I have a 2000 Honda Passport with about 84,000 miles on it. A couple of years ago we started having trouble with the transmission hard-shifting from 1st gear to 2nd on rare occasions. The problem gradually got worse and after about a year, we took it to our local Honda dealership. The service manager said it needed a new transmission. Since our daughter drives the car and attends college in a different city from the one in which we live, we decided to bit the bullet and let them install the transmission. That was in March of this year. Everything was fine until two weeks ago when suddenly the car hard-shifted from first to second again. My daughter took the car to the Honda dealership in the city where she attends college, warranty in hand. The service writer very politely told her that he could not look at her car because they have discontinued the Passport technology at that location. I brought the car home with me and have been driving it but can not duplicate the problem. Should I take it back to the dealer here now, wait and see if the problem occurs again or push the thing off the nearest cliff? I checked a couple of forums on the internet and found that this is a somewhat prevalent problem with this vehicle.
The good deal on using dealer in this case is any Honda dealer is on the hook to provide warranty service for 3yrs/36k miles on the tranny parts and labor. Don’t diagnose it yourself let the dealer figure it out.
My 1999 Passport 4wd has done this for years very intermittently (seldom). Dealer was no help. Apparently an electrical problem with all the different transmission controls and buttons on dash and console, according to an excellent mechanic who has seen it before, but unable to isolate. What works in my case is to turn off the engine, wait a few minutes then restart. Transmission then does not “slam” at all.
There is no reason to be taking this thing to the Honda dealership because it’s not a Honda! This thing is actually a re-badged Isuzu Rodeo, so if you were to take it to a dealership, it’d be the Isuzu one. If you can still find one, since they’re pulling out of the US maret. However, with a car this common, there’s no reason whatsoever to take it to a dealer-- you should find yourself a good reputable independant transmission shop.