Honda Prelude Forum - Prelude Online.com - View Single Post - Have you ever had your SportShift tranny replaced?

Liltroy · 01-06-2008, 12:42 AM

97SS with almost 120k and trans is just now going. I'd like to add that 100k miles is more than most automatics are good for no matter who the manufacturer is. Also, after testing the line pressure ports on my transmission, it would seem that what is happening is most likely some sort of internal seal problem. The symptoms dont seem to be a "slipping" as much as it simply feels as though the next gear isnt there at all. The symptoms also seem to go away completely after the transmission has reached operating temperature which pretty much proves that there is no slipping as slippage is usually caused in automatics by the clutches heating up and loosing adhesion whereas in this case, the so called "slippage" goes away as the transmission heats up rather than getting worse as one would expect it to. All this evidence leads me to believe that these failures are being caused by a defective seal of some sort inside of the transmission and most likely directly connected the the valve body. This is causing a drop in line pressure and causeing the clutches not to engage to allow the next gear to take hold. Then as the transmission fluid warms up and expands, the line pressure increases(I've confirmed this at the line pressure testing ports) and the transmission operates fine. I also have to wonder how many of these failed transmissions had regular dextron fluid introduced to them before failure as opposed to Honda atf. Honda recommends only the use of thier high detergent atf in 97 and later automatics for a reason.....apparently, they claim that using low detergent atfs(regular dextron2 and 3 fluids) deteriorates some of the seals in their automatic transmissions which would kind of explain this little problem people are having with early transmission failure. Anyway, these are just some findings I've come across with my experience with the SS transmission in my 5th gen and a few theories I've come up with. I'll be doing a manual swap as soon as I get my income tax back and if I get bored, I may pull apart the old transmission and see what I can find as far as failed or "rotted" seals that directly affect the valvebody.

01-06-2008, 12:42 AM	#74 (permalink)
Liltroy Registered User Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Maryville, Tn Posts: 69 iTrader: (0)	97SS with almost 120k and trans is just now going. I'd like to add that 100k miles is more than most automatics are good for no matter who the manufacturer is. Also, after testing the line pressure ports on my transmission, it would seem that what is happening is most likely some sort of internal seal problem. The symptoms dont seem to be a "slipping" as much as it simply feels as though the next gear isnt there at all. The symptoms also seem to go away completely after the transmission has reached operating temperature which pretty much proves that there is no slipping as slippage is usually caused in automatics by the clutches heating up and loosing adhesion whereas in this case, the so called "slippage" goes away as the transmission heats up rather than getting worse as one would expect it to. All this evidence leads me to believe that these failures are being caused by a defective seal of some sort inside of the transmission and most likely directly connected the the valve body. This is causing a drop in line pressure and causeing the clutches not to engage to allow the next gear to take hold. Then as the transmission fluid warms up and expands, the line pressure increases(I've confirmed this at the line pressure testing ports) and the transmission operates fine. I also have to wonder how many of these failed transmissions had regular dextron fluid introduced to them before failure as opposed to Honda atf. Honda recommends only the use of thier high detergent atf in 97 and later automatics for a reason.....apparently, they claim that using low detergent atfs(regular dextron2 and 3 fluids) deteriorates some of the seals in their automatic transmissions which would kind of explain this little problem people are having with early transmission failure. Anyway, these are just some findings I've come across with my experience with the SS transmission in my 5th gen and a few theories I've come up with. I'll be doing a manual swap as soon as I get my income tax back and if I get bored, I may pull apart the old transmission and see what I can find as far as failed or "rotted" seals that directly affect the valvebody. __________________ Sure...I'll take the bottle outta my trunk....as soon as you take the turbo outta your engine compartment!