d4 light blinking after trans fluid change

[Neil M]

I changed the trans fluid in a customers 99 Honda Accord today and the d4 light started blinking. I actually did a trans. flush with the machine. What this does is the old fluid is pumped through the machine using the cars pump in the trans and I control the outflow with a valve. At the same time the machine pumps new fluid in which is controled by another valve. You do this until the fluid is clean. Well we did this and the light came on. The car will not downshift into first gear. I can manually shift the car and it works fine . I went to another shop to check the codes and erase the memory. As soon as we erased the light would go off and then come right back on. Idont understand why replacing dirty fluid with new fluid would cause this.
Help . Please help.
Thanks.
Neil

[HONDA_99]

flashing D4 means there is some wrong with transmission, but you already figured out that since it doesn't shift in first.
did you use Honda ATF Z-1 or you used some other fluid? 6gen accords are very picky about ATF, regular Dextron III doesn't work.
is fluid level where it should be? if level too high it can cause more damage to transmission then if it would be too low.

6gen Accords V6 have fragile transmissions and that car might already had some problems with before you got to service it, you might have been a last straw.

since i'm not expert i cann't tell any thing else, you can call some transmission shop and ask would could be wrong. don't call Honda they don't rebuild transmisions here, they send them to original manufacturer in Japan. they only install them.

i just had my transmisstion rebuilt, due to slippage between 2nd & 3rd gear and rough shifting between 1st & 2nd gears, total cost was $2300, but thank god i had extended warranty.

[BullShifter]

I agree.

The reason why dealers dont rebuild them is the time & there are already rebuilt units available. Your better off replacing the trans with a rebuilt unit than trying to rebuild since the same problem is likely to come back quickly.

Honda does not recommend power flushing the transmission, a drain & re-fill is enough with Honda ATF

Check the level with the engine off.

[Neil M]

We finally got the car going again. The customer took it to a Honda dealer. They found a wire that wasnt pushed in a connector all the way. They also changed the alt. because it was dead. He said without enough volts the shift solenoid wont operate. I dont know which one was the actual problem. The service manager told me on the phone he thought it may be the alt. before he ever saw it. It was a weird deal. This all happened after we serviced the trans. It looked like we were going to buy a trans. before it was over. We did a lot of praying over this one and it worked out.
Thanks for the replies.

Neil

[BullShifter]

Lucky for you.

Do you know which wire was loose?

Ive seen a few cars come in with similar problems but not after the trans service like you were saying.

[bayarea786]

I have 2000 Honda Accord EX V6 with 75K mi. Check Engine light is ON and D4 Light for Transmission is flashing. The car barely runs on D4, Reverse, 1 and 2 seems to work find. The problem is with D4 only. The oil was little bit low and i decided to change it with Chevron Dextron 111 and there was no difference.

Can any one help. is my tranmission is bad? should i change the oil to factory? is some wire connector not connected properly? Should i take it Honda Dealer, will they cover under warrenty? Please help me. Thanks

[HONDA_99]

its very important to use Honda's ATF Z1 or fluids which meet Honda requirements. there are only few companies that make ATF that meet requirement and they're more expensive then Honda's ATF.

Honda extended transmission warranty on 00 & 01 AV6 to 10/100. so you are covered, but if they see that you used other fluids they might give you hard time.

[BullShifter]

When I worked for Honda, they only required maintenance records showing the trans fluid was changed. Since it such a common problem, there never was really any second guessing. Only time warranty was void - not maintained or heavily modified. That was may favorite part of the job, tellin' rice boy's Honda VOIDED their warranty.

One customers ODY came in with bad trans, we threw another in & the problem was still there. Ordered another trans & put that one in, same problem. . . . After the 4th trans installed in a week, it seemed that all issues were cleared. Customer came to get his vehicle & 10 miles away from the dealer the tranny crapped out again. That's 5 trans in a week(including factory installed), anyways after Honda sent out some people with a different trans, finally the 6th trans did it. Can you beleive that? I would trade that in right away if that happened to me!

[bayarea786]

So i can assume the transmission is bad on my 2000 Accord V6?

[BullShifter]

Based on your description, I would say it's bad. If it's driveable, I would take it to Honda & have the service manager test drive it.