what could be wrong with my 96 civic with auto transmission

mox

New Member
it happened just the other day to my honda civic vti with automatic transmission, i was driving for quite a while already, then i stopped because of traffic, i shifted to neutral, when it was time to move forward again, i shifted to drive, when i stepped on the gas pedal, the engine just revved but did not move forward, i tried shifting to reverse and park then back to drive, but it did not move, engine just revved. what i did was to shut the engine off and then restart it, lo and behold it started moving forward again. so i went to a parking lot and when i tried to park backwards, i of course shifted to reverse, it moved backwards. when i shifted back to drive , it again just revved up but did not move forward, i had to shut off the engine and restart it to move it foward again. seems to happen only when shifting between reverse and drive, but when in drive, the transimission shifts normally from gear 1 to 4. car also moves normally in reverse even when driven up at a sloped road, i sent my car to a honda dealer repair shop and they told me they did a line pressure test and found out that the transmission is fine but that the distributor was very much out of timing. could the distributor timing really affect shifting of the transmission? help pls. thanks! =)

edit: btw i forgot to mention that this only happens after i have been driving for more than an hour, it doesnt happen when i only use the car on short drives.
 

AlaskaB16

DOING WORK!
Registered VIP
Sounds to me like a shift solenoid. Pretty easy to check and verify. Could be wrong but that's where I would start. Timing will have no effect on the trans not going into gear. If your timing was off or totally incorrect, your car would run like total crap or not even start period. Just crank and crank. My guess is the mechanic found the easy fix, but said it was something else to jack the bill up. Not uncommon unfortunately.

BTW, i'm not a certified mech nor do I claim to be. I could be totally wrong. Just sharing my experience/thoughts. Take it with a grain of salt.
 


takeachance

New Member
Registered VIP
5+ Year Member
I'm guessing a solenoid as well, but why are you putting it in neutral when stopped, that is causing a lot of stress on the transmission if you keep doing that often
 

mox

New Member
i dont go to neutral often when stopped, it was just chance that i did that time. dont know why. hehe =)
 


mox

New Member
by the way how do i check and verify if it is a shift solenoid that has a problem? thanks guys this is very helpful. =)
 


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