenoids, they should be under $70 like these
Long story short... there were so many. If you have the 4-speed/3-shaft BMXA, they will be a bit more expensive, but I'm showing more like $150. If it's the 3-speed/2-shaft, they're cheaper. Find a local transmission parts warehouse. You can't get them wholesale without an account, but they won't turn down a sale. There is a Transtar in Columbus. It's 2 hours away from you, but they are my hands-down favorite trans parts wholesaler.
I have the BMXA.
Do I replace all three solenoid sets? I have not checked the operation of the pack on the front of the tranny( the one that’s removed in the pic).
After taking the pic I realized there is another pack low on the side of the tranny. Adding power to each terminal gave me a click but the resistance was low (9 and 10 ohms). Internet articles says it should be between 12-25. Is this a good determination for replacement?
The eBay linear solenoid you have linked is what is removed on the front of the tranny.
Im hoping to get several years out of this car since it’s decent mileage and the rest of the car is in remarkable shape for a NE car. I’m hoping the work I do fixes the issue but if not I’d like to get through the winter and if needed put in another tranny in the spring. I’ll ping you again for replacement recommendations If needed.
Thanks Curtis!
I'm a bit frustrated with myself on this one - mostly because I got out of the business in 2010 and I have forgotten so much.
I do remember one thing though. Bench testing solenoids isn't always a good functional test. The valve could be leaking internally around the seals, and it also might operate great on a bench and then not work with 40 psi of fluid pressure against it.
I would hit up some googles and see what all the solenoids do. I know there are shift solenoids and a TCC solenoid. The ones you need to replace are the shift solenoids (the ones you took off). IIRC, they are the two that do the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts.
The information you provided was a big help to me getting on the right track.
I wasn’t real sure of the bench testing parts like this. Like you said, it’s a quite diffferent in a functioning environment in the car.
Thanks again!