This car has 175K+ on it. When accelerating slowly between 15 and 20 mph, we get a rumble noise and feel like you’re moving over rumble strips. It seems to be limited to 2nd gear and will stop if you back off the throttle. It was an intermittent problem but has become more consistent over the last couple of months. We bought this used, and the service record indicated a transmission replacement at ~ 90K (I don’t know if the original was rebuilt, replaced with a rebuilt, or what). We’re approaching another 90K - are these transmissions only good for that long? Should I take this to the dealer or a transmission shop? I’ve heard that Acuras are hard to work on.
Bear in mind Acura’s are really nothing more than than a fancy Honda V6 and yours shares transmission/engine with Accord V6, Odyssey, and Pilot. All extremely common vehicles so any mechanic should have exposure.
This car has another quirk and I’m not sure if its related. At approximately the same speed I will hear a different noise and the tachometer will bounce from ~ 1200 to 1500 rpm. This is not concurrent with the rumble strip noise - could this be another symptom of a slipping transmission?
At 175k, you could very well be looking at a new transmission since it hasn’t been serviced… especially because its an late 90s - early 2000s Honda. Their automatic transmission reliability was absolutely abysmal by modern standards, particularly on vehicles with a V6. I’m actually struggling to name a vehicle with a v6 that they made in that period that had acceptable reliability from its automatic transmission.
Those were pretty early years for V6’s in general for Honda. Not too surprising that they’d have problems. In the old days, even the Accord was a 4-banger.