Hey, I'd thought I'd share this info here: Ran into another SS luder! My very first question is if he's had the tranny replaced. He said yes, and he's had it replaced 3 times! He has a 99 w/100k+. He said he drives in the SS mode ALL the time. He's now trying to save up for the 5-speed swap. I told him about the site and a few of the SS horror stories I've read on here. So he should be here soon, to tell the WHOLE story.
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1989 Accord LX sedan
-carbed and auto
-but killer gas mileage
Originally posted by shortysm22 97ss with 48k, never changed tranny fluid, probably should.. should i take it back to honda? hum...
To change the tranny fluid? NO WAY. They will charge like $50 and call it "servicing the transmission". All you actually do is pull the drain plug, drain, and refill. It's easier than changing your oil because we have no tranny fluid filter to replace.
If you want to get your transmission flushed, that's another story. You see the drain and fill method does not replace all of the fluid because a lot of it is in the TC. Flushing the fluid is the only way to replace ALL of the fluid. My local Honda place refuses to flush my transmission fluid, saying that you should not flush the SS transmission. However some people here have done it multiple times.
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i have a 99 ss lude and mine went out at 18,000 honda did replace the trans at no cost to me !!!i do like the ss ,but am having troble trying to trust it !
Mine was replaced at 29500 miles. Got a new one but they friggin held my car for a whole week without even providing a rental....bastards...learn to make decent trannies...
mine died at 53k miles and i had it rebuilt at a tranny shop. I am currently at 63k and keeping my fingers crossed, i hope to keep this car for a good while. But i will never get over the fact that Honda would put some POS tranny in any of their cars. Still makes me angry
My blew at about 20K... twenty thousand miles driven like I hated the damned car! Waited about five weeks with a loaner Civic for one to come from Japan (they said). Now I'm at 100K still driving the snot out of it ... SS mode almost daily and only having issues with slippage in the low gears when cold. I'm running Redline fluids and can't realy ***** enough about it to justify replacing it yet. I am curious about one post above with the reduction in resale value... I kind of figured I just got grease during my purchase... do you guys see G5's seeling for more with the SS over base with all other things equal? If so... it's gonna hurt even more when I have to pay for the conversion... and it's gonna happen... it's just a guesssing game as to when.
I'd like to hold off long enough for a compatible 6 speed or damn good 5 speed auto replacement to be discovered!
So there's my vote... didn't fill out the poll up top because I'm plagued with a lead foot and can't possibly drive my car under "normal driving conditions"
Thanks,
Roady
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An optimist sees a donut... a pessimist sees a hole... I refuse to go hungry... Let's eat!!!
Ok whatever.... Since when is honda considered a sports car? Its not. And never will be. In my opinion honda put out only two cars that qualify to be called a sports car. 1. The NSX and 2. the S2000. Why because they are both rear wheel drive. I car is not a true sports car unless its rear wheel or all wheel. But then again I love my lude that is untill my tranny went out...
I love the lude so much that if I was rolling in money i'd probably have some shop custom build my lude to be an all wheel drive car. But thats just me being stupid. Thats what happens when you sit at work in front of your computer for 10 hours with nothing to do.
ATTS is proof god loves FWD cars, I'm going on Tranny number 4 in two years, the first lasted right about 68k then the second went another 600mi later, the third has gone 78k and is now giving a bad clutch pack error on the check engine read out. The Next one will be a 5 speed.
just hit 50k on 01 prelude
basic mods, doing very well, id recommend that auto-tranny cooler I noticed a big difference with it, still i live on texas coast so always hot here.
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.
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Sure...I'll take the bottle outta my trunk....as soon as you take the turbo outta your engine compartment!
Thats because its not "slippiing" persay, but just not engaging the next gear but as I stated earlier, that high of a milage was actually pretty good for any automatic transmission. I mean, the transmission in my wifes 95 accord went out at around that same milage and it wasnt one of the tranny's that were known to have problems. And I need to add that happened long before I did any mods or put the nitrous on it, so it wasnt under any undue stress. If your trans went out at less than 100k, then it was crap....over 100k and you got a pretty good but not very well maintained life out of it. 150k+ and it must have been serviced pretty regular and not abused much. (Just my opinion)
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Sure...I'll take the bottle outta my trunk....as soon as you take the turbo outta your engine compartment!
I just had my tranny go at 148K Km (~94K Miles). I drive a 1999, mostly highway milage, used SS most of the time, and it's in Canada so I guess the winter plays a bigger role wearing the car down. Before reading this form, I had no idea that using SS could cause the tranny to go faster. If a feature isn't ready for production, why release it. I think I'll avoid using the feature after I get my car back from the shop.
On one hand, I guess I got almost 100K out of it so I shouldn't be too updset, but then again, I'm a very gentle driver and the Lude was more of a get to and from work vehicle for me so it was never abused.
