Transmission Question

[seriouslysubdued]

Hi,

My 1997 Civic with auto just stopped going into overdrive. It is able to shift between gears all right. I checked the fluid and the level was okay although there was some black sediment. Any thoughts one why the car can not go into overdrive?

Thanks.

[bluevp00]

Could be a whole lot of reasons for this. However, since there is black sediment in the trans. fluid as you said, I would suspect a simple fluid change would fix the problem.

Start by changing the fluid, then proceed from there. Having black sediment in the transmission fluid means that the fluid should have been changed a long time ago.

[seriouslysubdued]

Change the fluid but that did not correct the problem. Any other ideas?

Thanks.

[hxgaser]

If the fluid is really dirty, then you might have some crud builtup in the valve body. Drive your car for a long distance, as in 50 miles or so. Idea is to really heat up the transmission. And if you are lucky, with new fluid in the transmission, you might dislodge some of the crud. Then replace your fluid again.

But then a question is, why did the fluid get that dirty? It could be that you fryed the 4th gear clutch assembly. Anyway, try to heat up the tranny and see if that helps. Otherwise you might need to just bite the bullet and take it to a shop.