If you have an SS Auto, Please read this: - Page 2 - Honda Prelude Forum

Gerhard · 07-29-2003, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by FlyVTEC
Gerhard...I had heard about the SS tranny problems before and I've been waiting for mine to break but I guess I have been lucky since it hasn't happened yet. I change my engine oil every 3,000 miles at my dealership but I'm not sure if they change the ATF at the same time. I'm assuming that they do. I'm due for another oil change in about a month so I'll ask them if they change the ATF also. It's unfortunate that Honda has this problem because one of the main reasons why we bought Honda's was their good reputation for realibility. Anyway, I'm going for a 5-speed swap when it's time to replace the tranny. L8.

Good luck Dude! I hope that SS tranny lasts your 300,000 miles and proves us all wrong!

-smile-

Gerhard

97SS · 07-29-2003, 11:11 PM

I was hoping my transmission was the one that was going to prove the SS myth wrong, since it's been holding up so well this long and this many miles, but just this past Monday it finally gave out. Out of the blue too without any real indications...so you guys with a ok running SS tranny beware, it can go just like that. I was on the freeway going from one work facitily in Palo Alto to our main office in Sunnyvale when the rpms spiked from 3000 to about 5000 in a split second. The car didn't really jump or anything. I took my exit and came to a red light and no sounds or any evidence of it being blown, so the light turned green and I step on the gas and the engine really reved up before the tranny caught and the wheels spun out. The next light was only about 25 feet away which I caught red again...same thing happened. Instead of heading back to work I figured I better go home and see if it's low on fluid or something....but as I was driving home...it got worse. Really long story short...it literally crawled home with the engine reving about 4000 rpm and me going about 10 mph. Now when I turn the car on, the thing sound like if you dropped some spoons or forks in the garbage disposal and turned it on.
I had my mechanic take a look at it and he said a new one (not remanufactured) would be around $4700 ($700 core) and installation close to $1300, so that's a $6000 repair!!!
I belong to bayareaprelude and someone there said the 5 speed conversion runs about $2500 so I may go that route but I would really hate to spend my own hard earned money if Honda knows about this issue and is not stepping up to the plate to do something about it. IF ANYONE KNOWS A GOOD PLACE THAT DOES THE 5 SPEED SWAP IN THE SF/SJ BAY AREA, PLEASE CONTACT ME WITH THE INFORMATION!
Like many others here, I bought the car based on Honda's stellar quality reputation and didn't find out until after I bought it that it's week point was this SS transmission.
My question is whether or not I would have any luck filing a complaint to them as my car has from what I know the most miles on a orignal SS transmission?

Thanks for reading my rant....I am kind of pissed I'm having to go through this crap with my car!

XLEntropy · 08-01-2003, 04:38 AM

wow. 182,235 miles? thats a pretty successful tranny i would think. i dont think u would hav any luck filing complaint. but sorry 2 hear about ur tranny. i hope u can get the 5 speed swap done asap.

dandm69 · 08-04-2003, 03:26 PM

I hope this post doesnt shoot me in the foot but I have a 98 Prelude with the ss and over 139k on it and doesnt appear to be having any problems. Fingers crossed after posting this and knocking on wood.

silverbullit · 08-04-2003, 08:43 PM

I have a 98 SS, withj sumple I/H/E mods and my tranny started crapping out at 78k, I haven't had the money to get it fixed, and Honda says that my warranty is void due to to the mods I performed. So, I now have 94k miles on it, and it just over revs sometimes before the gears kick inm or it may slip sometimes, but unitl it eventually goes out, or I have the money to fix it, I'm stuck with it.

FlyVTEC · 08-06-2003, 02:47 AM

97SS...sorry to hear about your tranny dude. That sux big time! Just curious tho...how often did you have your tranny serviced and/or how often did you change the ATF? I think I read in the manual that it should be serviced every 15,000 miles. Man, I think it's time to maybe trade in my 'Lude for a Bimmer. But I want to upgrade from owning a condo to a house so not sure if I wanna put another debt in my credit report. Anyway, thanks for the post. Next time I get my car serviced at the dealer, I'm gonna talk to the Service Mgr and try to get some info from him regarding these SS tranny problems and what he thinks I should do to keep it maintained. He's a pretty cool dude so I'm hoping he'll be straight up with me. If not, bye bye Honda, hello BMW! L8.