Thats because its not "slippiing" persay, but just not engaging the next gear but as I stated earlier, that high of a milage was actually pretty good for any automatic transmission. I mean, the transmission in my wifes 95 accord went out at around that same milage and it wasnt one of the tranny's that were known to have problems. And I need to add that happened long before I did any mods or put the nitrous on it, so it wasnt under any undue stress. If your trans went out at less than 100k, then it was crap....over 100k and you got a pretty good but not very well maintained life out of it. 150k+ and it must have been serviced pretty regular and not abused much. (Just my opinion)
What do you think about my lude I am about to be at 190K I bought it at 167K and as far as I know its the orginal tranny. 2 other owners before me that I am pretty sure did not use SS and I did a few times but only 4 or 5 times I just don't trust it after all I read. It feels like it "slips" but more while its hot when cold it shifts "hard" it jerks you a bit but feels like the tranny is strong but after warming up it feels like it slips in gear 3 mostly. My brother drove it the other day and he knows a lot more about cars then me and he feels the tranny is ok he said it engages and disengages fine. Any input would be great!
What do you think about my lude I am about to be at 190K I bought it at 167K and as far as I know its the orginal tranny. 2 other owners before me that I am pretty sure did not use SS and I did a few times but only 4 or 5 times I just don't trust it after all I read. It feels like it "slips" but more while its hot when cold it shifts "hard" it jerks you a bit but feels like the tranny is strong but after warming up it feels like it slips in gear 3 mostly. My brother drove it the other day and he knows a lot more about cars then me and he feels the tranny is ok he said it engages and disengages fine. Any input would be great!
I say start saving your money. At the very least you'll have more money in the bank.
What do you think about my lude I am about to be at 190K I bought it at 167K and as far as I know its the orginal tranny. 2 other owners before me that I am pretty sure did not use SS and I did a few times but only 4 or 5 times I just don't trust it after all I read. It feels like it "slips" but more while its hot when cold it shifts "hard" it jerks you a bit but feels like the tranny is strong but after warming up it feels like it slips in gear 3 mostly. My brother drove it the other day and he knows a lot more about cars then me and he feels the tranny is ok he said it engages and disengages fine. Any input would be great!
The symptoms you described are the exactly the same as I had before my tranny went. At first, it was just minor slippage when hot and jerks when cold if you accelerate hard. You probably have 1-2 months before transmission failure.
Bought a 2000 with 100,000 on it 2 years ago, has 135,000 on it now, have been having troubles with the tranny since 120,000 when I was on the interstate racing someone and did about 90-120 for 5-7 miles, used the SS occasionally back then under normal conditions, now I have to use it all the time because 2nd gear no longer works, won't catch when in regular drive and if the gas is more then 1/4 to the floor. I don't want to get another auto cause from what I read it'll just break again, so I'm going to switch to a manual.
My tranny went for about 130,000 miles before going lol. Sounds to me I got lucky compared to some of you. But anyways, I had the tranny rebuilt for about $2000. Ive put about 15,000 on since the rebuild and I really dont notice anything wrong except for if my car sits for a while or starts up in the cold and I put it in reverse, it jerks pretty hard and it revs up a little high in 2nd before actually going into 3rd gear when the engine isnt warmed up to operating temp and if its colder out. I barely use the SS mode though, but I think the only way Honda Would recall our tranny would be if someone were to become injured or claim an injury upon the failure of the tranny causing an accident or if all of us got together and wrote to Honda. Idk I probably sound dumb, but its just an idea.
I got a ss also sittin at 90,000 thousand never had a problem yet. Im not a racer people damn near blow there engine trying to get me to race them reving there engines so loud. Im a cruiser if i wanted a fast car I wouldnt have bought a prelude. I do see why everyone dumps all there money into a prelude its for the love of there car. this ss vs manual thing is all in the eyes of the beholder ...Now the SS curse has tarnished the prelude name and caused everyone not to want an ss and is something we should bind together and start maybe a class action lawsuit. im suprised there isnt and hell there might be. We will never know outta the final percentage of failures how much was due to operator error?
i heard that the 07-01 ludes with ss usually start having tranny problems around 100xxx miles. i actually bought a 99' one from my friend with 121xxx miles on it. i love my lude it runs clean and hasn't had any major problems so far. my trannys still good too. yeah the 5th gen ones do have tranny problems but i agree with okc405 about how you handle your car. if you do maintenance and change everything on time it should run clean. just dont abuse your car and it shouldn't have any major problems.
i heard that the 07-01 ludes with ss usually start having tranny problems around 100xxx miles. i actually bought a 99' one from my friend with 121xxx miles on it. i love my lude it runs clean and hasn't had any major problems so far. my trannys still good too. yeah the 5th gen ones do have tranny problems but i agree with okc405 about how you handle your car. if you do maintenance and change everything on time it should run clean. just dont abuse your car and it shouldn't have any major problems.
I babied the **** out of my car and the tranny still failed. It's really only a matter of time.
I babied the **** out of my car and the tranny still failed. It's really only a matter of time.
Hi guys, found this thread while searching and its scared me, my SS has done >150k miles and is running fine ad a lot of my friends are in the same situation. Did the USDM ludes use a different transmission to the M6HA in the JDM and EEA ludes? or is the something about your climate they don't get on with? it just seems strange that you guys have a much higher failure rate than elsewhere :S
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