Hi there. I have a 2005 Honda Accord, V6 and automatic, that has been having some problems on and off. It’s currently a little over 140,000 miles, and I’m the third owner. It’s routinely gone in for maintenance at the dealership and has never been driven hard. It started having issues several months ago, after I got the air conditioner replaced. The first thing that it did was, while I was driving around 50 mph, it would start lurching whenever I pressed on the accelerator and I was not able to accelerate. The engine would rev, the car would seem like it was trying to go but couldn’t, resulting in the lurching. When I was finally able to get it home and turned it off, it disconnected from the battery completely. However, once it turned back on, it drove fine and none of the mechanics at the dealership could get it to mess up again. About a month or so later, I had the same problem. But when I turned it off and on, the problem vanished. It went back in to a different mechanic, who could not find anything wrong with it except for a corroded battery cable which was making the battery fail the battery test (the battery itself is new). This part was replaced and the car acted fine, until I was trying to reverse out of my driveway and the car lurched hard again. It did it again a little while later, and now it is starting to vibrate or shudder at certain speeds usually when I accelerate, and it’s also having trouble accelerating from stops or speeding up, or drops speed quickly when I’m not pressing on the accelerator. In addition, I sometimes have to work to get the gearshift to move through the gears (such as going from park to reverse, or to drive, etc.) I have had the transmission fluid checked recently, and it’s full, but dirty. Right before I had the air conditioning fixed, the dealer did the usual maintenance and checked the transmission fluid as good. The problems are intermittent, so it’s hard to pin down what’s happening. If anyone has any idea what might me wrong, I would appreciate your help. Thanks
Please read this
You are the 3rd owner. How did the other 2 drivers treat it? Change fluid every 30k miles. It sounds like you have transmission issues. Does the trans shift fine? Smooth? No lurching? Facts seem to say you have issues.
I guess I can’t be sure how it was driven before, but as far as I know it wasn’t driven hard. I did assume the fluid was being changed regularly since it’s always been taken to the dealership for regular maintenance. Since it’s automatic I’m not exactly sure when it’s shifting gears while driving, but it is doing some lurching when I increase speed, such as merging onto the highway.
I think there is a place around here that will check for transmission problems. I will probably let them see if they can find any issues, since it does seem like transmission problems.
Could be engine misfire you are experiencing.
Is the Check Engine light on? Or is the D4 light flashing?
If the Check Engine light isn’t on, there is no misfire occurring.
If the D4 light isn’t flashing, but the transmission fluid is dirty, replace the transmission fluid.
Tester
Ok, that could be it too. Would that be something normally checked if I brought the car in to get the jerking issue checked out?
Yes, most definitely. They will check for frayed cables,arcing etc. If the fuel pump is acting up,they will check fuel pressure.
Neither the check engine light or D4 light are flashing. Do you mean replacing the fluid as in flushing the fluid, or just changing it?
Ok. So if it was that the mechanics would probably have found it then.
Just drain and replace the tranny fluid.
Tester
Next time at the shop ask them to check for any diagnostic codes. There can still be diagnostic codes stored in computer memory without any check engine light. It sort of sounds like a transmission problem, but good idea to rule out the engine as a cause first. Fuel pressure and clogged fuel injector problems could possibly cause these type of symptoms.