spoon_805

I was wondering if you guys can help me out with some mechanical problems on my 97 Prelude SS...
ONLY when the car is NEUTRAL or PARK, the engine makes a light looping knocking sound. When I put the car in Reverse or Drive it goes a way immediately. Odd things is that car runs great when going down streets or on the highway. It even feels better than ever (I've been having tranny issues for a while).

Anyways, all my friends says it sounds bad, but are confused as to why this only happens in PARK and NEUTRAL.

Anyone venture a guess and what could be wrong?
(One friend said to add some fuel cleaner stuff before taking it to the dealer...someone on another forum mentioned it might need another valve adjustment)

Thanks in advance.

btw, only small engine mods....intake & exhaust, shouldn't be the source of the problem, but who knows.

Black97Lude

Mine is doing the EXACT same thing. It has something to do with the tranny fo sho. I took it up to Honda and they said they wouldnt know what it would be until they could go in and take a look at it.

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97 Prelude
AEM cai, Apexi WS cat back

TwistedAngel

Hey I had a friend that had that same problem but when he brought it in they told them that it was something to do with the brake lines. But he thought it was the tranny. So maybe that is the same problem you guys have. Well goodluck anyway...

__________________
That whistling sound you hear is your headlights being sucked out of the front of your car.

spoon_805

just to let you know...fuel system cleaner did nothing for it... but acceleration feels better. But of course, that's not the issue at hand.


....Black97lude, so are you gonna take it in? Or let it stand and see where it goes from now?

Black97Lude

Luckily, the person I bought the car from had purchased an extended warranty. So now all I gotta do is change that over into my name (havent done that yet, cuz ive only had it like 2 months) and take it in and get it done for free. That would be best case scenario, doubt that will happen. Until then tho, yeah im just gonna wait it out, see what happens.

Let me know if you figure out something.

__________________
97 Prelude
AEM cai, Apexi WS cat back

koreanmafia

i don't have the same problem but a very similar one: whenever i shift from d4 to rev. or rev. to d4 i hear a slightly loud, noticable clunking sound from somewhere underneath it, not necessarily in the engine bay... since then i have tried to press the brake in all the way b4 engaging it into any gears but i still makes this noise

i am starting to get worried because my car in fairly new it less than 4k miles on it, i plan on takin it in for a checkup in the next week or two... so does anybody else have this problem or know what the problem is and how i could fix it??

thanx

__________________
2001 Black Prelude SS
-no mods at this point in life (i need to get a job)-

spoon_805

koreanmafia,

you need to take that in and get it warrantied. you have a broken solenoid of some sort. i had the same problem...only it only occured when i shifted to reverse from any position along the shifter. However, I not only had the clunking noise, but a really rough jerk everytime. It only occured during cold starts.

koreanmafia

thanx spoon_805,

i think my lude also jerks, but only once in awhile, and yea down here in atl it is starting to get really cold so i will take it in asap...do u think i will have another problem related to the tranny in the near future after i get it fixed?? and does nebody know if there is any way i could get a 5 speed instead of the ss under warranty before the whole tranny goes; because i am starting to get worried about this tranny prob since it started to occur at less than 4k and i am having second thoughts on doing mods to my car esp. if it is going to void my warranty...

thanx again

__________________
2001 Black Prelude SS
-no mods at this point in life (i need to get a job)-

spoon_805

welcome to world and pain of owning a Prelude SS... check out all of the unfortunate people bitten by badluck during the production of this particular model at this website:http://communities.msn.com/HondaSportshiftComplaints

honda does not do tranny swaps as far as i know...so you SOL there. And i dunno about atl, but in TX... I'm confident that its illegal to do a tranny swap now in TX. Don't flame me on this or ask me for references... its just what i've been told by the shop i go to.

my advice to you is this...

go to your dealer...get that checked out... if it is the tranny (which I'm willing to bet it is), then you probably have a bad tranny. Since honda will not install a new tranny (they will only install rebuild kits), I'm sure the problem will continue. You should try to resell the car ASAP, and find something less of a burden.

the alternate route is getting Level 10's PTS kit... here's an email I got from them:

-----I wrote----
Level 10,

My 1997 Honda Prelude (Auto) tranny has been on the fritz ever since I owned the car. I’m interested in your PTS kit because I’ve heard it being able to solve transmission issues with my model.


