Honda Car Forum

2003 v6 Accord with 120,000 miles. Recently the gas mileage hasn't been
what it used to be and I noticed when I drove it the other day (it's my
wife's car) that the transmission wouldn't hit 4th gear until 45-50
mph. When driving aorunf town the tanny appears to stay i 3rd and the
tach is reading around 2000 at 40. Seems like it used to (and should)
hit 4th even when driving the neighborhoods at 30-40 mph. Can someone
please tell me if their Accords are in 4th at low speeds.

"Peter Kemp" wrote

> 2003 v6 Accord with 120,000 miles. Recently the gas mileage hasn't been
> what it used to be and I noticed when I drove it the other day (it's my
> wife's car) that the transmission wouldn't hit 4th gear until 45-50 mph.

Mine's an '04 I4 (which I believe has a transmission different from yours),
and I can sometimes get it into 5th at 40 mph while "cruising." As long as
I'm not accelerating hard, it'll get into 4th long before 40. So it does
seem that something is wrong with yours.

Peter Kemp wrote:
> 2003 v6 Accord with 120,000 miles. Recently the gas mileage hasn't been
> what it used to be and I noticed when I drove it the other day (it's my
> wife's car) that the transmission wouldn't hit 4th gear until 45-50 mph.
> When driving aorunf town the tanny appears to stay i 3rd and the tach is
> reading around 2000 at 40. Seems like it used to (and should) hit 4th
> even when driving the neighborhoods at 30-40 mph. Can someone please
> tell me if their Accords are in 4th at low speeds.

----------------------

Top up your rad and your reservoir and check it again next day. Repeat
until the level stops dropping. The computer won't allow the tranny to
shift at the usual points when the coolant has been allowed to run low,
since it can't tell if the engine is up to temperature when its sensor
is high-n-dry,..

'Curly'

motsco_ wrote:
> Peter Kemp wrote:
>> 2003 v6 Accord with 120,000 miles. Recently the gas mileage hasn't
>> been what it used to be and I noticed when I drove it the other day
>> (it's my wife's car) that the transmission wouldn't hit 4th gear until
>> 45-50 mph. When driving aorunf town the tanny appears to stay i 3rd
>> and the tach is reading around 2000 at 40. Seems like it used to (and
>> should) hit 4th even when driving the neighborhoods at 30-40 mph. Can
>> someone please tell me if their Accords are in 4th at low speeds.
>
> ----------------------
>
> Top up your rad and your reservoir and check it again next day. Repeat
> until the level stops dropping. The computer won't allow the tranny to
> shift at the usual points when the coolant has been allowed to run low,
> since it can't tell if the engine is up to temperature when its sensor
> is high-n-dry,..
>
> 'Curly'

i second that. and if the coolant system is good, replace the tw
sensor. i recently had the same problem with my civic and it was the tw
sensor. beware: it appeared to test good, but replacing it was the
cure. $25.