97SS · 08-06-2003, 05:32 PM

FlyVTEC-
I did the ATF service regularly and once I hit 150K miles, I did it every other oil change. Like I said it gave no indication of it going bad...until it did. If you are considering buying a new car and trading it in, I would definately recommend that since now that I'm considering a new car (350Z or G35 Coupe) I am screwed out of any trade in value.
I am considering getting a auto tranny from someone selling one just to get it fixed cheaper than doing the 5 speed swap and then trading it in, but not sure how much of a pain and money I'd lose doing that.
I'm going to post to see if anyone in the 5th Gen section can give me the section of the Helm's that covers the auto transmission removal and replacement.
Best of luck to all you guys!

silverbullit · 08-13-2003, 11:46 PM

I'm in the process of filing suit agains American Honda, I have spoken to a lawyer, and he also quoted the Moss-Magnuson Act, and we feel Honda is in violation. If anyone else feels that they would like to be part of this, contact me, and I will see what it will take to file a class-action suit.

XPreludeH22X · 08-18-2003, 06:56 PM

Got 57,000 miles and runs like new..We keep this car regularly maintained.

fengxzhang · 08-21-2003, 11:13 PM

So are there any actions taken by Honda America about the 97-99 ludes? My 2-3 gear is slipping, even though I added the tranny cooler. Since my car have been modified, I am sure that they will not honor any extented warranty if there is any.

Also to the ss-> manual swaped ludes. Where did you get your swap kit? I have been looking for one for quite some time. The local junk yards only have the manual tranny alone and they want 1700 + tax on it. Please help.

NoRice4U · 08-25-2003, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by fengxzhang

Also to the ss-> manual swaped ludes. Where did you get your swap kit? I have been looking for one for quite some time. The local junk yards only have the manual tranny alone and they want 1700 + tax on it. Please help.

My mechanic just looked for me through the junkyards and surely enough he found all the parts (transmission, mounts, etc) with 17K miles on it

...

Try importsalvageauto.com or hondamenders.com...they occasionally get totaled 5spd preludes

97SS · 08-31-2003, 11:32 PM

Does anyone know if there's any way to use a different (1998-2001?) year 5th generation Prelude SS transmission on a 1997 Prelude SS? Are they not interchangeable or do they just need the ECU from the replacement transmission to work? Thanks in advance.

menelaus22 · 09-08-2003, 06:07 PM

mine's going slowly at 84k miles.

Heihachi · 09-12-2003, 12:13 AM

My 2001 SS Prelude is at my Honda dealership RIGHT NOW so that they can put my replacement Sh*t Shift tranny in Friday morning. I have i/h/e/c/p/im/vafc/etc/etc, but the warranty is still covering it. I'm right at 44,000 miles, but the problems started about 12-15k miles ago (hesitating/jerking between shifts, grinding in reverse, etc).

Yes, my ATF was changed around every 15k miles, but guess what?!? My dealership's Service Manager said last Friday that on MOST SS Ludes it doesn't matter what you do to it, how you drive it, or what schedule you follow, it's gonna go bad (most, not all). There are some exceptions, but not many. There was a chick there last week with the same problem (but no warranty) and 100k miles on her 97 SS, and a 99 with 17k with the same problem; one was a younger chick that admittedly drove like a nut and made it 100k miles, the other drove it gently and it effed up after only 17k, so go figure.

When I took it in mid-July to complain, the 1st thing she (the Service Manager) asked was "Manual or auto?" I said "Auto.", she turned and gave a grim look to one of the techs, he nodded his head, and she frowned. Gosh fellas, what does that mean?!?That means that they KNEW my tranny was FUBAR and that a replacement was imminent. The only problem I had with the dealership was that they didn't want to fix it until it went completely, but that didn't take long at all. One month after it really became annoying (I took it in on July 14th, almost exactly a month ago), it gave up.