The thing is, the transmission seems to go into neutral when shifting gears. I don’t know what the correct terminology is, but it feels like the clutch is slipping between shifts. It gets better once the car is warmed up, but not completely eliminated. And this is during daily driving, but only sporadically as to not be able to “show� the Honda dealer what’s going on.


However, I have already had Honda perform two rebuilds under warranty for it failing. The warranty will still be valid for another 30,000 miles. Would Level10 recommend that I wait to see if Honda will do another rebuild under warranty and then install the PTS kit afterwards, or that the PTS should solve these problems right away?


----They Replied----
Thanks for the inquiry!The PTS BULLET PROOF will solve the problems you are repeatedly having.It is up to you to fix it now or later.If you are keeping the car it makes sense to do it now.

PTS BULLET PROOF KIT JA 113-1000 302.31
PTS TORQUE CONVERTOR JA 313-1000 498.00

----------------------


My car is going under the knife tomorrow... If its the tranny again and the only way to fix it is another rebuild kit, then I'm gonna get that done... and probably sell my car ASAP. I'm tempted to get the PTS kit too, no doubt. We will see.

UPDATE 2.4.02-------------------Wrote Level 10 again

------------I wrote--------------------
Mr. Barret,

Thanks for the reply. What I may ask you may be a little beyond your ability considering we are conversing via email instead of in person. But could you venture a guess at what is failing with the tranny, and how would the PTS solve this issue. How many hours of labor would its take to install the PTS kit by a trained professional?


Thank you.

------------They replied--------------------
Thanks for the inquiry!The cause of the failure is poor pressure rise.The result is burnt clutches.The PTS TRANSMISSION will give you a long life & better gas mileage.

Black97Lude

I took my car up to honda and they said that if it is that tranny that is bad then they will put another one in. Not a new one, the guy said they get them salvaged and will get one with the same or close to the same milage. I dont know if that is 100% true but that is just what the Honda tech told me.

__________________
97 Prelude
AEM cai, Apexi WS cat back

spoon_805

Black97Lude,

If you are under warranty, then Honda's logic is terrible. They should be giving you a new tranny. It's odd, but when I had my first rebuild, I asked why it broke in the first place... and they said "poor material" in the tranny. And they went along an just ordered a rebuild kit.

Anyways, good luck with that.

Black97Lude

Exactly! That is what I told them too. They guy said "you will have to work that out with the warranty company."
So you guys who take your cars in to get a new tranny put in, MAKE SURE ITS NEW, NOT SALVAGED!

__________________
97 Prelude
AEM cai, Apexi WS cat back

spoon_805

try to see if they will at least get you a remanufactured honda tranny. I was mistaken...I did not get 2 rebuilds (overhauls), but 2 of these. They are suppose to be good according to honda.

But let's see...i'm on my second remanfactured kit (and its starting to bust).... doesn't look like a good option either.

btw, they think the sound (from my first post) is coming from a the timing belt tensioner. Does anyone know what the heck that means?

spoon_805

Black97Lude,

Just giving you heads up. The whole tensioner fix didn't work. ($472 fix that I'm hopefully not going to forced to pay for) The car still makes noises like I described. The dealer is at a lost on what is wrong. They are going to call the Honda Tech Hotline for help on Monday to see what is really up

Also....For somereason, the dealer decided to take of my head to see if something could be wrong in there. There's nothing visibly off, but they did notice that there was some writing. The really didn't describe where, only that they could not decipher it or understand why it would be there if i didn't get any work done to it (in terms of repairs or modification).

Has anyone noticed/seen, writing inside the head of a untampered with head?

Thanks.

Black97Lude

Alright, thanks for keepin me updated. I am still kind of in a dispute with the warranty company that I went through so I am waiting on them to get their $hit together before I take it to be fixed.

__________________
97 Prelude
AEM cai, Apexi WS cat back

spoon_805

Dealer has confirmed... tranny is the source of all this.

