2004 Acura MDX

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I have an 04 MDX it has over 100k on it, and about the time it was approaching that milestone, the transmission started “hesitating” when shifting into overdrive… then it began to try to shift into overdrive way to early driving in town… and it felt like we were riding across rumble strips every time it would do this…
We have found out… that if we do not move the transmission selector lever into the overdrive position, but leave it in D4 [thus manually avoiding the overdrive] it does just fine… we just suffer in the gas mileage dept., but it does not feel like the transmission is going to fall out while riding in town…
My question is; is there a way to disconnect or disable the overdrive so that no matter what gear someone puts it in, it will not try to shift into overdrive by itself.
When I am driving it; it is not an issue, I remember to not use overdrive every time; but when the wife or the children drive, they sometimes forget, and I am afraid it is going to do real damage beyond low gas mileage…

I have heard that this is a common problem with this vehicle, and that replacing the transmission is a very short-lived solution, as the problem is design related and will eventually happen again.

suggestions?

2

A replacement trans. is not “a very shor-lived solution”, at minimum it’d last about 9 years, like yours has. It’s likely an upgraded unit. All this assumes you get one from Acura. A used transmission, or a rebuilt-by-who-knows-who one is a gamble.

There was an extended warranty on these, the dealer might be willing to take on some of the cost. Worth checking with them.

3

There IS/WAS a factory fix for KNOWN issues with this trans? What was issue? Design problem? Trans computer programming issue? Weak OD section on trnans?

4

Yep, design issue. Google ‘Acura transmission problem’ for lots of info.

5

Thanks to everyone for reading and replying… I have been researching this for weeks and cannot find anyone who can help me with the question about an easy way to disable overdrive… Besides not shifting it into overdrive… I was hoping there was something I could unplug, or program differently to achieve this.

Thanks again

6

the issue seems to be your kids or wife? they do have to shift into gear. is it really hard for them to shift into D4? well, if they shift into od, than they will feel the trans acting up, not you. so let them.