My small problems got progressively worse when last week it started revving like hell in 1st but wouldn't shift into 2nd, I'd shift to 2nd/3rd & it would shift back then rev again, grinding like Hell in reverse, jerking between shifts, etc, etc. Then the 'D4' light started flashing and it just crapped out altogether. I had to use the lower gears ('1', '2', & '3'; the ones intended for ascending/descending steep hills) to get it to move, and if I had to come to a complete stop, I was screwed.

We'll see how it goes when I get it back Friday evening/Saturday morning, but a tranny swap is DEFINITELY in my future, ASAP.

CHOW: thanks for the info, gonna call Ben on Monday morning. Good looking out.

Gerhard · 09-12-2003, 11:51 AM

Heihachi:

I pretty much had the same experience that you did.

Basically, all of the deals have been instructed to not replace the transmissions until they competely fail.

Furthermore, it is not uncommon for a dealer to tell the owner that they couldn't find anything wrong. (Even if you can get the tranny to repeat the problem every time.)

I can honestly say that the rebuild I had worked quite well compared to my original tranny.

You are very luck to have it warrantied with all of the modifications you have.

Gerhard

Heihachi · 09-12-2003, 10:39 PM

Quote:

You are very lucky to have it warrantied with all of the modifications you have.

Tell me about it. The Service Dept called and left me a message at @2 pm today to tell me that they'd finished, but I was asleep and won't pick it up until tomorrow morning. They sure did finish quick, I hope they didn't just slap everything together, I'd hate to have to take it back again...

Initial D · 09-22-2003, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by silverbullit
I have a 98 SS, withj sumple I/H/E mods and my tranny started crapping out at 78k, I haven't had the money to get it fixed, and Honda says that my warranty is void due to to the mods I performed. So, I now have 94k miles on it, and it just over revs sometimes before the gears kick inm or it may slip sometimes, but unitl it eventually goes out, or I have the money to fix it, I'm stuck with it.

Umm if you have a 98 SS with 78K when it started to go, then you had no warranty to begin with. 97-98 the warranty for the tranny is 47K 99-2001 its 100K. Thats where I am stuck
My tranny went out at 84K and dealer said that its not under warranty and that they would be happy to take a look at it but its all under my cost. I was like no thank you. I'll go somewhere else.

Heihachi · 09-27-2003, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Heihachi

Tell me about it. The Service Dept called and left me a message at @2 pm today to tell me that they'd finished, but I was asleep and won't pick it up until tomorrow morning. They sure did finish quick, I hope they didn't just slap everything together, I'd hate to have to take it back again...

Had my car back for 2 weeks now since it was repaired. Seems pretty much the same auto-sh*tbox that it was before. Shifts slightly better IMO, but it may be all in my mind. Still want a swap though...

jlatham · 10-13-2003, 12:12 PM

I have a 1998 prelude ss and the transmission went out at 89,000 miles. Luckily though, it was covered by the 100,000 honda certified used car warranty, so I got a new tranny for free. I'm going to be pissed if the rebuilt one craps out in another 80,000 miles though!!!

silverbullit · 10-27-2003, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Initial D

Umm if you have a 98 SS with 78K when it started to go, then you had no warranty to begin with. 97-98 the warranty for the tranny is 47K 99-2001 its 100K. Thats where I am stuck
My tranny went out at 84K and dealer said that its not under warranty and that they would be happy to take a look at it but its all under my cost. I was like no thank you. I'll go somewhere else.

Sorry man but you're wrong, my Honda used car certified warranty is good for the following:

Powertrain 4-30-2005 exp. mileage: 100,000
Non-Powertrain 4-30-2002 exp. mileage: 79,842

Make/Model/Year HONDA Prelude 1998

That is what my warranty card looks like, so, I think you must be talking perhaps about a basic warranty. The certified warranty is as what I described.