I better get ready for a lot of crap from the warranty company.

Ludacris

It's a clicking sound right? My tranny made the same noise once it went to crap. My guess is that it is due to one of the solenoids not recieving proper pressure and therefore the solenoid rapidly clicks. If you've ever taken any of the solenoids out and tested them it sounds identical to that click.

Either way it's serious bad news. I can almost guarantee you that is the case though, cause that click is a solenoid. Check your tranny fluid to see if it's low, that could cause low pressure too.

BTW, low pressure will slowly burn out your 1st, and if you really drive the piss out of it, your second clutch too.

Sorry about your mess.

Ludacris

spoon_805

Anyways, the first dealer that took in my car diagnosed a failed transmission. The dealer, like most Honda dealers, are trained and familiar with replacing transmission units with remanfactured transmissions. However, my warranty company demands a complete teardown of the transmission. This dealer, unfortunately, does not do tear downs. So, as you can imagine, I went thru a bit of trouble locating a Honda dealership that could perform a teardown. The nearest ended up being 140+ miles away. The warranty company said that an AMMCO would suffice. However, my service manager admits they have the worst reputation in the industry.

The second dealership has been helpful and very polite so far. Last week, they drained the transmission fluid and found "METAL SHAVINGS!" A teardown has been initiated, and the warranty company will be coming into investigate once they get a prilimilary diagnoses from the dealer.

Unfortunately, this is not my first encounter with the failure on my 1997 Honda Prelude SS.

9/24/98, 10084 miles
Symptom:
Whinning at idle and during acceleration
Solution:
"WARRANTY A/T KIT" (06200 - P6H - A00RM)

5/28/99, 18370 miles
Symptom:
Gears slip between 1st and 2nd, feels like neutral. On cold starts, car jerks into gear when going from park to reverse
Solution:
"HONDA REMAN TRANS REPLACE WITH RE-MAN TRANS."
Replace "SOLENOID, LINEAR" (28250 - P6H - 024)
and... "WARRANTY A/T KIT" (06200 - P6H - A00RM)

My maintence records.... all oil changes (with Mobil 1 or Royal Purple) done every 3K miles. Transmission Oil replaced at 28857 miles, and 46593 miles

Today, the car is at 50048 miles

The dealer's currently constucting a list of parts and negotiating with the warranty company about its prices. There's been no word if the warranty company is covering the repair or not. However, they have repeatedly insisted on a overhaul, as opposed to a replacement.

The dealer's looked at the toredown transmission and has made the following guess on what went wrong. The head tech thinks that the torque converter had an internal mechanical failure. The failing parts then mixed in with the transmission fluid. Upon reaching the fluid filter, a number of those parts passed thru the filter and circulated within the transmission. I'm sure the tech meant that the filter got clogged with all the parts that reached it. However, with the possibility of loose the parts mixed in with the transmission fluid and the clogged filter, many parts of the transmission did not get the adequate amount of fluid and therefore causing the bearings and a number of other parts to fail.

TCB007

oh crap.. I'm experiencing this EXACT problem also. but I'm confused because since you've gotten two "remanufactured Honda transmissions" in the past, wouldn't you have recognized the symptoms this third time around? maybe I didn't read this thread carefully enough but I'm concerned for my own car as well. I have a '98 SS and I'm at about 55,000kms whatever that is in miles. anyways, I'm not too mechanically-inclined so can you (or anyone else) tell me what I should do or expect.
thanks in advance

__________________


T.C.B. CEO, President & Dictator
jason@driventoperform.ca

spoon_805

I hate it when people give me this advice... so don't get mad when I write this:

Sell it.

The vehicle will burn through your wallet, especially without an extended warranty. I'm going to be out of the country soon for a long period, but when I get back...selling this car will be one of my priorities.

Don't get me wrong. I love this prelude... good memories for 5 years and what not. And if i truly believed level ten products would solve my problems I would definitely spend the money to install/purchase those parts.

I say all this because... I believe that the transmission in these cars are all to fragile. One mess up here and there in the manner in which you drive can throw it into a mechnical failure. And since we all make mistakes, chances are that it will break again.